Order Fulfillment Service Level Agreement (SLA)

ShipCalm has defined baseline expectations for when you can expect orders to ship and what happens when they don't ship on time.

General Overview

ShipCalm makes best efforts to ensure that all orders ship accurately and on time.  It's our belief that every order is the most important order to somebody.

To help support on-time shipping we have developed a custom algorithm that sets a ShipCalm SLA Date on every order in our WMS.  We use this date to drive behavior on the warehouse floor and ensure that we get orders out on time.  It's important to note that orders which don't have this date set are likely to not be prioritized are essentially not qualified to ship for a number of potential reasons we'll outline below.

Please reference the ShipCalm SLA Date algorithm article for B2B or DTC orders in our technical support documentation for a detailed definition of how the date is calculated.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Orders

A DTC order is considered “On Time” if it has a Shipped Date in the ShipCalm WMS on or before the ShipCalm SLA Date shown in the ShipCalm WMS.

Keep in mind that there are MANY variables that can impact getting a same-day or even next-day SLA date assignment.  It's important that you review the common delay factors listed below as well as the detailed DTC Order Fulfillment - SLA Calculation Algorithm.

Wholesale & Marketplace Replenishment (B2B) Orders

A B2B order is considered "On Time" if it has a Shipped Date or Carrier Ready Date in the ShipCalm WMS om or before the ShipCalm SLA Date.  What is unique about B2B orders is that many of them are scheduled with a freight carrier and we consider them fulfilled when they are prepped and ready for a carrier pickup.

As a baseline understanding, most B2B orders that require freight, compliance, assembly jobs, etc will end up having an SLA date that is 3-7 days.  This is another situation where it's important that you review the common delay factors list below as well as the detailed B2B Order Fulfillment - SLA Calculation Algorithm.

Common reasons orders won't receive a ShipCalm SLA Date

• Inventory out of stock
• The account is on Shipping Hold
• No carrier defined
• Order couldn't be automatically important into WMS
• Order is designated as "on hold"

Common reasons orders will get a later SLA date than expected

• An order was placed before noon, but due to integrations or upstream holds it didn't make it into ShipCalm's WMS with enough time to process before the cutoff
• Order encountered an error during processing and had to be reconfigured which reset the ShipCalm SLA Date calculatation.

Missed SLA Dates

When ShipCalm does not complete an order on or before the ShipCalm SLA Date, it is considered a "Delayed Order".  Delayed orders can occur for a multitude of reasons both planned and unplanned.  Broadly speaking we categorize these into the following:

• Planned & Expected Delays | Examples include peak weekends such as BFCM and common sale weekends like Labor Day, Memorial Day or the 4th of July.  While we provide extra staff on the peak periods there is a general unpredictability around accelerated sales.
• Unplanned Uncontrollable Delays | Examples of these include extreme weather events or 3rd party technical outages that are out of ShipCalm's control.
• Controllable Service Delays | From time to time ShipCalm's team does not perform to the levels that we expect.  This can happen because of poor planning or poor employee performance.

We maintain an annual list of Known Service Delays that can be found on our SLA Policies Overview Page.  On this page you can find the current calendar year and review all of the Planned & Expected Delays will in advance.  The known service delays page also outlines all Unplanned Uncontrollable Delays that are out of our control which we do not provide any type of credit or compensation for.

Service Credits for Delayed Orders

When Controllable Service Delays occur as outlined above our customers are entitled to request a service credit for the delay.  Requests are made by filling out a Fulfillment Error Report (FER) or requesting our support team to fill out an FER on your behalf.   We evaluate each request to ensure that the order meets the definition of a "Delayed Order" as defined above with a specific look at the ShipCalm SLA Date in the system and the Shipped Date or the date the order was prepped for LTL/FTL.

If the order is deemed as a valid Delayed Order due to controllable service delays we calculate the following credits that are offered to our customers:

All credits are limited to only the fulfillment fees incurred on a given order, the fees include:

• Per Order Fee
• Per Item Pick Fee
• Per Inner Pack Pick Fee
• Per Case Pick Fee
• Per Pallet Pick Fee
• Pallet Prep Fee
• Carton Prep Fee

What is explicitly NEVER included in Service Credits for Delayed Orders includes but is not limited to:

• We do not provide compensation for any claim of lost revenue
• We do not provide compensation for excess storage fees incurred
• We do not compensate for any claim of retail, wholesale, or manufacturing COGS of a product for any reason
• We do not compensate any portion of the parcel or freight charges to deliver the goods to your customers
• We do not provide compensation for any upgraded parcel or freight charges to utilize a carrier service such as 2Day or Next Day in an attempt to compensate for expected or unexpected delays
• We do not provide compensation for anything related to carrier errors – including but not limited to lost or damaged in transit, excessively long delivery times, etc.
• We do not provide compensation for anything related to software, platform, and other partner-dependent glitches, bugs, performance issues, etc.
• We do not provide compensation for costs or inconveniences related to canceled orders, including orders canceled due to delays in fulfillment.

This list is not exhaustive and is in addition to all conditions set forth in the ShipCalm Parcel & Freight Policy.

ShipCalm does not proactively report Delayed Orders that are processed after the ShipCalm SLA Date.  It is the responsibility of our customers to submit requests for any Delayed Order credit(s).

Credits for late shipments are subject to our MSA invoice dispute policy as follows:
“Invoices must be disputed within 7 business days.”

Carrier Delays

It is very common for carriers to be delayed in their delivery of your package to customers vs the time estimate provided.  Most of these delays are for the same reasons that ShipCalm experiences delays in preparing orders.

Industry statistics set the average "On Time" delivery rates below:

With this in mind, we always recommend setting accurate expectations with your customers to account for any unforeseen delays.  We do not seek credits on our customer's behalf for any carrier delays even when the service level is perceived to be a "Guaranteed Rate" such as FedEx Overnight or FedEx Two Day.  ShipCalm has waived its right to seek these credits from carriers in exchange for lower everyday rates to our customers.