E-Commerce: Impact of the Internet on the Fulfillment Company

The internet has revolutionized how companies do business today; the same can also be said about the Fulfillment industry. The Internet, has not only transformed the mechanisms by which an order can be processed, but has also allowed for tighter integration of each of the stages of the business process, from order through to delivery. Before the age of the internet an order would be received from a business via mail, phone or fax to a company’s business front that would then process the order and physically pass it onto their Fulfillment house, which would then fulfill the order to the customer. Add the Internet and it is possible for Fulfillment Companies to receive and process the order instantaneously. Fulfillment Companies are now able to integrate into e-commerce systems, allow their own information systems, in particular the order and inventory systems, to automate the flow of data between the Fulfillment Company and the Client Company. It is also possible, and this is becoming increasingly more popular, for the Fulfillment Company to also host and provide the e-commerce systems on behalf of a client company, adapting and customizing it to their client companies needs. This new model of business increases the efficiency of the business process, making it much quicker for an order to be processed and delivered to the customer.