The Complete Guide to e-commerce Order Management Systems: Definition, Functions, and Benefits
Today, when a customer places an order online, it sets into motion a whole machine of events, with multiple functional cogs that need to operate in harmony for the product to get to the doorstep on time.
These cogs include inventory, logistics, fulfilment, customer experience, and returns. Moreover, as volumes rise, companies need to be prepared for the future as well as the present.
Set against a backdrop of evolving customer expectations and rising competition, online stores often face problems streamlining inventory, shipping, and managing fulfilment.
The bottom line is that this machine needs to run smoothly for your company to run smoothly. But it’s easier said than done unless you have the right systems in your stack.
Yes, we’re talking about an ecommerce order management system.
In this blog, we’ll explore how order management solutions can solve many of these persisting problems and help companies achieve efficiency.
What Is An e-commerce Order Management System (OMS)?
An OMS is a digital tool used for e-commerce orders, sales tracking, fulfilment, and inventory. From the moment an order is placed to the moment it reaches the customer, an OMS streamlines the entire order processing cycle, helping you maintain customer satisfaction and operational levels.
Today’s OMS are multidimensional systems that touch every facet of e-commerce operations, including:
- Sale channels
- Customers
- Product information
- Order routing
- Order fulfilment—picking, packing, and processing
- Customer service
- Shipping
- Order tracking
- Returns, refunds, and exchanges
Let’s delve into some important functions of ecommerce order management systems and how they integrate all of the aspects into a seamless, interoperable process.
What Does an OMS Do?
Be it tracking inventory levels by channel, automating fulfilment processes, handling reverse logistics, or managing the customer experience, OMS can take care of everything for you.
Not to mention, it also allows teams to merge financial and order data, leaving no room for discrepancies and errors.
All in all, the customer gets what they ordered on time, and all parties are kept informed in real time.
4 Definitive Benefits of Ecommerce Order Management Systems
As you already know, OMS is like the behind-the-scenes hero who helps you handle fulfilment tasks so that the customer experience never suffers.
But that’s not it.
Here are some other benefits of using ecommerce management tools for order fulfilment:
- Improve Order Accuracy
Let’s face it: Manual work often leads to inaccuracies and errors, which can be risky in a cutthroat industry like e-commerce.
These errors can have a direct negative impact on the customer experience, which is an important KPI for all e-commerce businesses.
For instance, manual work can lead to the wrong product being shipped, which can ruin the customer experience and create a return or exchange cycle that puts an additional load on the logistics. Not to mention, you also have to spend more money correcting wrong orders.
An OMS prevents back-and-forth operations and keeps everything streamlined, as all data operations are automated and updated in real-time.
- Pack and Ship Faster
Time is of the utmost essence in ecommerce. The longer a product takes to reach the customer’s doorstep, the further your customer satisfaction will drop.
While cost is also a factor for modern shoppers, it’s not as important as speed. That’s where ecommerce management solutions shine. It allows you to automate the process of selecting the fastest and most cost-effective delivery method.
The result? Faster delivery and better CSAT.
On top of that, it makes the picking and packing process of the products easy by scanning stock available across all connected warehouses, identifying the best fulfilment centre for the concerned inventory, and sending the information directly to the centre to start the logistics process.
All in as little time as possible.
- Democratized Channel Management
Today, all e-commerce and retail businesses operate on multiple channels. When you consider the volume of orders spread across all these touchpoints, the complexity skyrockets.
Many order management solutions today are built to handle multichannel loads.
In fact, they allow you to consolidate all your orders and the associated data into one central location, providing all parties involved with a unified dashboard to track order statuses, run analytics, and generate reports and insights.
Your inventory is also synchronised across all sales channels and fulfilment centres, simplifying cross-channel reconciliation and automating inventory management.
- Optimise Shipping Costs
Top-of-the-line ecommerce order management systems also integrate with top shipping carriers across the world, allowing you to purchase slots directly from the OMS.
Moreover, it pre-negotiates the cost for you with these select carriers, providing you with discounted shopping rates. In short, you save both time and money on your part.
Get the Best e-commerce Solutions with Ordazzle
It’s no easy task to choose an order management solution for your stack. The wrong one can cost you time, resources, money, and reputation.
So, before you choose one, make sure you shop around, book demonstrations, and shortlist the ones that have the essential features.
Or, you can choose Ordazzle and get right into the swing of things. As soon as you integrate Ordazzle, you’ll witness a positive impact on order-related data, automation, and centralisation.
Get in touch with us to know more about our ecommerce order management system.