If you work in the supply chain business, you know the difference between the terms replenishment and fulfillment. You would also know that they are not the same. So, it is important to understand the difference between the two words.

Fulfillment is a procedure wherein you handle and execute customer orders like packing and shipping. Replenishing means to fill again or replace with new things. 

Order fulfillment services in USA include receiving goods or products for short-term storage purposes in a warehouse of the distribution center. Then it moves on to the order processing, shipping, and logistics. 

Replenishment 

Replenishment is a part of the order management process. However, it is limited to sending additional goods or materials. If you need more items from suppliers, you can send them a replenishment order to fill up your supplies. Adding more material to fill orders is replenishment. Similarly, if the customer desires to buy more products in addition to what they have already ordered, that is also called replenishment. 

Fulfillment 

When an order is sent to the customer, company, retail shop, manufacturing unit, or distribution center, the whole process is seen as a fulfillment service. Fulfillment can also be seen as the process when orders are shipped inbound from your suppliers to your warehouse. Orders shipped outbound to customers from your place or warehouse are also called fulfillment. 

The Significant Difference between Replenishment and Fulfillment processes 

At a basic level, both processes help in completing your orders in a distribution center or a warehouse location. In both cases, you receive materials or goods and store them. Then you process and pack them. Lastly, you ship them to the end customer or other places. The execution of small mini processes leads to the completion of both tasks. 

Replenishing the goods is directly associated with the management of inventory, stocking goods, re-ordering, purchase order changes, etc. Fulfillment is associated with the process of demand planning. 

If you are talking about fulfillment services, order fulfillment companies in USA are continuously sending the end customer or distribution channel goods or products for the first time. In case the customer return the goods due to poor quality or some other issue, then you may want replacement goods. For this purpose, you may wish to replenish supply with more goods and work out the reverse logistics procedure. 

The picking and packaging processes for replenishing and fulfillment services are different. Fulfilling orders is done with full quantities while replenishing orders requires just a minimum package, needed for small quantities to be packed and shipped to satisfy customer replacement needs. When you take one item out of a box to replenish an order, you have to sort out the remaining items inside the box to a warehouse or a fulfillment center USA. This increases the demand for similar goods for the inventory cycle to be filled and recounting may be done. 

Each process, be it fulfillment or replenishment, is unique as they have diverse sources and totally different timing for demand. The execution processes are also different. Fulfillment and replenishment are distinctive and dissimilar, even though some of their processes are similar.