How ecommerce fulfillment actually works
One authoritative walkthrough of the order fulfillment process for African sellers — from stock arriving at the warehouse to cash reconciled and returns closed out.
Published 2023-04-19 · Reviewed 2026-08-31
The six stages of an order
Every stage below produces a record. If a stage has no record, it has no accountability.
- 1
Stock intake
Goods arrive cleared, are counted against your manifest and booked in by SKU. Discrepancies are raised before anything is sellable.
- 2
Order received
Your order reaches the operation with the buyer's details, destination and the amount due at delivery.
- 3
Confirmation
The buyer is contacted before dispatch to confirm the item, address and payment method — the single biggest lever on failed deliveries.
- 4
Pick, pack, QC
Stock is picked against the order, checked and packed, and the parcel is labelled to the confirmed destination.
- 5
Dispatch
The parcel leaves on a door delivery route or to a collection point, depending on the destination and the service confirmed for it.
- 6
Cash and returns
Cash on delivery is collected and reconciled against your order list; refusals, uncollected parcels and returns come back into stock or into a return report.
What each stage is really controlling
The process is simple to describe. The failures are always at the same six points.
- Receiving is where accuracy is won or lost
- Everything downstream is measured against what was booked in. Counting on intake, recording by SKU and flagging shortfalls before stock goes live prevents the most expensive failure in fulfilment: selling something you cannot pick.
- Confirmation before dispatch is not a courtesy call
- In markets where the buyer pays at the door, an unconfirmed order is a delivery attempt you are likely to pay for twice. Confirming the item, address and amount before the parcel moves is the cheapest control available.
- Pick and pack is a quality gate
- The check against the order happens before the parcel is sealed, not after a complaint. Wrong item, wrong quantity and damaged packaging are all cheaper to catch inside the warehouse.
- Delivery is two different services
- Door delivery takes the parcel to the buyer's address. Collection asks the buyer to pick it up from a point. Which is available depends on the destination, and each country page states which runs where.
- COD only works when it reconciles
- Money collected must tie back to individual orders, in the local settlement currency, on a cadence agreed in your service schedule. Without that line-by-line trace, cash on delivery becomes an unauditable balance.
- Returns need a defined destination
- A refused or uncollected parcel is not finished. It has to be brought back, inspected and either restocked or reported, with the cash position corrected in the same cycle.
What to hold a fulfilment operation to
Ask for these against your own orders, not as provider-wide averages.
Order accuracy
Orders shipped exactly as ordered, measured at the pick and pack check.
Confirmation rate
Share of orders reached and confirmed before dispatch.
First-attempt delivery
Parcels delivered without a repeat attempt or re-route.
COD reconciliation lag
Time between collection and a settled, order-level reconciliation.
Return rate and reason
Volume back in, split by refusal, uncollected, damage and wrong item.
Stock accuracy
System quantity against counted quantity by SKU.
Fulfilment process: common questions
The sequence, the controls and what happens when an order does not go to plan.
Send the towns you sell into and your monthly volume.
An operator confirms the storage, delivery, COD and collection options available on those routes.