Stacker-Business & Economy
By Stacker
PublishedSeptember 4, 202611:49 AM
The last time an online order showed up late or wrong, the brand probably took the blame before the carrier did. From the shopper’s side of the screen, the order came from the retailer, so the delay feels like the retailer’s problem.
And McKinsey & Company research supports that notion, finding that shoppers rank on-time delivery above speed, and about half track their orders to make sure the shipment is still on schedule.
The same pressure shows up inside fulfillment operations, as AMS Fulfillment explains below. Getting the order right and keeping the shopper updated now shapes how people feel about a brand. More of the shopping experience now happens after payment, giving the warehouse a larger role in whether the shopper trusts a brand enough to buy again.
How Omnichannel Retail Changed the Role of Warehousing
In 2024, Target’s supply chain chief at the time, Gretchen McCarthy, told The Wall Street Journal that the company’s fulfillment strategy starts with “one common inventory,” since a product may need to serve a store shopper or an online order. Her point captures the new job facing warehouses more broadly.
A product can sell through a brand’s own website before a marketplace order comes in behind it. But that same item might be promised to someone who buys online and picks up in store, the model retailers call BOPIS, which leans on the warehouse routing orders fast enough for the shelf to have it ready.
Ship-from-store then runs the opposite way, sending nearby web orders out from a store’s own stock while that same store still needs enough on hand for walk-in shoppers. SupplyChainBrain describes the pattern as “buy anywhere, get anywhere, from anyone.”
Holding all of it together falls to the warehouse, where one wrong count sends the shopper straight to the brand with the complaint.
Why Fulfillment Has Become a Brand Differentiator
Many companies still file fulfillment under back-end operations, but shoppers find out whether a retailer can be trusted after they pay. A late package does not feel like a logistics issue to the person waiting for it, and a wrong item makes the order feel careless before the return starts.
Supply Chain Brain has warned that a failed BOPIS order can leave shoppers feeling “frustrated and betrayed,” with one bad experience that “could end in a never-again customer.” The same risk follows a return process that makes the fix harder than the mistake.
Reliable fulfillment gives retailers an advantage that competitors cannot fake at checkout, since a clean delivery improves the chances of a subsequent order from the customer. And keeping that advantage now depends on systems that catch problems before shoppers do.
The Technology Powering Modern Warehouses
On warehouse floors, technology is most useful when it helps workers prove the right item is moving to the right order.
IBM connects that proof to bar coding, saying ithelps track inventory and streamline warehouse work. And the same need for accuracy shows up earlier in the process, during picking, the first step before packing and shipping can happen.
A warehouse management system gives the picker the location, while inventory syncing keeps website and store counts closer to the shelf. After the scan confirms the item, the shipping software assigns the label and carrier path. Tracking records then follow the package from packing to pickup, giving managers a current view before a delay spreads.
The harder test comes when order volume rises, since tools built for ordinary days must hold up when the floor speeds up.
Why Flexibility Matters More Than Size
A bigger warehouse is useful only if the plan inside it can change with the orders coming through the door.
A viral product can pull workers toward one item before the rest of the floor is ready, while a marketplace sale can crowd packing lines with new orders. Seasonal peaks stretch the same problem over more days, turning ordinary staffing plans into a moving target.
Wave picking is one answer for time-sensitive shipments, since workers can pick grouped orders around shipping schedules or delivery routes.
Retail researchers studying omnichannel inventory have also found benefits from rethinking older plans built around separate channels and locations. So while size creates room, flexibility decides how fast a warehouse can use it.
Warehouses Are Now Part of the Customer Experience
The warehouse may be hidden from view, but its work is the first part of an online order that a shopper actually sees and touches after buying.
The wait now unfolds through scan updates before the package reaches the door, giving the warehouse a place on the shopper’s phone. Each update either steadies the purchase or makes a delay harder to ignore.
The box then carries the order’s physical proof, with protection and presentation showing how carefully the product was handled. By the time the package is opened, the shopper has already felt the warehouse through the wait and the arrival.
The Growing Pressure on Retail Supply Chains
Managing fulfillment has grown into one of the toughest jobs for a retail brand, and the numbers show why the difficulty keeps growing. McKinsey’s latest survey of supply chain leaders found 82% of companies hit by new tariffs, with 39% watching supplier and material costs climb straight into their margins.
Freight only sharpens that squeeze, since a smaller brand holds little power to talk down the carrier fees and fuel charges that rise every year. Those carriers bring a second problem alongside their cost, since a route that ran cleanly last week can face a weather delay or a sudden cap on volume.
Inventory adds the last strain, leaving stock stranded in a store while the same item sells out online. Holding all of it together has become full-time work that most brands never built themselves to handle.
The Future of Fulfillment Infrastructure
No matter how retail brands look at it, fulfillment is a key factor in retail competition.
Tariffs, supplier costs, and supply chain risk are already pressing harder on margins. Fulfillment faces pressure from another angle, as orders have to move through picking, packing, and shipping without losing speed or accuracy.
Those fulfillment steps are now an important part of commerce, with inventory placed closer to demand and planning tied more tightly to how shoppers buy. Building fulfillment infrastructure around that reality will help keep the customer relationship intact after checkout.
This storywas produced byAMS Fulfillmentand reviewed and distributed byStacker.
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