The Perfect E-Commerce Workflow: From Customer Service, Order Fulfillment, Logistics & Returns Management to Automation

To run a successful online business, you must have a streamlined e-commerce workflow. From the moment your customer places an order to your post-sale processes, each step must be optimized to facilitate a seamless and hassle-free experience.

In the modern e-commerce landscape, you must invest in human talent and technology to meet growing custom expectations, flawlessly integrating both elements into your processes. Striking a balance between outsourcing and automation can allow you to scale your business while keeping operations efficient.

How To Optimize Your E-Commerce Workflow With Outsourcing and Automation

If you need help optimizing your operations using a combination of outsourced human roles and advanced technologies, we’ve got you covered. This article provides a comprehensive workflow map of e-commerce operations, highlighting the integration of outsourced personnel and software automation tools at every stage.

E-Commerce Platform Core

The foundation of any successful online business is a robust and scalable platform that integrates seamlessly with various operational tools and outsourced teams. So, before optimizing any other aspect of your e-commerce workflow, you must choose the right online platform and hire the right manager to oversee your operations.

Choosing Your E-Commerce Platform

Select a platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, or BigCommerce. Remember: Each platform has different functionalities, interfaces, and features that cater to varying needs. Your business model may be suited for some e-commerce platforms more than others. 

Make sure to identify your goals to select the platform that best suits your objectives. Here are the considerations to keep in mind when making your choice:

• Cost-Effectiveness: Calculate your ideal budget for your e-commerce platform, including development and maintenance costs, before making your final decision.
• Scalability: Make sure your chosen platform can accommodate your business growth goals, and assess which sites can handle sudden and unexpected spikes in volume.
• Customization: Personalize your website’s designs and features to match your customers’ needs, preferences, and expectations. Not all e-commerce platforms are customizable, so identify how much personalization you want to do before choosing.
• Ease of Use: For startups and small businesses, select a platform that is easy to set up, use, and maintain. Remember that some platforms are more complex and may require monitoring from dedicated IT teams. 

Once you’ve chosen your e-commerce platform, the next step is to use an integration hub to connect services. Leveraging software like Zapier and Integromat can allow you to connect the different applications you use for work into one integrated tool. These tools will enable you to sync services and processes to monitor progress more efficiently throughout your e-commerce workflow.

Hiring an E-Commerce Manager

Having discussed the technology side of developing your e-commerce platform, let’s move on to the human elements. Setting up your online platform and integrating different applications is only the beginning. Your next step should be to outsource e-commerce management to a reliable provider. Here are the key responsibilities of an e-commerce manager:

• Overseeing Research and Development – To help your online site become as optimized as possible for customers, your outsourced e-commerce manager helps oversee its development. They also research the particular layouts, designs, and features most appealing to your consumer base.
• Leading Teams – Since e-commerce workflows include multiple complex steps that involve various stakeholders, your manager will be in charge of coordinating with employees and helping everyone stay focused on a common goal.
• Facilitating Improvement and Innovation – Your e-commerce manager continually monitors all aspects of your operations, measuring results and testing changes when possible. They also review sales insights to help you refine your sales and marketing strategies.

In a nutshell, your e-commerce manager oversees all operations across multiple platforms and applications. They ensure everything runs smoothly by coordinating with your outsourced teams, helping them perform according to your expectations, and monitoring your website to create a positive customer experience.

Customer Service

With a strong platform foundation, efficient customer service is the next critical component. Remember: your online store may be the first “face” your buyers see, but your customer support team will be the “voice” representing your brand. 

When you outsource e-commerce customer service, you can tap into a large talent pool of skilled and experienced agents, gain access to top-of-the-line support software, achieve significant cost savings, and improve efficiency. Let’s start by diving into the crucial human element of your customer experience.

The Powerful Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Service

Even in the age of digital transformation, human interaction should still be the foundation of your customer service strategy. Automated tools and technologies can strengthen your teams, making their jobs faster and lightening their workload. However, providing proper customer care requires humanized and empathetic support. Here are the reasons why you should consider working with an e-commerce customer service outsourcing team:

• 24/7 Availability – Your customer service representatives work round-the-clock to answer inquiries, address concerns, and resolve issues. They are available to your buyers, no matter the particular hour or day they choose to reach out to your brand.
• Omnichannel Capabilities – Beyond providing customer service over the phone, your outsourced team can provide support across multiple channels, including email, live chat, and social media.
• Effective Issue Resolution – Offshore support teams have the resources, knowledge, and expertise to handle customer service issues effectively, including knowing when to escalate the ticket or transfer the call to a more relevant department.
• Humanized Service – Customer support is not just about solving problems quickly; Your outsourced team will ensure that customers feel valued and cared for by listening to their concerns and responding empathetically. They also personalize their approach to each individual, modifying responses based on different needs, preferences, and expectations.

The Role of Automation and Technology in Customer Support

As mentioned in previous sections, perfecting your e-commerce workflow means optimizing business processes through strategic outsourcing and automation. Since your outsourced customer service team will be handling support across multiple platforms, they use integration tools like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Gorgias to keep track of customer interactions in different channels and ensure no messages get lost in the mix. 

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) tools and software are also helpful for lightening their workload. Using AI tools (such as AgentAssist technology) to automate some aspects of your customer service will improve overall efficiency and productivity. Instead of continually taking on repetitive tasks, your human agents can do more in less time, enabling them to put more energy into direct customer interactions.

Many e-commerce brands like yours have also begun investing in AI-powered chatbots. Although these chatbots cannot answer complex and novel problems, they can still help respond to commonly asked questions. Customer service teams may also use generative AI to compile and organize information for their knowledge base content.

Order Receiving and Entry

Customer service is not the only aspect of your e-commerce workflow that affects buyer experiences. Efficient order processing ensures a smooth, hassle-free transaction during and after purchase.

Remember: Order processing is a crucial operational function directly affecting your bottom line. By integrating outsourced teams with automated systems, you can facilitate speedy and accurate order fulfillment. Here’s how:

Why Outsource Data Entry and Management

Partnering with e-commerce outsourcing companies lets you connect with dedicated data entry and management specialists. All orders from various sales channels are automatically routed to them for manual entry and review. Their roles and responsibilities include:

• Handling Special Orders – Not all customers place orders online; some prefer to order over the phone or through email. In these cases, having an outsourced order-receiving team can be handy. They’ll manually take orders and input them into your integrated database.
• Inputting, Organizing, and Maintaining Data – Beyond inputting data into your system, they also keep your database correctly organized. They perform regular database backups and update information as necessary to ensure data preservation.
• Reviewing and Verifying Records – For quality control, data entry specialists review and verify information accuracy, ensuring all customer orders are sent to the correct people and locations.

Leveraging Automation in Order Processing

Although outsourced specialists handle order receiving and data entry, automated tools and technologies are still used to support them. For instance, application programming interface (API) software facilitates data transfer between different programs, reducing the need for manual input (particularly critical for bulk orders) and minimizing the risk of errors.

Your order-receiving team will also ensure data is synced with your order management system (OMS). This will help your entire e-commerce workflow move more smoothly and efficiently, improving data accuracy while speeding up the fulfillment process. 

Order Verification and Validation

Once orders are received, validating and verifying their authenticity is the next vital step. Ensuring that orders are legitimate and risk-free reduces fraud and maintains customer trust.

Research studies have found that e-commerce fraud cost companies worldwide up to $48 billion in 2023, an increase of 16% from the previous year. As such, online brands must proactively monitor cybersecurity risks, including potential fraudulent activity in their order and payment systems.

The Role of Outsourced Fraud Detection Specialists in Order Validation

Here’s how working with an e-commerce outsourced service provider can assist you in validating orders and preventing fraudulent activity:

• Verifying Transaction Details – Outsourced specialists review order information to ensure accuracy and validity. They also ensure order details are correct to prevent mistakes in fulfillment.
• Reviewing High-Risk Orders – They monitor unusual activity, such as identity theft, account takeovers, or stolen credit card numbers, and flag potentially fraudulent orders.
• Addressing Complex Cases – Since e-commerce brands receive many orders, fraud detection specialists must focus only on the most urgent and complex cases, leaving low-risk orders to automated tools.

Crucial Automation Tools for Fraud Detection

As mentioned above, e-commerce brands receive a large volume of orders, so outsourced order verification specialists leverage specialized technology to parse through them all. They use AI-powered risk detection software like Riskified and Signifyd to review flagged orders.

Additionally, automated tools can sift through large datasets, organizing orders into high-risk and low-risk categories. Orders considered low-risk are approved and expedited to the next stage of the e-commerce process, leaving potentially risky, suspicious, and complex cases for human review.

Inventory Check and Allocation

With orders verified, your next focus should be managing inventory levels to ensure enough supply to meet demand. Proper inventory management is essential for ensuring customer orders are fulfilled accurately and on time, preventing delays and cancellations. Outsourcing and automation can make a difference in this crucial e-commerce step. Here’s how:

Responsibilities of Outsourced Inventory Management Teams

By partnering with e-commerce outsourcing companies, you can easily hire qualified inventory management specialists. These offshore professionals help you reduce losses and inefficiencies while helping prepare your inventory for order fulfillment. Here are their primary duties and responsibilities:

• Monitor Inventory Levels – Your inventory management team will keep track of stock levels, determining which items are running low and which remain in surplus.
• Order Stock From Vendors – Once certain inventory items run out, they replenish stock by ordering from their suppliers and vendors.
• Load and Unload Items – They unload freight deliveries and place items in the proper locations to keep your warehouse or fulfillment center stocked and organized.
• Perform Regular Inventory Reports – Besides monitoring current inventory, they create reports that use previous sales data and information to forecast which products will be in high demand.

Importance of Automation in Stock Management

Human specialists are necessary for inventory management, but automation can make their job more efficient and streamlined. Your outsourced teams use enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms like TradeGecko, Cin7, or NetSuite to monitor stock levels and allocate inventory.

Leveraging automated tools, they sync real-time data across your e-commerce platform, warehouse, and supplier systems to handle re-ordering for low inventory levels. Because of this integrated system, they can facilitate timely order fulfillment by keeping high-demand items fully stocked.

Payment Processing

Once inventory is secured, payment processing is the next critical step in your e-commerce workflow. A smooth and secure payment processing system enhances customer satisfaction and builds trust in e-commerce operations. Here’s how outsourcing and automation can work together to create a streamlined payment process:

Outsourcing Payment Processing Specialists

Working with an outsourced team can enable your e-commerce brand to streamline payment processing while reducing the risk of fraudulent transactions. The primary responsibilities of these offshore and nearshore specialists include the following:

• Overseeing and Documenting Transactions – Outsourced specialists handle payment processing for all transactions, including keeping order records and logging payments into their corresponding customer accounts.
• Handling High-Risk Payments – To prevent fraudulent activities, they verify customers’ payment information (such as credit and debit card numbers) before proceeding with order fulfillment.
• Reviewing Flagged Transactions – They manually review suspicious transactions flagged by automated systems to avoid fraudulent payment activities.

Embracing Automated Payment Systems

Outsourced e-commerce solution providers often have access to cutting-edge tools and technologies. As such, your payment processing team will utilize automated payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or Braintree to handle most transactions. They will integrate these payment systems into your e-commerce platform to ensure a streamlined process.

The advantages of using automated payment gateways include speeding up invoice processing, reducing payment errors and delays, and accelerating cash flow. For customers, these automated systems may also provide a better payment experience, giving them a transparent breakdown of costs and a more convenient way to make purchases.

Order Fulfillment and Packaging

With payment processing complete, the next step is packaging and fulfilling customer orders. Various studies have found that slow order fulfillment is one of the leading causes of poor customer experiences, with 54% of customers saying they consider delivery times when choosing between brands and 70% abandoning their cart after experiencing delivery delays.

By partnering with e-commerce outsourcing companies, you can optimize your order fulfillment process, ensure speedy delivery, and improve buyer satisfaction.

The Role of 3PL Services in E-Commerce Operations

To expedite order fulfillment, many e-commerce brands utilize third-party logistics (3PL) providers. These are outsourcing businesses that take on supply chain and logistics functions. For example, companies like ShipBob or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) have fulfillment centers that handle warehouse management tasks, including:

• Inventory Checks – Outsourced specialists review order details and check to ensure that they have enough inventory to fulfill them.
• Picking Items for Delivery – They check each item for scratches, damages, or other flaws, ensuring all packaged products are intact before shipping.
• Packaging – After picking the items, they encase each in its proper packaging to preserve product quality during transportation.
• Preparing for Shipping – Once the products have been packaged, the outsourced team will prepare them for delivery by adding proper labels (which include order details and customer information) and trackers for effective monitoring.

Utilizing Automation for Faster Order Fulfillment

Like other aspects of your e-commerce workflow, leveraging advanced technologies can help optimize order fulfillment. 3PL providers use automated software that triggers order fulfillment once payments are received and confirmed.

These outsourced personnel sync fulfillment data with their e-commerce platform, making it easier to check and update inventory, track costs, and monitor goods in transit.

Shipping and Delivery Logistics

Once orders are packed, managing shipping and logistics is the next operational priority. There’s a reason why leading logistics firms are investing heavily in CX. A PwC study found that companies prioritizing customer experience grow their revenue by 5-10%.

Today’s customers crave convenient and speedy order fulfillment; many even cancel their purchases if they take too long to deliver. Through effective shipping and delivery logistics, you can meet even the highest customer expectations and maintain brand loyalty.

Outsourcing Logistics and Dispatching Services

To fully optimize your e-commerce workflow, you cannot overlook the role of outsourced logistics teams in coordinating deliveries and enhancing customer experience. Here’s what a BPO can do for your online brand:

• Improve Delivery Speed – Outsourced logistics specialists track and trace delivery personnel, helping them find the best possible routes for optimal order fulfillment.
• Enhance Transparency – Leveraging advanced tracking technologies, they actively monitor the location of all delivery trucks to keep customers informed about estimated delivery times.
• Provide Routine Dispatching Operations – Since unforeseen circumstances, such as heavy traffic, weather disturbances, road accidents, and other issues, can disrupt delivery schedules, outsourced specialists can help your delivery personnel find alternative routes and get back on track.
• Address Emergency Situations – Besides routine dispatching, they provide emergency services, with trained personnel gathering information and providing real-time assistance and aid when necessary.

Optimizing Logistics Functions Through Advanced Technologies

Having discussed the human element of logistics, let’s talk about how you can incorporate automation into your operations. Advanced technologies are crucial for generating shipping labels, tracking information, and updating shipping rates in real-time.

Typically, outsourced teams use software like ShipStation, Shippo, or FedEx APIs to manage shipping schedules and optimize delivery. These tools can assist with multiple aspects of logistics, including order entry, tracking, billing, and shipping.

Order Tracking and Status Updates

With the package in transit, keeping customers updated on their order status is vital to providing a seamless experience. This is where your e-commerce customer service outsourcing team can come in handy. They work closely with your logistics specialists and utilize top-of-the-line tools to track deliveries, communicating with buyers every step of the way.

Role of Outsourced Teams in Managing Tracking Issues

Sometimes, customers may feel frustrated as they eagerly await their purchased package. They may have questions about their delivery’s estimated arrival time or simply wish to follow up on their order status. No matter your buyers’ specific order issues, your outsourced team can answer their queries and address their concerns. Here’s how:

• Omnichannel Strategy – Your outsourced customer service team quickly responds to order tracking-related issues and inquiries across multiple channels and platforms.
• Proactive Communication – They track the delivery’s location and speed, provide accurate ETAs, and proactively notify buyers about possible delays and cancellations.
• Empathetic Service – Your customer service specialists understand how frustrating it can be to wait too long for a package. They respond to buyers with empathy and help resolve delayed orders.

Importance of Automated Order Tracking for Customer Satisfaction

Thanks to tracking and tracing tools like AfterShip and Narvar, delivery information is automatically updated and sent to buyers. These automated notifications enhance the customer experience by proactively informing them about their order status. Real-time tracking keeps everyone in the loop, improves supply chain transparency, and gives customers a more favorable impression of your brand.

Returns and Exchanges Management

Even after you’ve successfully delivered a package to its destination, your e-commerce workflow is not complete. Sometimes, buyers may discover product damage upon opening their order. Perhaps they mistakenly received a different item or simply aren’t satisfied with the quality of their purchased product. 

No matter the customer’s reason for returning an item, your online brand must be prepared to handle reverse logistics. A streamlined returns process is critical for maintaining customer loyalty and ensuring operational efficiency.

Outsourcing Reverse Logistics and Post-Sale Support

Returns and exchanges are crucial customer experience touchpoints, and how you handle them can shape a buyer’s perception of your brand. With the right policies and teams, you can execute a seamless reverse logistics process and maintain customer satisfaction. Here’s how outsourcing returns management and post-sale support can help:

• Streamlined Processes – Your outsourced e-commerce solutions provider can improve the efficiency of your reverse logistics operations by offloading non-core tasks to offshore specialists, allowing you to focus on customer care.
• Helpful Service – Your customers can request returns or exchanges easily with the help of a dedicated post-sale support team.
• Quick and Convenient Returns – Instead of making a buyer jump through hoops to process a return or refund, your outsourcing team can kick-start the reverse logistics process quickly and resolve issues efficiently.

Automated Refund Processing Systems

As your outsourced returns teams handle physical processing and quality checks using tools like Returnly or Loop Returns, advanced tools can trigger automated refunds, which are significantly more accessible and convenient for buyers. The automated process also syncs data with your inventory systems, alerting your warehouse and fulfillment centers when products are returned or need to be exchanged.

Accounting and Bookkeeping

Once returns are processed, the final step of your e-commerce workflow is to keep financial records accurate and up to date. Remember: Accurate financial management is the backbone of sustainable business growth. Before you can ensure profitability or plan to scale your operations, you must keep track of your financial health and find ways to maximize revenue while minimizing expenses. Here’s how balancing outsourced accounting and automation can help:

Financial Service Outsourcing for Optimized E-Commerce Operations

Comprehensive financial reviews are crucial for managing resources, efficiently allocating resources, and boosting profitability and growth. With outsourced accounting and bookkeeping teams, you can accurately record all transactions and optimize your finances to meet strategic goals. Here are the specific tasks you can delegate to a financial service outsourcing firm:

• Balancing Ledgers – One of the most essential tasks outsourced accountants perform is monitoring and recording all revenue and expenses, ensuring profits outweigh costs so you can maintain a healthy financial position.
• Creating Financial Statements – Your accounting team is also in charge of creating financial statements, which include your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
• Preparing Tax Compliance Documents – To ensure your e-commerce business avoids hefty fines and penalties, your outsourced accountant assists you in preparing documents for tax and regulatory compliance.
• Conducting Risk Assessments – After thoroughly reviewing your financial statements, your outsourcing team may also help safeguard your company’s future by performing financial risk assessments.

Advanced Software and Automated Tools in Financial Functions

The latest financial software and technologies enable outsourced accounting teams to perform tasks more efficiently, mainly through tools like QuickBooks, Xero, or NetSuite, which help them monitor resources and manage financial data. 

Automation simplifies many aspects of bookkeeping, financial reporting, and tax preparation. Many accountants utilize automated systems integrated with their e-commerce platform to facilitate real-time updates, ensuring sales, expenses, and returns are synced with the accounting system.

Framework of Efficient E-Commerce Workflow 

Here’s a quick recap of an optimized e-commerce workflow that has been supported with a combination of outsourced teams and automation:

Step 1: Customer Places Order

The process starts when a customer places an order online. All orders are automatically entered into the e-commerce platform, verified for accuracy, and processed. Your outsourced teams monitor the order flow, handling manual verifications or special requests when necessary.

Step 2: Inventory Checked

Once the order has been placed, automated systems check the available inventory and allocate the ordered items. The system instantly updates stock levels, ensuring the most up-to-date information is available. Outsourced teams oversee inventory discrepancies, order from vendors to replenish stock, and create accurate and detailed reports to help predict future demand.

Step 3: Payment Processed

After the inventory check, outsourced specialists process payments through integrated payment gateways. Automated fraud detection systems flag suspicious transactions, and human teams can perform manual reviews if needed, ensuring secure and smooth payment handling.

Step 4: Packaging and Fulfillment 

Once the payment is processed, orders are sent to fulfillment centers. Here, outsourced staff manage packaging and prepare items for delivery. Automation tools assist in determining the most efficient packaging methods, ensuring timely shipment preparation.

Step 5: Shipping and Tracking

To facilitate order fulfillment, outsourced specialists coordinate shipping with integrated carriers. They use automated tools to send tracking information to customers and offer real-time updates. Meanwhile, e-commerce customer service outsourcing teams respond to shipping inquiries or notify buyers about delays.

Step 6: Returns and Exchanges Managed

Once the order has been delivered, some customers may request returns or exchanges. Automated technologies process return requests, issue refunds, and update inventory. However, outsourced teams are in charge of reviewing complex return issues and managing customer satisfaction throughout the process.

Step 7: Accounting Synced

After completing the steps above, accounting specialists track and record all transactions. Sales, payments, and returns data are automatically synced through specialized software into an integrated accounting system. Outsourced finance teams then verify transactions and ensure each is correctly recorded and reconciled for accurate bookkeeping.

Optimize Your E-Commerce Workflow With Help From an Experienced Outsourcing Team

Successfully managing e-commerce operations requires an integrated approach that leverages outsourced personnel and automated tools at every stage. From customer service to order fulfillment and accounting, each step can be optimized through the right combination of human expertise and technology.

If you’re ready to refine your e-commerce strategy, get in touch with the BPO professionals at SuperStaff. We offer a comprehensive range of outsourcing solutions for online brands, enabling you to leverage human capital and automation to scale your business and meet evolving customer demands.

Contact us for a quick consultation, and we’ll discuss how we can tailor our services to your specific needs and goals!