If you’ve ever woken up to an inbox full of “You sent me the wrong size” or “My order says delivered, but…”, you know the sting of fulfilment errors all too well. They don’t just cost money – they chip away at time, energy and customer trust.
And the cruel irony? The more successful your store becomes, the more likely those little mistakes are to start multiplying. Scaling is great – until it breaks your systems.
But what if you could take the edge off the chaos? What if your fulfilment process just worked, quietly catching small mistakes before they ever reached a customer? That’s where smart automation steps in. Used thoughtfully, it doesn’t strip away the human touch – it actively protects it.
Why Fulfilment Errors Happen (Even in the Best Stores!)
Fulfilment errors are rarely about carelessness. They’re a side effect of growth – too many moving parts and too few hours in the day. Growth in ecommerce isn’t always linear. A product going viral. An unexpected spike in holiday traffic. Sometimes sales push your capacity to (and then beyond) its limits – and while it might sound like a nice problem to have, it’s still a problem.
Common fulfilment issue culprits include:
- Orders that slip through without tracking numbers
- Stockouts or backorders that aren’t communicated in time
- Manual tagging mistakes that confuse fulfilment teams
- A support team playing detective because internal visibility lags
When you’re juggling hundreds (or thousands) of orders, it only takes one missed detail for a perfectly good process to fall apart. Automation helps protect against this – a digital safety net, ready to catch the orders that slip between the cracks.
How Automation Protects Against Human Error
Think of automation as your quiet fulfilment co-pilot. It doesn’t shout for attention, it just… works. Handling the boring, repeatable stuff that humans can miss when things get busy.
When done right, automation keeps your data consistent and up to date, helps to flag potential issues before they reach customers and reduces “busywork” so your team can focus on real customer care.
Tools like Arigato make automation achievable. No code, no developer dependency and no drama. You build the rules once, and they run quietly in the background, protecting your operations while you get on with running your store.
Three Automations That Eliminate Common Fulfilment Mistakes
Here are a few practical automations from Arigato’s workflow library that can save hours (and more than a few headaches.)
1. Automatically Tag Orders With Tracking Numbers
Problem: It’s easy to miss orders that never get marked as shipped. Customers chase updates and your team scrambles to check what went wrong.
Solution: Tag orders with tracking numbers. Arigato automatically tags your orders with tracking identifiers for better visibility and easy reference throughout the whole fulfillment process.
Merchant insight: No more “just checking” emails – customers stay confident and your support queue stays lighter.
2. Notify Your Team Instantly When a High-Value Order Comes In
Problem: A high-value order deserves special handling – but when things get hectic, even VIP purchases can slip through the cracks.
Solution: Generate an internal Gorgias ticket for high-value purchases. This workflow creates an automatic ticket in your helpdesk whenever a big-ticket order lands. Your team gets an instant heads-up to double-check shipping details, add an extra QA step or send a quick thank-you note.
Merchant insight: A five-minute follow-up on a premium order can prevent a £200 refund (and earn a lifetime customer).
3. Send a Notification When an Order Is Delayed or on Backorder
Problem: Delays happen – suppliers run late, stock runs low, couriers mess up. What turns a hiccup into a crisis is silence.
Solution: Send a backorder notification. This workflow automatically emails customers when an item is delayed or on backorder, so expectations are managed from the start.
Merchant insight: A little transparency can buy you a good deal of patience. And a quick proactive "heads up" message does more for trust than any "sorry about that" discount code ever could.
How Accuracy Builds Trust
Every fulfilment mistake you don’t make has a ripple effect. Fewer “Where’s my order?” emails mean less strain on support. Accurate shipments lead to better reviews and more repeat purchases. Clean data in your system means clearer insights and faster decision-making. And perhaps most importantly: your team stops operating in firefighting mode.
When automation handles the mundane stuff – tagging, checking, updating – your humans get to do the work that actually builds loyalty: sending personal notes, solving creative problems, creating moments of delight. Every time automation catches a mistake before it happens, your brand earns invisible trust.
Where to Start (Without Overhauling Everything)
You don’t need to transform your entire fulfilment process overnight. Start small.
- Find your weak link: Where are the same fulfilment issues cropping up? Late shipments? Missing tracking?
- Automate one fix: Pick a simple workflow (like tagging orders with their tracking numbers).
- Measure the difference: Notice how much faster issues resolve when they’re flagged automatically.
- Scale thoughtfully: Once your first automation sticks, build outward, connecting tools like Gorgias, Slack or Klaviyo for full visibility across your operations.
Automation as Operational Empathy
At its core, automation isn’t about doing less – it’s about caring better. When you use it to protect accuracy, clarity, and communication, you’re not cutting corners – you’re creating breathing room. Because when your team isn’t buried in manual fulfilment checks, they have time to do what humans do best: connect, create and care.
That’s what modern operational excellence looks like. And tools like Arigato make it accessible to any Shopify merchant – no big team, no developers, no drama. The best-run Shopify stores aren’t the ones doing more work. They’re the ones doing it flawlessly.