Fulfillment
SLA
Service Level Agreement — a contractual commitment on how fast a service will be performed. For suppliers: typical SLA is 48 hours to ship; for support: 24 hours to first reply.
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a contractual commitment on how quickly a service will be performed. In ecommerce, SLAs typically apply to supplier ship-out times (e.g., 48 hours from order to tracking number) and customer-support response times (e.g., 12 hours to first reply).
Written SLAs are how you hold suppliers and 3PLs accountable. A supplier who "usually" ships within 48 hours is one a bad week from destroying your support inbox. A supplier with a contractual SLA and a discount penalty for missing it is one who has skin in the game.
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