Which Fulfillment Metrics You Should Track, and Why

Well-organized data tracking is not only important for sales and marketing – it’s also critical for understanding your fulfillment capabilities. Fulfillment providers track a variety of metrics to help you ensure product availability, accurate shipping times, and operational efficiency. Below, we define some important metrics and explain why you should be reviewing with your 3PL provider on a regular basis.    

Transportation Time & Cost

Shipping times and costs directly factor into your customer experience. Monitoring the average time-in-transit and transportation cost per package enables you to spot opportunities for improvement.

Units Fulfilled Per Hour

The number of units your fulfillment team can process per hour helps determine your throughput. Once you know what your capabilities are, you can proactively provide resources to your fulfillment team during product promotions or peak sales periods.

Average Units Per Order

The average number of product units required to fulfill an order is good information to have, from an operational standpoint. For example, a business averaging one unit per order can usually operate with fewer employees in the fulfillment department than a business that averages 10 units per order. You can use this information to ensure you have the right amount of staff for the holidays, or other peak seasons.

Average Lines Per Order

Lines represent the variations available for each of your product units. As an example, if a t-shirt is a product unit, then each color and size is a different line for that unit. Similar to the units per order metric, tracking the average lines per order is useful for operational planning – a higher average could indicate the need for more warehouse space (to ensure there is enough stock for each line) and more employees to pick, pack, and ship each order.