Fulfillment

After placing an order on our online marketplace, one thing is of utmost importance to our customers: fast and safe delivery of their goods at the expected delivery time. This is ensured by our Fulfillment team, which not only works on the logistics in a process-orientated manner, but above all has to act across locations and teams. What is the main aim of the team? Short delivery times and uncomplicated returns management. In addition, they use innovative ideas to ensure that the warehouse locations in Bönen, Lutterberg und Cheb in the Czech Republic are always optimally utilised. Also, our fulfillment department is constantly improving the picking process and brainstorming new delivery options for our customers.

The Fulfillment Department consists of four teams

Daily Operations Team

The colleagues in this team are the first point of contact for enquiries and problems at our warehouse locations and ensure coordination as well as communication between the different departments.

Development Team

The focus is on the continuous improvement of processes and coordination of individual projects, such as setting up a new warehouse location or optimising the warehouse management software. For this, the colleagues coordinate with the Field Management Team and external partners.

Field Management Team

This team has overall responsibility for the coordination of warehouses and warehouse processes, for staff planning and new hires, and for the planning and monitoring of all departmental objectives.

Returns Management Team

The Returns Management Team is responsible for all returns processing, the preparation and sale of B-goods and the recycling of unsaleable products. The team is in constant contact with suppliers and customer service.

The stakeholders of our fulfillment are:

Our Customers:
We want to create an order processing experience for customers that at least reliably meets or even significantly exceeds their expectations.
The following aspects are important for this:

• that the ordered product is delivered in the correct quantity and quality,
• that delivery is carried out quickly,
• that the packaging is as sustainable as possible,
• that returns are handled quickly and without complications.

Our Vendor Management:
To increase our product range and thus continue to grow as an online marketplace, we want to support our Vendor Management in also offering product categories with special logistical requirements. These include, for example, hazardous goods, furniture or particularly high-value goods whose handling represents a special challenge.

The Budget:
To ensure that our company is sustainably profitable, we have to stick to the cost budget. For this, processes are constantly re-evaluated, while we constantly search for solutions for more sustainable development methods.

Fulfillment therefore acts as a link between purchasing, customer service and the three warehouse locations. But what does the daily work in fulfillment entail? We discussed this with two of our colleagues:

MAIK – HEAD OF FULFILLMENT

How do you and your team contribute to the success of our international online marketplaces?

Together with my team, I am building a logistics infrastructure that substantially supports the goals of our marketplaces. Therefore, I set ambitious goals for us and am responsible for creating framework conditions that enable us to achieve them.

What are your tasks?

My personal area of responsibility includes much of the contract and tender management, budget responsibility and ensuring the legal requirements in the logistics companies we operate.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Working with the central teams and colleagues in the warehouse is especially fun. You can see first-hand how the processes are constantly improving, and it makes me happy to see how many customer requests we can fulfill with our packages – especially when things get stressful, for example, around Black Friday and before Christmas. We now operate sites in Germany and the Czech Republic and it’s a real pleasure to work together in such an international team.

DUSTIN – HEAD OF RETURNS MANAGEMENT

What are your tasks?

My tasks are the management of the operative returns for our direct sales including our returns centre, but also of external service providers. My focus is on customer satisfaction and customer retention in the aftersales area. Also, I pay particular attention to sustainability and cost-effectiveness in returns processing.

In concrete terms, this means using a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) in our returns handling and re-commerce to make the processes as simple and fast as possible for the customer, while at the same time achieving the highest possible recovery rate.

How does your team contribute to the success of Kaufland e-commerce?

Above all, we work to ensure high customer satisfaction and loyalty. For us, a return does not mean the “worst case”, but an opportunity to prove ourselves to the customer and build a connection with them in the long term. My team also works on sustainability and profitability – for example, we make sure that returned A and B goods are resold either on our marketplace or offline in cooperation with external business partners. By finding happy buyers for returned items, we avoid potential disposal costs as well as waste.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I particularly enjoy being part of the solution regarding the sustainability of our company. In addition, there is the good team spirit and the interdisciplinary teamwork, which I really appreciate here at Kaufland e-commerce. I always have the opportunity to contribute and thereby bring my ideas to life – this gives me the feeling of being part of the Kaufland e-commerce success story.

Are you a packer rather than a strategist? Then check out our Warehouse & Logistics department. Our colleagues are responsible for processing and shipping our customers‘ orders.