TABLE OF CONTENTS The back-office subsystems of e-commerce sites those that provide the link between the customer experience and the actual physical delivery of goods to the customer are a challenge for web-based businesses. These parts, which include inventory management, order capture and management, and reconciliation, often prove to be more difficult than the construction of the site itself.
Online stores generally fit into one of six order fulfillment models, each with distinct benefits and faults. Let s take a closer look at each of these models.
The product is ordered off the website and shipped from an in-house fulfillment center (a basement or a garage for a home-based business; a warehouse or distribution center, possibly automated, for larger businesses) to the customer in one shipment. This model has one great advantage over other models easy returns since it gives the web-based business an increased level of control over every moment of the brand experience. This is what the mail order catalog business has been doing for years. However, it requires know-how, labor, facilities and often, special equipment and software, all of which may be outside the area of expertise and budget of the average web-based business. Also there is usually only the one shipping location, which means that same-day delivery is impossible (except in a small geographical area) and next-day delivery can be expensive.
Some brick-and-mortars use this model (and in the future you may even find pure-play web-based...
