New Jersey Business Journal, Dec. 4, 2006
Making Orders Click:
Fulfillment houses ensure online shoppers get holiday gifts on time.
Joao-Pierre Ruth
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ROCKAWAY – In the early days of online holiday retailing, shoppers discovered to their irritation that clicking on an item didn’t mean it would arrive by Christmas. After a few rocky years, consumers can expect online holiday orders to go through the first time they click and be delivered when promised.
A key to this change has been the rise of fulfillment houses, businesses that specialize in helping online retailers meet their obligations. No longer are orders accepted even when inventory may be depleted. Advanced logistics systems from New Jersey-based and other companies calculate delivery schedules on the fly based on such factors as the customer ZIP code and choice of carrier.
For Internet retailers, they will be the busiest through the month of December, says Paul Lightfoot, CEO of AL Systems in Rockaway. His company provides order-fulfillment software systems and services to help brick-and-mortar and online retailers manage distribution.
Lightfoot says the desire to reach buyers through all available channels increases the risk of overextending a vendor’s capabilities. “Internet retailers always try to set themselves up so you can buy stuff on December 23rd and still get it on time, he says. They will get crazy ramps of volume at the end.”
One way for retailers to meet eleventh-hour demand is to keep online and in-store sales inventory warehoused separately to prevent confusion in processing. “You just can’t run your store fulfillment out of the same operation as your direct fulfillment", says Lightfoot.
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