Splits, Rejections, Revisions and Escalation
Authors:
Nandha Balaguru, Esma Tuzovic, Anita Gu, Cille Schliebitz
Changed on:
3 Feb 2025
Overview
Split fulfilment allows retailers to complete an Order from multiple locations if a single location can't fulfill the whole Order. Rejection occurs when orders can't be fully met due to various constraints, leading to escalated statuses where customer notification and resolution actions are taken. In-flight revisions enable modifications to order items, allowing flexibility in managing customer orders.
Key points
- Split Fulfillment: Orders can be fulfilled from multiple locations if needed.
- Rejection Criteria: Orders are rejected if fulfillment criteria aren't met.
- Escalated Status: Notifies and manages unfulfilled orders.
- Customer Communication: Notify customers of rejected orders.
- In-Flight Revisions: Add or remove items from existing orders.
What is Split Fulfillment?
Some retailers adopt split fulfillment as a strategy for fulfilling a single order from multiple fulfillment locations.
A typical use case
Split fulfillment usually becomes a requirement for retailers when they've been unable to fulfill a whole order from a single fulfillment location. This is usually the most desirable option due to the costs of servicing orders and the efficiency of picking in a single location.
Splits allow the customer to "split" the order to be fulfilled over multiple locations. Most typically, each location would ship the items separately as soon as they are ready to dispatch, resulting in multiple parcels being delivered for the customer.
There are many different ways retailers would choose to split a single order; this could be based on proximity or how to fulfill the greatest number of order lines from the fewest locations.
What is Rejection?
Rejection occurs in exception scenarios where we cannot fulfill an order completely. Specifically, rejection occurs when:
- a whole order can't be fulfilled from a single location, and
- split limit is reached, or
- splits not allowed, or
- no inventory is left
- an item is not available to be retrieved in the store or warehouse (e.g., broken)
Depending on the business use cases, actions are taken from the ESCALATED status to notify the customer.
In-flight Order Revisions
In-flight order revisions allow adding, removing, and revising of order items. Specifically,
- Adding an order item by quantity or by searching, selecting, and adding a different/new order item.
- Removing an order item.
Typical use cases for Escalation status
- For businesses that want to proactively manage customers' expectations, the ESCALATION status is useful for the Customer Services team to know when they need to contact a customer for an issue with their order. Depending on their processes, a dashboard may also exist for the team to monitor the number of orders in ESCALATED status per day or per week.
- High-end/luxury goods retailers usually contact the customer directly based on the ESCALATED order status to convey this information and inform of options (e.g., either process the remaining items or cancel the whole order and receive a refund). This may also lead to appeasement being given to the customer to keep them happy after a disappointing customer experience.
- For businesses with faster-moving, lower-value goods, if there is no stock or one of the items in the order is not available, when the fulfillment moves into a status of ESCALATED, some retailers will automatically cancel the fulfillment, trigger a refund (if the payment had been taken), and email the customer to notify them.
