Loading...
Loading...
An Order Management System is a system that retrieves orders from various sources and syncs them in the correct order. An Order Management System is a critical and crucial tool to smoothly and efficiently complete your daily eCommerce fulfilment operations, as well as provide a great customer experience. Furthermore, mastering your entire order fulfilment process can improve your customer retention rates significantly. After all, a more efficient order management approach helps to maintain customer satisfaction while also increasing your bottom line.
Order management, also referred to as order fulfilment, includes everything from tracking incoming orders to managing the operations required to complete them. While some online retailers believe that the order management process ends once the order is shipped, a strategic approach always includes the after-sales experience as well as eCommerce returns and refunds management.
Order management, in a nutshell, consists of order fulfilment, picking, packing, and shipping, as well as after-sales support and dealing with eCommerce returns and refunds. A workflow for order management assists your employees in coordinating tasks and synchronising inventory data across multiple systems. A typical workflow may look like this:
It becomes increasingly difficult to manage all orders without the assistance of automation or some sort of system in place as your company grows and order volume increases. Here are just a few of the reasons why modern eCommerce businesses must implement order management automation.
Automation boosts productivity and reduces costs while also ensuring orders are accurate and delivered on time, resulting in a positive customer experience.
It's difficult when you're manually managing multiple sales channels and logging in and processing orders using spreadsheets. An Order Management System connects all of your sales channels, including marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Big Commerce, Magneto and OTTO as well as direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels such as Shopify, WooCommerce etc.
Customers expect a clear return policy as well as the ease with which they can return a product. Order management automation facilitates returns.
Back in the day, most retail companies used manual processes to manage and fulfil orders. Even today, paper-based processes are not uncommon. These time-consuming tasks pose a high risk of lost orders, frustrated customers, and revenue loss. Manual processes have many unforeseen mishaps that can cause irreversible damage to any business.
It is critical to automate and streamline this process when scaling an eCommerce business today so that you are better prepared to deal with an influx of orders. With a solid inventory and order management system, this is possible.
Fulfilling orders is a huge undertaking. One that grows in size and complexity as the volume of your orders grows. To begin, you must decide the way you will fulfil your orders.
Three ways to fulfil orders:
The self-fulfilment approach is precisely what it sounds like regarding ordering fulfilment: you fulfil your orders and have complete control over everything from inventory storage to picking, packaging, and dispatching.
A third-party fulfilment service is another option. When it comes to logistics, it is common to outsource to a 3PL (third-party logistics) firm:
Dropshipping is a method of online selling in which the retailer does not own the things they sell.
Order processing is a stage in the order management process that entails selecting orders, packaging them, and delivering them to a shipping carrier. It is a step-by-step procedure that includes:
The order picking technique, as the name suggests, is locating and gathering products within a warehouse in a specific number ready to fulfil your customers' demands, and it is a component of the overall order management process.
Because order picking has a substantial impact on supply chain productivity, it is one of the most closely scrutinised logistical activities inside of an eCommerce business.
There are multiple ways of order-picking which include:
Order packing, as the name implies, is a component of order management that entails packing all essential products from a single order into an appropriate box or package before shipping it to the customer.
Order packing entails choosing appropriate packaging, weighing the final parcel, printing relevant labels and invoicing, and deciding on a courier to execute delivery.
For a variety of reasons, the packing process is crucial and is frequently done within a warehouse at a central location known as a packing area or packing bench.
Before you can ship your products to customers, you must first decide on your shipping pricing strategy and delivery options. Consider the following eCommerce shipping strategies:
To get you started, here's a list of some well-known courier services:
Providing an excellent after-sales experience is crucial for customer retention, and many large online retailers include it as part of their entire fulfilment strategy. There are several ways to improve your customers' post-purchase experience.
Handling eCommerce returns and refunds are the final steps in the order management process. Your return path must be specified and documented for your team to follow. You should brief your team on the exact rules and regulations your business follows. For example, your team should be brief on these
Improve your order management to help your business flourish Finally, optimising your eCommerce order management will assist you in streamlining your business procedures, increasing client satisfaction and retention, and increasing profitability. Order Management System is critical to the success of your eCommerce business. By mastering your entire fulfilment process you can improve customer satisfaction and retention rates while also increasing your bottom line.
