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 and Lutterberg 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.