What is an Order Management System?

Order entry and processing are made easier by order management software. It is often known as an order management system (OMS), which is cloud-based software. With its assistance, you can automate and optimize your sales process and track and manage orders throughout all of your sales channels. Also, you can obtain important marketing, stock, and fulfillment data. Your company’s merchandise and business plan will determine how this appears in your enterprise.

What is an order management system?

An Order Management System (OMS) can improve the effectiveness of your order management process. It accomplishes this by automating numerous procedures that formerly required human intervention. An OMS can boost your cash flow and revenue while also improving customer satisfaction. Brands optimize the customer experience by enhancing the company’s capacity to handle orders swiftly and efficiently.

OMS is becoming more and more crucial as e-commerce expands at an astounding rate for two main reasons. Firstly, being flexible with ordering, picking up, receiving, and returning things helps you meet client expectations. Secondly, you may handle refunds via mail or in-store using OMS. Additionally, you can complete an order that requires delivering things from several locations in the most economical way feasible.

The best order management software for you will rely on several factors, including the size of your company, your business strategy, and your unique requirements. There are several solutions available, all with different price, available integrations, inventory control, and analytics. In addition, there are different levels of reporting, customer order tracking, and customer experience. Consequently, these are probably some of the elements you’ll take into consideration.

What is an order management system?

An Order Management System (OMS) provides thorough visibility into the inventory that is available in all of your warehouses, physical stores, and third-party vendors. This includes drop-ship sites and third-party logistics companies. Planning and managing inventories effectively is made possible by this visibility.

Brands can facilitate the complete fulfillment process with the orders management system once a purchase is received. It ensures correctness and completeness as it records, verifies, and releases orders. Pick, organize, and ship capabilities including drop-shipping support are included in the management order system. 

What is an order management system?

To keep customers updated on the status of their orders, it creates shipment confirmations and enables customer communication.

Moreover, processing payments and synchronizing data with accounting systems is made simple by a strong OMS’s smooth integration with payment systems. Accurate accounting and seamless financial transactions are guaranteed by this connectivity. So, we wanted to provide some of the most crucial features that an OMS provides a business. 

How does an order management system work?

Processing of Customer Orders

An order management system frees up your time by automating the more time-consuming aspects of order processing, especially if you’re processing several hundred orders per day. After receiving the customer’s order and handling their payment, the OMS automatically emails the customer an order confirmation.

Showcasing Complete Inventory

The experience of customers might be negatively impacted by either overstocking or understocking. Thankfully, retailers can always maintain the proper level of available-to-promise (ATP) stock with the use of an order management system. This guarantees that your warehouses, retail locations, and outside suppliers have the appropriate amounts of inventory. The OMS determines the optimal ATP rate for your company, allowing you to maximize capacity and improve inventory management.

Automation of Order Fulfillments

The procedure for processing orders starts when a consumer puts an order through an OMS, setting off a series of automatic activities. From purchase to delivery, every order is tracked by the OMS, allowing you to view the status of each purchase in one location. To save money and time on delivery, it can even direct orders to the nearest warehouse. The OMS will instantly notify the customer and provide them with a tracking number as soon as the warehouse ships the merchandise.

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Handling of Reverse Logistics

The process of receiving returns and providing customers with refunds is known as reverse logistics. Customers receive refunds from the OMS, which also automatically selects the most economical and effective carrier for the return. After that, the system immediately generates a tracking number and return label and shares these with the customer.

Tracking of Inventory Levels

Seller analytics are provided by the OMS together with historical data from your company. For instance, it can tell you which products, by channel and location, sell out the fastest. In turn, you are more knowledgeable about how demand moves through your company. The OMS will assist you in restocking at the proper amounts and at the appropriate times by automatically updating inventory information across all channels.

Management of Accounting Data

Order management solutions help streamline your company’s back-end operations. Simultaneously, they enhance the client experience through more transparency. This eliminates the need for duplicate data entry, saving time and lowering the risk of accounting mistakes. Accounts Payable and Receivable, Purchase Orders, and Invoicing can all be automated with OMS connectivity. This can help you to comprehend your profitability as well as margins by simplifying the processing of intricate sales and inventory data in one location.

Order management system for eCommerce

Online order fulfillment and management are handled on the back end by an order management system in eCommerce. This covers every aspect, from managing subscriptions and refunds to routing orders and creating shipping labels. An eCommerce order management system used to be dependent on cumbersome ERPs and spreadsheets that needed to be updated by hand. The brands and marketplace vendors of today cannot be supported by these antiquated procedures and old systems.

Automation and integration are offered by order management systems (OMS) at every stage of the order journey. This makes it possible for brands to scale the delivery of consistent consumer experiences across all channels. Operators can handle orders coming in from various sales channels and leaving from various fulfillment locations with the help of e-commerce order management systems. It unifies data into a single interface and enables automation across service providers.

Order management solutions are becoming indispensable as more and more organizations adopt multichannel shopping. It might be difficult to select the best B2C or B2B order management system for your company when there are so many options available. When comparing various OMS choices, keep the following important considerations in mind:

Evaluate Each Aspect

You can achieve streamlining your operations and cutting down on errors with an OMS that interfaces with your current e-commerce platform and additional sales channels, such as marketplaces and physical stores. To make sure the OMS suits your demands as a business, you need also to take into account the particular capabilities that each one offers, such as order tracking or real-time inventory management.

Consider Your Company Goals

It’s critical to evaluate the objectives and demands of your organization before selecting an OMS. What are the main difficulties your company is having with order management, fulfillment, and logistics? What attributes and functionalities are you seeking in an OMS? It will be easier for you to select an OMS that satisfies your unique needs if you have a comprehensive grasp of your company’s objectives and needs.

Consider the Scalability and Cost

A one-time purchase is necessary for certain OMS solutions, while subscription services are available for others. The OMS’s scalability should also be taken into account since businesses evolve and grow over time. Take advantage of the free trials and demonstrations of their software that many omnichannel order management system providers offer to make sure you invest in the proper OMS that can fulfill your needs and expand your company.

OMS PIM differences

To evaluate the differences between OMS and PIM, and which one should you prefer for your e-commerce business, let’s examine each in detail:

What is a PIM?

Businesses may manage all of the product information they use for marketing and sales with the use of product information management (PIM) software. Information from this consolidated system is the foundation for all distribution channels, including websites, print catalogs, and ERP systems alone.

A PIM needs to assist your business in integrating new and old processes, increasing sales, and maintaining brand consistency. This consistency is maintained across a variety of fast-changing digital touchpoints to succeed on today’s digital shelf. PIM platforms, for instance, assist companies that sell their goods in different parts of the world. This implies that brands must use various scientific metrics or languages to access product information.

Every product’s information, in all possible variations for all channels, nations, languages, and search engine optimization (SEO), is stored in a product information manager (PIM). This information includes product titles, explanations, categories, images, prices, and at times inventory levels as well (though this is typically the purview of an order management system software or WMS; more on them later). You can synchronize the data with different applications, like Shopify or your ERP, via an API.

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What is an OMS?

A PIM and an OMS perform similar tasks, but exclusively for orders. It is divided into modules. An Order Management System (OMS) gathers and monitors all incoming orders from all sales channels and tracks them through all the fulfillment channels your company uses.

An Order Management System (OMS) records an order, creates a receipt, initiates the fulfillment process by integrating with the logistics systems, and monitors the order’s progress through packaging, shipping, and returns. It produces shipping labels, checks and modifies inventory levels (including returns), accounts for various warehouse locations, and guides order picking and packaging.

Large, global corporations normally utilize order management systems (OMSs) because they are generally expensive and may automate certain aspects of your order management process. Do you sell in numerous countries, through a variety of channels and storefronts, have a high order volume, have products in multiple locations, have the funds for an OMS, and have the ability to seamlessly link it with all other systems in your business? Then eCommerce order management systems are the right choice for you.

Next, let’s look at the best order management systems for small business. To do so, we’ll observe an order management system case study.

Top order management systems

Here are some of the best Order Management Systems software to consider for your business and its timely processes:

Linnworks

Using a single platform to manage orders, inventory, shipping, and other aspects of corporate operations, Linnworks is a cloud-based order administration software. E-commerce companies choose it because it provides a plethora of tools that streamline and automate the order management process.

Supplier management, product catalog, order management, shipping management, route optimization, status announcements, forecasting, inventory tracking, multi-user notifications, dashboards, data export/import, data visualization, third-party integrations, and warehouse management are its top features and characteristics.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

A cloud-based software program called Salesforce Commerce Cloud helps companies build cohesive, intelligent digital commerce interactions. The platform’s capabilities for marketing, promotions, merchandising, and content creation are designed to help businesses engage with their audience and foster client loyalty.

It offers advanced merchant dashboards, AI-powered personal shopping assistance, digital storefront designs, a generative page builder, reporting capabilities, AI insights, and customer acquisition and loyalty tools.

Shopify

Advanced order management tools are available to Shopify users through the Shopify Plus order management system. The ability to link your actual places and online channels is the core feature of the tools.

With two-factor authentication, analytics, API, tracking conversions, dashboards, data export/import, forecasting, tracking inventory, tracking keywords, marketing automation, notifications, order management, PayPal, order catalog, review monitoring, payment gateway, integration, and design templates, among other features.

QuickBooks Online

The order management tool from the well-known accounting program Quickbooks is called Quickbooks Commerce. The solution includes robust accounting tools and all you need to manage purchases across numerous platforms. Its main features include inventory management, bill management, sales and sales tax, billing and payments, e-commerce integration, reporting, and analytics.

Zoho Inventory

An application called Zoho Inventory assists you in monitoring and controlling orders placed on well-known e-commerce sites. All the capabilities you would expect for order management are available to users, including the option to set automated points for reordering so you never lose out on sales because of low stock.

API, contact management, dashboards, data import/export, third-party plugins/add-ons, inventory tracking, multiple user notifications, supplier administration, product catalog, order and shipment management, and warehouse management are some of the features.

Bottom Line

Utilizing a customer Order Management System software is crucial for any e-commerce business due to the several factors involved in the shipment and order placement procedures. The above-mentioned characteristics and top OMS software can thus help you in making the best choice for your business. If you require additional support, you can co