Whether you are ordering from larger sites like Amazon and eBay or newer ones like TikTok Shop, Temu, and others, you will find various shipping statuses. From being shipped by the seller to being delivered to your home, all shipments go through multiple shipping statuses. One of these shipping statuses includes Awaiting Fulfillment, which can potentially delay your product delivery. Thus, we are here with a complete guide on what exactly is Awaiting Fulfillment and how you can fix it.
What does awaiting fulfillment mean?
While we have all seen shipping statuses like shipped and out for delivery, the “Awaiting Fulfillment” status is not a common one. Thus, in order to fix Awaiting Fulfillment, you need to first understand the exact awaiting fulfillment meaning.
So whenever you place an order on any e-commerce website, the seller needs to accept your order and fulfill it by packing your order and making it ready to be shipped.
However, if the packed shipment is not picked by a shipping courier on time, it will go under the Awaiting Fulfillment status.
In short, Awaiting Fulfillment means that your order is yet to be shipped despite being packed and good to go. And this is pretty much the same for all e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Temu, TikTok Shop, and others.
How long does awaiting fulfillment take?
Now that you have understood the Awaiting Fulfillment meaning, you might be wondering how long this shipping status lasts. Well, because the order is already packed and ready to be shipped, the duration of Awaiting Fulfillment status completely depends on the shipment courier being used. In general, it often takes 48-72 hours.
Why orders are labeled “Awaiting Fulfillment”?
As explained earlier, if an order is labeled as Awaiting Fulfillment, it means that the shipping courier is not able to ship your order for some reason. Usually, it is caused due to a poor shipping courier being used by the seller. However, in some cases, there might be a large amount of pending orders. So, if you are buying a product that is in high demand, it might get labeled as “Awaiting Fulfillment” due to a large number of pending orders.
Other order statuses explained
Since we are talking about order statuses like Awaiting Fulfillment, there is definitely a high possibility that you may face other order statuses as well. While some order statuses are common and a part of the typical shipment, others may cause issues and delay your shipment further. This, you should know the following common types of order stat
- Pending: If the user has clicked on check out but has not paid yet, you will see the pending status.
- Awaiting Payment: In case the user has paid, but you have not received the payment on your end.
- Awaiting Fulfillment: The shipment is delayed because the shipping courier has not picked up the product.
- Awaiting Shipment: Even though the shipping courier has picked up the product, they have not shipped on their end due to internal issues which are common in smaller shipping couriers.
- Awaiting Pickup: In case of customer pickups from the shipping courier center, this will be displayed until the customer has picked up the shipment on their own.
- Partially Shipped: Some of the items in a large order have been shipped.
- Shipped: All of the products in a given order have been shipped.
- Out for Delivery: A shipment is out for delivery and being transported from the shipping courier center to the customer’s home.
- Completed: The complete shipping process has been completed where the seller has been paid and the buyer has received the product.
- Canceled: In case of accidental orders, the customer has canceled the orders on their own.
- Declined: If the seller is not able to fulfill the order or ship it due to certain issues, they can decline from their end as well.
- Refunded: The buyer has been refunded for the order in case of cancellations and returns.
- Partially Refunded: The buyer has gotten a partial refund due to either a partial return or certain return charges.
- Disputed: The buyer has opted to raise a dispute on PayPal if they have made the payment via PayPal and want a refund.
Types of shipment and their differences
Apart from getting the Awaiting Fulfillment order status, there is a chance that you may get other but very similar order statuses as well. This includes order statuses like awaiting fulfillment, pending fulfillment, and awaiting shipment. Even though you may think that all these three order statuses mean the same thing, they have slight differences as explained below:
- Pending Fulfillment: This type of order status comes under the seller itself. During this, the seller is yet to pack the order before contacting the shipping courier for a pick-up.
- Awaiting Fulfillment: If the seller has already packed all your products, they will then contact the shipping courier for a pickup. However, if the shipping courier has delayed the pickup, you will get this order status.
- Awaiting Shipment: Lastly, if the shipping courier has already picked up your products but the shipping courier has not shipped the product themselves, then your order will be sitting in their shipping center. For such cases, you will get the awaiting shipment order status.
How to improve your fulfillment process?
Even though getting the Awaiting Fulfillment order status can be quite frustrating for buyers, it is much more frustrating for sellers. Because if you are a seller, you don’t have to deal with a single order. Instead, you may have to manage multiple orders at once that are all facing the Awaiting Fulfillment order status. In that case, it is highly recommended that you should try adopting these 3 ways to improve your fulfillment process:
Efficient Inventory Management
In a lot of cases, a seller might not be able to ship a product properly because they were not able to plan things ahead of time. Therefore, it is highly important to have efficient inventory management. This simply means keeping a proper record of all your products, orders in progress, and any upcoming orders.
Communication with Shipping Couriers
This simply means that you need to communicate well with your shipping courier. By letting the shipping courier know in advance about all of your upcoming orders, you can avoid all shipping issues and delays. Establish a timely, long-term, and efficient method of communication with your shipping courier, such as developing forms, schedules, etc., so that both parties have an understanding of each other so that the shipping courier can pick up and ship the packages ahead of time and prepare them for transportation.
Analyze and Improve
Lastly, since different e-commerce businesses work differently, you also need to self-analyze and come up with the right fixes on your own. Therefore, you should analyze all of your orders including both successful orders and failed orders. That way you will be able to figure out the reason why you might be facing issues like the Awaiting Fulfillment order status.
Conclusion
If you want your shipments to arrive on time, you would definitely want to avoid any shipping statuses like Awaiting Fulfillment. Since this shipping status can put your order on hold, we have given a complete guide on Awaiting Fulfillment above. So, make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments if this guide helps you to fix Awaiting Fulfillment and improve your shipments.
