Do you know what is Order Management System (OMS) in Ecommerce?
Before starting, let’s have a quick revision of OMS indispensable: Definition, Options, & Select.
From click to customer – Stands an ocean of challenges:
- Complex shipping schedules and order profiles
- Arranging inventory and order across multiple platforms
- Tracking fulfillment via third party logistics
- Reporting, analytics, and evaluation
Most of the business – especially high-growth traders – the act of capturing, tracking, and fulfilling orders across two or more sales channels have been pulled to pieces.
Mistakes Magnify, Customer Complaint, and Employees Burn Out
Do you usually find yourself working with merchants who are still using labor-intensive systems and procedures? This often ranges from the team who are extremely professional in performing “spreadsheet Olympics” to the legacy that was never crafted to manage eCommerce alongside with multi-channel and multi-location sales.
We at Xicom, help you walkthrough:
- What is the Order Management System (OMS)?
- How to find the right OMS – Questions & Checklist?
- How order management system works in eCommerce business?
What Is Order Management System?
An order management system is any tool or platform that tracks sales, orders, inventory, and fulfillment. Moreover, it enables the people, procedures, and partnerships that are essential for the product to find their way to the customers who bought them.
In fact, order management hasn’t changed in decades. But, what has changed are the buyers expectations and the sales landscape. Today, OMS require a multi-dimensional system that touches every business operations, including:
- Sales channels
- Customers
- Product information
- Stock level and locations
- Suppliers for purchasing and receiving
- Customer service : name, refund, and reply
- Order printing, picking, packing, processing, and shipping
So, whether you operate B2C, Wholesale, or a hybrid model…
“Channel conception has become a major boon or a major headache for merchant’s that haven’t advanced their operations.”
As per the latest reports from Statista, the timeline displays a forecast of the number of digital buyers worldwide from 2014 to 2021. In 2021, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online.
Even more than 500 logistics companies, suppliers, retailers worldwide, legacy systems are one of the important factors obscuring Omni-channel execution, with 29% of firms naming legacy system as their biggest challenge.
Thinking Why?
Simply, because while each new channel gives your company access to new buyers and maximize discoverability, keeping a record of the volume and velocity of those placed orders will be the bottleneck of your business if you haven’t laid the right foundation for scalable growth.
The downstream impact of these bottlenecks affects both – your employees and your customers.
However, the modern features of order management system treats the complete supply chain as an interconnected online eco-system, empowering merchants to automate their internal processes from order to completion.
To Have A Seamless Process, the System Should Have:
- Accept order and payments regardless of channel origin or currency.
- Track orders from the warehouse based on proximity to destination
- Update stock level across systems and channels
- Trace order for customer and customer service teams
- Integrate properly with back-end functions like accounts payable, generate invoices, accept payments, etc..
And being a spreadsheet Olympian, you understand there is an ample amount of information to keep track and scrutinize through the organizations old under management paradigms.
Hiring additional management bodies will help in managing increased sales, but this won’t jell with manual errors, which manifolds with business growth.
How To Choose The Right OMS – Questions & Checklist
- Sketch Your Systems Objectives & Prioritize Each
By sketching your system objectives with stakeholder’s priority, you will get a better understanding of the features that are “ absolute requirement” or the ones that are “nice to have”.
But be sure, to factor in scalability and potential thinking.
- Draft A Request For Proposal
Drafting a request will provide your team and vendor deep dive in the technical requirements and limitations of the system you are planning to establish. Make sure to include order volumes, current vendor landscape, existing software, hardware, networks, a timeline for the system acquisition process, and precision on training and enablement.
- Analyze Systems Options
Finding the ideal fit for your business in the first attempt is finding a needle in the haystack. So, compile a list with 5-6 vendors to evaluate and ask for the demos.
- Wait ! And Evaluate all Responses
You should have a method to score each of responses based on your objective discussed above and short list top 2-3 Software Development Company.
- Review Trade-offs
“One solution fits all” is an unlikely option. Instead, the final selection would be made on several trade-off criteria. Features and functions are not the sole selection criteria as you will also be looking at the other side of the coin.
The other side – to take into account the entirety of the business relationship you are getting into.
- Will their team be helpful?
- Are they proficient in their fields?
- Are they continually evolving the platform to provide their clients with choices for expansion and growth?
A Reminder – What Should You Pay Attention While Selecting A Scalable OMS?
- Do the OMS system allow you to eliminate manual processes through automation?
- Do they support multiple warehouse locations?
- Do they authorize you to manage sales across varied channels, currency, and demography.
- Do they offer reporting and forecasting that allows you to better identify problems, brace up and anticipate changes?
- Do they provide access to an API’s that let you innovate at your own pace?
- Do they support native and third-party OMS integration to Ecommerce website?
- Is their platform stagnant or evolving with new features functionality?
Now, is the time for the Paradigm Shift:
Order Management System for Ecommerce Growth
Ecommerce is the new equalizer.
Unfortunately, besides this opportunity comes the mammoth task of managing many orders in multiple currencies across multiple channels making many heads to spin just wondering about the operational complexity.
To help you with your decision to establish OMS for Ecommerce Business, we have clutched together some important features that will accelerate your Ecommerce business growth:
- An Easy way Of Tracking Down The Inventory
Nowadays, customer relies on the accurate product description and stock volume information while making an online purchase. To complete a transaction just to have an item go backorder can be really frustrating sometimes for a buyer.
However, Ecommerce businesses can overcome the demur of managing inventory with a pen and paper strategy by switching the conventional approach with a modernized OMS system.
It’s the right time to know how order management system works in eCommerce business.
This solution manages order via multiple platforms, tells employees where to place certain items during the processing stage and notify business leaders when it’s the high time to reorder high-selling products. Moreover, OMS yields peak important data that focus peak engagement times for customers and traces customers buying pattern.
So, adding this type of system to online business operations result in increased shopper experience.
- Unparalleled Customer Experience
Ecommerce businesses are always in search of ways to improve their clientele’s shopping experiences. And, accomplishing an OMS provides organizational customer service options accompanied with access to customer data to improve their customer service, especially if the OMS proffers online chat, voice recording, and IVR.
Adding on, a flexible OMS can also send automated email responses and include survey information, thus enhancing the 360-degree view of the customer and providing an unmatched customer service experience.
- On-Time Delivery Is The New Convenience
Convenience is the biggest factor contributing to people’s decision to shop online. Customers know they can easily shop anything from anywhere without stepping out from their comfort zone and have the package delivered at their doorstep.
Still, eCommerce businesses sometimes face hassle with the distribution and shipping aspect of their enterprise. Whether it’s inventory management concerns or faults during the processing portion of the transaction, they all are on the list.
Whatever the concern, an OMS can help.
An OMS not only create shipping labels for orders but ensure the slip itself is sent to the fulfillment center for processing. There onwards, the solution can ensure the correct items are packed in the boxes and that the shipment is sent out as quickly as possible to the customer.
- Payment Without Any Worry
Nevertheless, a consumer finally decides to pull the trigger and purchase the items in his or her shopping cart. That’s a piece of excellent news for an eCommerce business unless the customer sits on the fence of privacy concerns.
The concern about the safety of their sensitive information. This point of concern can often result in maximum drops in the shopping cart and low customer satisfaction.
To ensure the payment processing element of a transaction goes smoothly and guarantee data protection, ecommerce businesses need to become PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards provides ecommerce businesses with a 12-step plan of actionable guidelines to implement for customer safety.
Moreover, adhering to these rules, companies also display their level of compliance so customers are aware they’re in safe hands.
In The End… Today, a functioning digital-landscape is crucial for the success of any Ecommerce project. However, the impelling design and seamless operation of such a landscape is inevitably complex and may result in a kind of “spaghetti architecture”. The outcomes: operation and maintenance demand both human and financial resources. Changes are complicated, expensive and drawn-out.
However, do not despair: With a customized eCommerce order management system (OMS), we at Xicom solve complex IT structures and complement them with newer, simpler, yet more functional systems.
In the ideal cases, hire our software developers and shoulder off all of your processes and the entire channel from this point on. Aligning with the best Ecommerce development company let your Employees who were busy maintaining your systems earlier have enough freedom to drive the growth of your business. Make the right decision, Get your free project estimation, and you are halfway done for your business growth.