Fulfillment

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Overview

When an order is placed for a product to be shipped by a fulfillment center, depending on how the fulfillment center is defined, the program either writes the order details into a cumulative text file that is manually sent to the fulfillment center, or the program  automatically sends the information to the fulfillment center in a separate email for each order. If the former method is chosen, the user must remember to rename, or delete and reallocate the text file after it has been sent to the fulfillment center or the program will continue to append new data to it, which may result in duplicate information being sent to the fulfillment center.

The program supports multiple fulfillment center definitions, as a single order may contain items that are shipped from different physical fulfillment centers, requiring a different text file to be created for each one.

Many external fulfillment centers require the data that is sent to them to be in a particular format. Create a unique Fulfillment Template for each provider, according to their specifications.

After the products are shipped, the external fulfillment center generally sends shipping and tracking data back to the merchant via text files that can be imported into SEOM.

The text files generated by this system can also be sent to drop-ship suppliers (vendors). The program can automatically send a text file via email when drop-ship purchase orders are created, depending on the settings in the Supplier record.  

Fulfillment Templates are used to determine the sequence of order information within the text file that is generated by the program to be sent to its associated Fulfillment Center. If multiple fulfillment centers accept data in the same layout, a fulfillment template may be used by more than one Fulfillment Center definition.

Header Templates are optional, and they are created the same way that a fulfillment template is created. Header templates can be specified in conjunction with a fulfillment template to add a row of header information at the top of the text file or before each order row. If the external fulfillment center or drop-ship supplier wants to see the merchant's company name and account number at the top of the file, a header template can be created to do that by using Custom Columns.

The program is presently able to export approximately sixty SEOM fields, and it also allows the user to create "custom columns" up to a maximum of eighty total fields that can be exported by a given template. Custom columns can be left blank (no data) or each row in the column can contain the same static value that is specified by the user.

Description of the Screen

Fulfillment Centers screen

 

Export Templates Button

Browse Button

Code Field

Name Field

Export to Text File Field

Export File Field

Export Template Field

Send Email Field

Email Template Field

Email Address Field

Defining a Fulfillment Center in SEOM

  1. Go to the Main Menu > Settings > Shipping Functions > Fulfillment.

  2. Enter a unique 1-20 alpha-numeric character value in the Code field to identify the Fulfillment Center within the program.

  3. Type in a unique user-friendly name for the Fulfillment Center in the Name field.

  4. Choose the method by which the data is sent to the Fulfillment Center:

    1. Export to Text File

      1. Check the box in the Export to Text File column to have the program generate a text file containing the order information to be sent to this fulfillment center.

      2. Type in the path to the text file containing the order data in the Export File field, or use Browse to navigate to its location.

      3. Click in the Export Template field and select the template to format the data for this fulfillment center or drop ship supplier.

      4. If a template has not yet been created, select Export Templates to open the Fulfillment Templates screen and define a fulfillment template.

    2. Send by Individual Emails

      1. Check the box in the Send Email column if the program should send the text file by email.

      2. Select an email template from the drop-down list in the Email Template column.

      3. Enter the email address for the fulfillment center in the Email Address field.

  5. There is no Close button on this screen. To navigate away from this screen, select another tab, link or button in the accordion.

 

Additional Information

Fulfillment Templates

 

Created: 6/6/12

Revised: 9/23/14

Published: 04/13/16