Four indicators that your order management system needs improvement.

Order Management System

The pandemic caused commercial disruptions worldwide. Additionally, it sparked an unparalleled crisis in the world's supply chain. Two years after the crisis began, the aftershocks are still present. Even many eCommerce businesses are struggling as a result of labor shortages, production problems, and difficulties with inventory, fulfillment, and shipping.

It goes without saying that they must find ways to strengthen their supply chains, get rid of weak points, and satisfy the changing needs of their clients. Technology-based solutions, such as Order Management Systems (OMS), can help in this situation.

You require an OMS if you own, run, or manage an online store. The whys and how’s of creating such a system are covered in more detail in the following sections.

Order Gathering, Tracking, and Fulfillment

A tiny, single-channel eCommerce business may be able to handle with just an order tracking system built on a simple spreadsheet. But if your business grows and switches to a multi-channel sales model, it will become more difficult for you to fulfil every request. Missing, poorly handled, and misplaced orders are all guaranteed ways to lose money, create dissatisfied clients, and damage your reputation. You can avoid such problems by using an OMS.

Every operating channel, including:

 • Your own website • eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon or Shopify • Social media • Phone or mobile app • In-store, will be recorded and tracked by the appropriate OMS solution.

You can automate a lot of your order and fulfillment processes with the best OMS solutions. You can monitor each order, find out how it's progressing, and even make modifications as needed. 

• Provide third-party logistics (3PL) partners with order details so they can complete it.
• Print shipping labels.
• Generate invoices and purchase orders.
• Route orders to the appropriate warehouse.
• Track orders by channel, location, and currency.
• Accept and process payments from any place or in any currency.

If you want to provide customers a status update on order fulfillment or need to ask them for further information, an OMS is also helpful. You can quickly obtain or share the information required for an efficient order management process because all order details are available in one single area.

Monitoring and enhancing stock levels

The inventory of your business is extremely dynamic and ever-changing as a result of fresh receipts, orders, sales, returns, and even shrinkage from theft, vendor fraud, bookkeeping mistakes, or shoplifting. You must effectively manage your inventory to make sure you have enough stock to fulfil orders and meet consumer expectations.

Any eCommerce firm must have effective inventory management, but this is especially true for businesses that operate across several channels and nations. Why? because mishandling of inventory costs firms $1.75 trillion annually! Moreover, the third-biggest difficulty facing supply chain leaders is multi-channel inventory management.

You require an OMS in order to avoid these issues.

You can manage, monitor, and optimize your inventory across many channels with the use of an OMS. You will always be aware of whether you need to replace it and through which channel because it will update inventory levels in real-time. In order to promptly replenish inventory and increase sales and profits, you may also evaluate sales by region or channel and find the best-selling products.

To combine inventory and sales data, you can interface the OMS with your accounting software. You can learn valuable information about receivables and payables from this, and you can also spot chances to raise sales and boost profitability.

Improvement of Reverse Logistics

According to sources, around 30% of online purchases result in returns. You must be ready for returns even if your industry average return rate is lower. You must therefore simplify the reverse logistics procedure.

Customers can easily return their goods and receive a refund, exchange, replacement, or credit note with the help of an OMS solution. 96% of customers are ready to make a refund if the procedure is simple. You can provide excellent client experiences and raise your customer retention rate by streamlining the returns procedure.

The proper OMS software can assist you with:

• Create a credit for an initial order right away.
• Print return labels automatically so that customers may quickly send things back
• Write off or quarantine returned merchandise
• Refresh on-hand stock with the most recent details on returned, replaced, or exchanged goods.

For many eCommerce businesses, reverse logistics can be difficult. OMS takes away this discomfort and streamlines the procedure for you and your clients.

Customer Relationship Management Improvement

An OMS can handle far more than just the minute details of your supply chain and eCommerce business. Additionally, it can assist you in maintaining consumer data and using it to strengthen your bonds with them.

Each customer's information will be kept in the OMS for easy access. Their names, addresses, genders, and localities are among the demographic information included here, along with facts about their:

• Prior orders

• Returns

• Ordering regularity

• Lifetime value

You can use this information to pinpoint high-value consumers and offer cross-sells and upsells to them. Additionally, you may spot clients who aren't engaged and create email promotions with alluring incentives to entice them back. Finally, you can design customised marketing campaigns to express gratitude to devoted clients and ask them for recommendations or reviews.

Simply put, generic marketing doesn't work in the cluttered eCommerce marketplace of today. You may gain a deeper understanding of your clients and wow them with personalised marketing and promotions by utilising an OMS and its automated reporting and dashboards. Your sales and profit outcomes will eventually reflect these efforts.

The Conclusion

The administration of orders might be challenging. But the correct OMS can assist you and streamline your operations to make the process simpler. High levels of automation provided by an OMS allow you to do less tedious manual labour and put more effort into expanding your company and satisfying your clients.

Ignitiv offers top-notch Customer Experience (CX) solutions that enable eCommerce businesses to raise average order value and increase conversions. Get in contact with us right away to learn more about how we can assist your business in overcoming its main obstacles and establishing a route for sustainable growth.