For mid to large-scale businesses, capturing, tracking, and fulfilling orders becomes challenging, especially if multiple sales channels exist. Ecommerce businesses face many challenges, such as aligning orders and inventory across different sales channels, meeting complex shipping schedules, tracking order fulfillment, reporting, analytics, and evaluation.
The order management system is designed to facilitate and automate the order fulfillment process, minimizing the time in the order-to-cash cycle and enhancing the order processing ability for wholesalers and suppliers. Order management software allows businesses to enter and convert quotes and orders conveniently, maintain real-time visibility of stock levels, determine patterns from previous invoices, verify shipping preferences, transform pricing, and more in a single system. These platforms may integrate with billing software as these two often overlap functionalities.
What Kind of Companies Need an Order Management System?
Companies that are in dire need of an order management system are:
- Early-stage eCommerce companies – eCommerce startups can ensure that they are on top of the inventory, they can send automated customer notifications, track payments in various currencies, and fulfill all the orders correctly while integrating with all the major suppliers.
- Marketplace sellers – Integrating an order management system with a marketplace provides important profits in terms of accessibility and referencing. It assists in aligning with the fluctuating consumer buying pattern, permitting the existing and future sellers to gain new customers, and providing an increase in turnover.
- Enterprises with huge orders to manage – Companies who want to scale their business across multiple channels require a modern order management system that can fulfill orders and ship orders from anywhere. Without one there is a need for manual processes that require the use of spreadsheets. Order management systems can connect to various sales channels and offer an interface for supervising orders.
Types of Order Management Software, SaaS, and Customized Features
Different types of order management systems are available in the market, and you can choose the one that suits you best and assists in optimizing your Omni channel presence. There are various options ranging from basic systems to enterprise systems that need a host of IT, staff, for managing.
Businesses should start with their customers as their expectations have risen considerably, and fulfilling their needs is everything. You need to deliver orders timely and at the minimum cost possible. Let us look at the types of order management systems available.
- The Supply Chain OMS
This kind of order tracking system can be implemented combined or alone based on the retailer’s need. You would need an integrated system of solutions that includes an order management system, eCommerce warehouse management system, transportation management system, and micro-fulfillment center abilities. These systems allow you to meet unique fulfillment hardships and monitor and optimize the experience from click to customer. - The Bundled OMS
It is a different platform for an ERP, POS, or ECP. It is not an optimal order tracking software and helps the vendor to trick you into feeling that you are getting more for your buck. The unique aspects are single billing, one-stop-shop and quick integration. But this system is not very efficient, and its functionalities do not match the requirements.
- The Enterprise Solution
The enterprise solution offers smart analytics and business intelligence. You can take informed decisions quickly. You do not need to worry about data security as the solution offers malware-proof and virus-proof software. The solution offers you optimum performance and speed and offers fair pricing. You can customize and scale the software as per your growing needs.
This solution needs a host of IT staff for successful operation. You might be using an original on-premise enterprise order management system, but the vendor might be trying hard to switch over to the SaaS platform. Before shifting to the SaaS platform, you should carefully analyze your needs. You need to consider whether the vendor offers you what you need and addresses your complex problems, or do they match your requirements. These alternatives might offer better ROI and better time to value.
- Build Your System
You have the option of developing your order management system by the in-house IT team or a third-party developer. The investment expenses and regular maintenance costs are an additional burden in this case. Another problem with this system is that it is based on the existing supply chain model, but order management systems need constant evolution with the changing supply chain needs. Fulfillment tends to become more complicated and needs to be developed to add new functions, whereas, in a customizable order management system, you can add the functionality when needed.
How to ensure adoption in an organization
The function of an OMS is to maintain a correct record of inventory all across the retail supply chain. It involves inventory located at physical locations, in transit, warehouses, and any third-party suppliers. The system syncs this data throughout the sales channel to ensure accurate inventory levels all along and offer visibility into the global availability that businesses need. The main job of an OMS is to ensure order fulfillment.
First, a customer places an order and the OMS adds data to the customer profile which allows companies to track customer order history, payment references, and shipping information. After the payment has been processed, OMS utilizes real-time data for updating inventory levels on all the platforms and produces a receipt for sending it to the customer. The accounting system is also updated from the accounting system. The order details are used for routing the order to the right warehouse by inspecting the available stock and delivery destination. The order is picked, packed, and checked for accuracy.
In case of stockouts, the OMS communicates with suppliers for obtaining extra inventory to the warehouse. In case of delay, the customer is notified. After the order has been packed, it is sent to the customer through third-party shipping software and the OMS software notifies the customer of the tracking information. After the order has been delivered, an OMS sends a follow-up mail to check whether the order was accurate and whether the customer was satisfied. Customers can contact customer service if needed. A return and refund request is quickly processed if the customer wants to return an order.
Conclusion
To stay competitive and expand your business, you need to accept orders from different channels. Despite the fact where and how the order is placed, consumers should have an amazing experience, and the inventory and fulfillment process needs to be accurate and efficient. An order management system is an essential tool that assists you in supervising inventory, accepting orders from multiple channels, fulfilling orders, and processing returns. The platforms are powerful when integrated as a component of the entire ERP software such that order management information is incorporated with CRM, accounting, supply chain, and more.
OrderCircle provides robust order tracking software that offers visibility of the product life cycle across the entire supply chain and helps to fulfill orders in a timely fashion. Companies can improve their operational efficiency and manage every stage of their eCommerce business, such as shipping, invoicing, payments, accounting, and more.
OrderCircle offers a custom wholesale solution and you can customize features depending on your requirements. With business expansion, your needs would also increase leading to newer features. Enterprise customers get high-priority support and ensure that the inquiries are resolved within 24 hours. The software can be integrated with every channel, starting from custom sales channels to invoicing channels. The software also offers optimum speed and performance and is highly available for use with no server downtimes. Users can obtain smart analytics and business intelligence and make informed decisions. The software is also secure and offers a fair pricing strategy in which the plant grows only when the business experiences growth.