The Store Fulfillment Lifecycle BPM illustrates how HotWax Commerce Store Fulfillment App enables store associates to Pick, Pack & Ship online orders received at stores.
HotWax Commerce, being as an Order Management System, finds the best location to fulfill an online order from. When approved orders are brokered and allocated to a store location, they are automatically reflected in HotWax Commerce Store Fulfillment App.
An order will have multiple fulfillments in case it has been split. Each fulfillment will have its independent lifecycle. For example, consider an order containing two items: one item is backordered while the other is in stock. Once the in-stock item is fulfilled, it will follow its lifecycle, and when the backordered item is fulfilled later, it will have its own separate lifecycle.
Items that have been successfully allocated to stores have fulfillment status "Reserved" in HotWax Commerce.
By default items are arranged in a "First In, First Out" sequence, ensuring that the ones ordered earlier are prioritized. Store managers can filter them based on the shipping method (such as same-day, next-day, or standard) or customer loyalty status.
For example, if store managers wish to prioritize items with tight SLAs, they can filter out those that have a same-day shipping method to initiate batch processing for them.
When store managers determine items they wish to fulfill first, they generate a picklist for them and subsequently, assign a picker so that they can start picking items.
Once the picklist has been generated, the fulfillment status is updated from "Reserved" to "Picking" in HotWax Commerce.
While pickers scan and pick items, HotWax Commerce rate shops to determine the most cost-effective shipping method offered by the carrier that also meets the SLA, then proceeds to book the shipment.
For example, when a customer opts for 2-day delivery, rate shopping compares shipping methods offered by carriers capable of meeting the specified timeframe. Let's say FedEx provides both Air and Ground Shipping options. In this scenario, HotWax Commerce evaluates these shipping methods, and if both Air and Ground Shipping can deliver the order item within two days, Ground Shipping is automatically booked, as it achieves the same delivery timeframe at a lower cost.
After booking the shipment, HotWax Commerce fetches advance shipping labels in bulk with tracking codes from the carrier, thereby reducing packing time.
It's crucial to note that shipping labels are valid only when an item requires a single package. In the event where an order has multiple items and the packing team uses more than one box for packing, the pre-generated shipping label will not be applicable, as it has been auto-generated for a single package.
When a picker is unable to find the item that is listed in their picklist, store managers have the authority to reject that specific item. In this scenario, its fulfillment status "Picking" is automatically removed in HotWax Commerce.
Learn more about Rejections and their reasons
Now, when the items have been picked and brought to the packing station, they can be quickly packed since the shipment has already been booked and shipping labels have been pre-generated.
If an order contains multiple items and one box isn’t sufficient to fit all of them, the packing team can add more boxes. In this scenario, the pre-generated shipping label will not serve the purpose, as it has been generated by default for a single package. While packing, the packing teams can regenerate shipping labels as needed.
Once items have been packed, the packing team places them at the designated location in the store from where the carrier will collect them.
The fulfillment status for packed items is updated from "Picking" to "Packed" in HotWax Commerce.
If the packing team discovers that they have mispacked an item, they have to unpack it. The fulfillment status is then updated from "Packed" to "Picking" in HotWax Commerce.
Once the item has been correctly repacked, the fulfillment status in HotWax Commerce is updated to "Packed" once again.
Finally, the fulfillment team hands over the packed items to the shipping carrier.
The Ship Packed Orders Job in HotWax Commerce checks if packed items have tracking codes assigned and automatically ships them. Fulfillment teams can also manually ship items once the carrier collects them.
Once an item is shipped, its fulfillment status is updated from "Packed" to "Shipped" in HotWax Commerce.
In the event of a partial shipment, the fulfillment status of the shipped items will be updated to "Shipped", while the order itself will remain in the "Approved" status until all items have been shipped.
When all items of an order are "Shipped", the order status is updated from "Approved" to "Completed" in HotWax Commerce.