Fulfilment Manager: Job Description & Salary

If your ecommerce business is scaling at a rapid pace but you’re struggling to accurately fulfil hundreds of orders, it might be time to hire a fulfilment manager.

While they do not have as much responsibility as a Director of Fulfilment might, fulfilment managers oversee most (if not all) fulfilment-related activities in an ecommerce company — including order processing and confirmation, inventory tracking and planning, picking, packing, and shipping preparations — to ensure that all orders are received, packaged, and delivered accurately and in a timely manner.

They must also manage warehouse laborers, and work in tandem with other stakeholders such as the company’s logistics service provider. Even though the more repetitive and mundane aspects of fulfilment may be outsourced to experts like ShipBob, hiring a dedicated fulfilment manager to serve as a liaison can help further streamline operations.

In this article, we’ll cover the role and responsibilities of a fulfilment manager, offer tips and resources for both aspiring fulfilment managers and employers searching for their next hire, and share about how ShipBob can partner with your team to optimise your supply chain.

What is a fulfilment manager?

Fulfilment managers are ecommerce professionals who have end-to-end control over the order fulfilment process, from order receiving and processing all the way through delivery. They are also responsible for managing the fulfilment staff, and for collaborating with external partners such as 3PLs. Ultimately, a fulfilment manager’s goal should be to see orders fulfilled as quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively as possible.

Fulfilment manager job description

A fulfilment manager is responsible for order processing, fulfilment (including picking and packing), warehouse operations, inventory and order tracking, quality control, and shipping preparation. The role is highly collaborative in nature, as fulfilment managers work closely with customer service representatives, warehouse staff, couriers, manufacturers, suppliers, logistics directors, and other team members to ensure that service level agreements (SLAs) and customer expectations are met.

Fulfilment managers are also expected to be versed in various software systems and technologies, including inventory management systems (IMSs), warehouse management systems (WMSs), and other warehousing automations that improve supply chain efficiency.

The job of a fulfilment manager can also be rather physically taxing, and cannot typically be done remotely. Due to the nature of the job, during peak seasons, fulfilment managers may occasionally need to work weekends or after hours.

Responsibilities

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Individual postings can be tailored to a company’s needs and capabilities, and include additional or fewer responsibilities than are listed.

• Being responsible for overseeing daily order fulfilment activities, including order processing, picking, packing, and shipping preparation.
• Working alongside a 3PL and utilising their WMS software to optimise warehouse and fulfilment operations
• Tracking inventory levels to prevent stock-outs and/or deadstock
• Developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for inventory control, logistics management, and order fulfilment to meet operational goals
• Preventing inventory shrinkage, accidents, and occupational hazards
• Optimising procurement of inventory by improving vendor relationships, performance, and lead times
• Managing a dynamic team of production supervisors, full-time and part-time warehouse staff, and other direct reports
• Maintaining positive and mutually beneficial relationships with vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, and 3PLs (if applicable)
• Reporting weekly on multiple fulfilment and performance KPIs
• Providing data-backed and actionable updates to senior management to improve order fulfilment SLAs and vendor performance
• Supporting efforts to attain certifications (such as ISO 9002 and COPC) for quality in installation, production, and customer experience

Desired Skills

• Proven track record of analytical, interpersonal, leadership, and project management skills
• Prior experience and familiarity with warehouse operations*
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.), inventory management systems, and warehouse management systems
• Detail-oriented
• Multitasking capabilities
• Business-level communication skills (oral and written)
• A strong customer-oriented focus
• Bachelor’s degree*

* Individual employers will vary on the level of experience and education required.  

What is the average fulfilment manager’s salary?

The average salary for a full-time fulfilment manager in the US is $73,587 per year, or $35.38 per hour. Typically, though, a fulfilment manager salary can range from $45,000 to $90,000, depending on the location and the candidate’s education, certifications, skills, and years of experience.

With the boom in ecommerce, the demand for skilled fulfilment managers is also on the rise. As a result, by 2028, an estimated 150,600 new job opportunities for this skill-set are expected to be added to the U.S. economy, which could affect salaries for fulfilment managers going forward.

What are some tips for new or aspiring fulfilment managers?

When starting on your journey as an order fulfilment manager, the best way to work your way up the ranks is by going the extra mile, and cultivating skills you’ll need to manage a supply chain. Here are a few tips, industry best practices, and initiatives to master for current or aspiring logistics directors.

1. Nurture vendor & partner relationships

Better relationships with vendors, couriers, and manufacturers improve communication, facilitate issue identification & resolution, and can sometimes help you secure discounted rates (which, in some cases, can be passed on to the end customer). In case of emergencies, being on good terms with external partners can also help you acquire inventory within shorter lead times. In short, if you are easy for partners to work with and a reliable business associate, you can secure cost- and time-savings for your brand.

2. Optimise your warehouses

Part of the fulfilment manager’s job is to make sure that fulfilment operations are running as efficiently as possible. To do this, there are several optimising strategies fulfilment managers can employ in the warehouses or fulfilment centres they manage.

To speed up order fulfilment and minimise shipping costs, it is advisable in some cases to strategically set up fulfilment centres (in-house or outsourced) in the geographies where your company’s customers are located, and split inventory intelligently between them based on forecasted demand.

Within each warehouse, fulfilment managers should also set optimal picking routes and strategies (such as batch picking), place fast-selling items in easily accessible locations for picking, and conserve space through warehouse organisation and careful inventory level management.

Fulfilment managers can also utilise technologies such as IoT sensors, barcode scanners, automated pick list generation, and retrieval systems to further streamline and optimise warehousing processes. Such technologies replace manual and time-consuming warehousing tasks while minimising fatigue and injury, and reduce picking and packing errors to produce more accurate orders.

3. Track key supply chain metrics

Tracking important metrics is the key to fulfilment process improvement. Without gathering and analising data, you won’t be able to pinpoint which areas of the supply chain could benefit from optimisation, or know if you are hitting your KPIs.

Fulfilment managers need access to real-time order processing metrics, including on-time shipping percentage, dock-to-stock cycle time, fill rate, average fulfilment cost, and inventory days of supply. With these metrics and real-time insights, a good fulfilment manager can prioritize optimisation for the most needful areas to deliver continuous improvements in the order fulfilment workflow. Data also positions fulfilment managers to better manage future risks, and forecast demand seasonally.

Some 3PLs, like ShipBob, provide analytics tools that will track certain metrics for you automatically in real time and facilitate data analysis — so if your company considers partnering with a 3PL, be sure to ask about their merchant analytics capabilities.

“ShipBob’s analytics dashboard has a lot of valuable reports that show our top-selling states, order revenue and costs, units sold, sales by SKU, days of inventory, SKU velocity, sales vs. inventory distributions showing where our customers are and where we’re shipping from, and more.”

Andrew Hardy, COO of Nature’s Ultra

4. Learn how to manage inventory

Ensuring that orders are completed quickly and accurately requires excellent inventory management skills. As a fulfilment manager, one is responsible for tracking inventory levels, and must balance warehouse capacity with predicted levels of customer demand. The trick? To always have enough inventory on hand to meet customer demand without overstocking or understocking. Performing regular inventory audits and using an IMS that automatically updates inventory counts in real time will go a long way in sustaining an efficient fulfilment process, and help fulfilment managers restock on time to avoid costly stockouts, backorders, and deadstock.

5. Familiarize yourself with logistics software

While technology cannot necessarily replace a fulfilment manager, it certainly makes the job much easier. It is the fulfilment manager’s responsibility to learn the intricacies of whatever IMS and WMS their company uses to manage inventory and warehouse operations — but that being said, some IMSs and WMSs are easier to learn and more helpful than others.

An IMS that integrates directly with the company’s ecommerce store streamlines order confirmation and reception enormously, especially if it will automatically update stock levels to reflect each order. WMSs should also be streamlined, and incorporate automation to simplify picking, packing, and shipping wherever possible.

To keep things simple, strive to use one or two platforms that are comprehensive, rather than adopting individual softwares and technologies for every different function.

ShipBob, for example, provides merchants with a single yet multifunctional dashboard application, through which they can manage inventory, run warehouse operations, track shipping, and much more. This software also connects directly with major ecommerce platforms, and hosts plug-ins and integrations to fit seamlessly into an existing tech stack, creating an easy user experience.

“[ShipBob’s dashboard] is so seamless and intuitive that even my mom, in her 60s, has helped me. I showed her how to use ShipBob’s technology and it was so easy for her, too.”

Anastasia Allison, founder of Kula Cloth

Need a WMS for your warehouse?

ShipBob has a best-in-class warehouse management system (WMS) for brands that have their own warehouse and need help managing inventory in real time, reducing picking, packing, and shipping errors, and scaling with ease.

With ShipBob’s WMS, brands with their own warehouse can even leverage ShipBob’s fulfilment services in any of ShipBob’s fulfilment centres across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia to improve cross-border shipping, reduce costs, and speed up deliveries.

Request ShipBob’s WMS pricing here.

6. Choose the right partner logistics company

Despite their many responsibilities, a fulfilment manager is still just one person — and there are certain aspects of growth and ecommerce operations that one cannot accomplish alone, or even with an internal team. In these situations, it’s best to outsource logistics to an expert 3PL.

A 3PL partner like ShipBob has the resources, expertise, and size to better execute particular functions in logistics. For example, distributing inventory is very difficult and expensive for smaller or even midsize companies to do on their own; but with ShipBob’s reach and fulfilment centre network, it’s much easier and cheaper to expand your geographic footprint.

Similarly, developing a tech stack, IMS, or WMS alone is extremely expensive and time-consuming — but ShipBob, as a tech-enabled 3PL, already has state-of-the-art analytics and integrations for our customers to use.

The right 3PL’s infrastructure empowers businesses to fulfil and deliver orders faster, and to grow rapidly without compromising on customer satisfaction. Thus, it is critical to the long-term growth of the business that a fulfilment manager knows when to partner with professionals, and how to find the best 3PL for their business.

“We are growing really fast and won’t slow down anytime soon. With ShipBob, we have the option to use more of their warehouses to further reduce shipping costs.

Because ShipBob has a lot of people to handle our orders and additional warehouses we can expand into, we can scale up with ease as we continue to grow quickly. If we ran our own warehouse, it would be much harder to hire people and we’d inevitably outgrow the space.”

Oded Harth, CEO & Co-Founder of MDacne

Hear from ShipBob customers who manage fulfilment

ShipBob partners with fulfilment managers and ecommerce professionals to optimise supply chain management and fulfil customer orders on time and accurately, all while growing your client base.

Many merchants choose ShipBob because they are overwhelmed by self-fulfilment. For merchants like Leonie Lynch from Juspy, packing and shipping orders wasn’t the best use of their time, and wasn’t sustainable long term:

“50% of my time was spent packing boxes. Not only that, but it was a constant interruption. I would sit down to do an email marketing campaign, have to attend to new orders, and completely lose my train of thought and flow. I spent about 3 minutes per order on fulfilment. I almost didn’t want orders to come in.”

Leonie Lynch, Founder & CEO of Juspy

For these merchants and many more, ShipBob’s integrated 3PL services transformed order fulfilment from a cost centre into a revenue driver. Read more such ShipBob case studies here.

Streamline fulfilment with ShipBob’s WMS

Need help managing fulfilment, but don’t want to outsource it? ShipBob has a best-in-class warehouse management system (WMS) that fulfilment managers can use in a brand’s own warehouse to improve inventory management, reduce errors, and scale in-house operations with ease.

Brands can even adopt a hybrid fulfilment model, employing ShipBob’s WMS technology in their own warehouses while simultaneously leveraging ShipBob’s fulfilment services in any of ShipBob’s fulfilment centres across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia to improve cross-border shipping, reduce costs, and speed up deliveries.

Fulfilment manager FAQs

Here are our answers to common questions about fulfilment managers, their responsibilities, and what it takes to become one.