Top 5 Order Management Systems to Help you Manage Orders Effectively

When you run an eCommerce business, the orders you receive are the epicenters for generating revenue! Hence, you cannot afford to miss out on even one of the incoming orders on your eCommerce website or marketplace. When you are starting, it is alright to manage incoming orders manually. But once you begin receiving around 50 orders a day, it gets difficult to manually keep track of the SKUs and quantities of each order. This is where order management comes into play! Let’s dig deeper to understand this aspect of the order fulfillment chain and learn about order management systems (OMS) that make this process easier for you. 

To understand the various OMS available in the market, we first need to begin with the basics. Let’s start with what order management is and how it is useful for eCommerce business. 

What is Order Management?

Order management refers to the process of receiving, tallying, and processing orders that come in on your eCommerce website or marketplace. The typical process includes receiving an order from a customer, cross-checking, and updating the inventory, followed by assigning the order to the warehouse and ultimately processing it by packing and shipping it. 

You can carry out these steps manually or by using an order management system(OMS) that can automate the process for you. 

Order Management System

An order management system is online software that helps you manage your orders by keeping in sync with your inventory. It lets you streamline your order management process by automating the workflow and reducing manual work. 

How Do You Manage eCommerce Orders?

For effectively handling eCommerce orders, the focus should be on refining the order routing and fulfillment process while minimising errors. Delving into the essential steps of a typical order process and its associated challenges provides valuable insights:

1. Order Placement:

The initiation point is where customers place orders, either through your website or a third-party platform. The business then logs and accepts the purchase order, employing manual methods or leveraging order management software. Subsequently, a confirmation email is dispatched to customers, encompassing order details and payment confirmation.

2. Inventory Management:

A pivotal process involving monitoring, tracking, and controlling product inventory to prevent stockouts or overstock situations. Integrating inventory systems with order management ensures accurate product availability. Real-time tracking aids in streamlining the supply chain, reducing storage costs, and enhancing cash flow.

3. Order Processing:

The backbone of operations encompasses verifying and validating orders, authorisation of payments, and preparation of items for shipment. Automating order processing through integrated systems eliminates manual data entry and reduces processing time. Real-time order tracking capabilities add transparency and facilitate customer inquiries.

4. Fulfillment and Shipping:

Fulfillment involves the critical processes of picking items from inventory, securely packaging them, and coordinating with shipping partners for timely delivery. Streamlining fulfillment is achieved through an efficient order management system, integrating with inventory and shipping systems. Multiple shipping options and clear communication on estimated delivery times enhance customer satisfaction.

5. Customer Communication:

Customer communication includes providing timely customer updates at various stages, including order confirmations, shipment notifications, and delivery tracking details. Implementing automated order confirmation emails and notifications ensures clear and concise communication. Self-service options like online order tracking portals and dedicated customer support channels facilitate prompt responses.

Throughout these stages, optimising the eCommerce order management process is paramount. Accurate order placement, streamlined inventory management, efficient order processing, seamless fulfillment and shipping, and effective customer communication contribute to a positive customer experience, repeat business and brand loyalty. Simplifying and efficiently handling these activities is crucial in successfully managing eCommerce orders.

Why is an Order Management System Important for Your eCommerce Business?

Many reasons make an order management system essential for the smooth functioning of your business. Let’s have a look at some of them –

Streamline Fulfillment Process

An order management system helps you streamline your order fulfillment process by aligning all activities in a unidirectional flow. It establishes a uniform format for order processing that eliminates all doubts around re-checks. It allows you to send orders for packing and ship them faster. 

Reduces Errors

With automated order management, you don’t have to keep track of incoming orders in an excel sheet manually. The OMS directly fetches data from your website and inventory to give you a holistic view of your current incoming, processed, and pending orders. 

Faster Order Processing

A streamlined process helps you eliminate unnecessary steps like list maintenance and checking to send out orders to the warehouse and then process them. You can save 24-36 hours with an automated process that alerts your warehouse as soon as a new order comes in. Otherwise, you will send a consolidated list at the end of the day, and the orders will begin processing a day later. 

Single View For Multiple Channels

If you sell on multiple channels like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Bigcommerce, etc.you can easily integrate all channels into one and process orders as one unit. This helps you keep a single view across all channels, and the quantity is directly reduced from a master inventory. This avoids confusion, and you can remove listing out of stock products faster. 

Constant Inventory Sync

Continuous inventory sync in the background can remove the doubts around creating multiple orders, incorrect SKU details, product mismatch, etc. It also helps you manage your inventory in a more organized manner. If you use an inventory management software that also contains an OMS, your business can thrive better in this market.

eCommerce Order Management Challenges

E-commerce order management demands careful consideration to maintain a robust online presence for your business. When selecting an eCommerce order management system, it’s crucial to be mindful of the following challenges mentioned below:

1. Data Gaps and Inconsistencies:

The risk of data gaps and inconsistencies grows as your eCommerce business expands across markets and channels. Mistakes and inconsistencies stemming from human errors and inconsistent logic can lead to issues such as order cancellations and a compromised customer experience. Identifying and resolving these data gaps is crucial, requiring analytics tools for improved system performance and heightened customer satisfaction.

2. Syncing Inefficiencies:

Effective communication is vital when users from diverse locations access your order management system. Inaccurate bi-directional data syncing, including product inventory, pricing, and discounts, poses a risk to operational efficiency. Slow or erroneous syncing can result in errors affecting shipping and ordering, impacting operational costs. Addressing this challenge requires a robust tech foundation for bi-directional syncing. This ensures accurate and timely data transmission.

3. Insufficient or Redundant Features:

While order management systems have established best practices, challenges arise when essential features are missing, or redundant ones complicate processes. Integrating external tools or plugins may be necessary, but doing so should be a thoughtful process. Unnecessary features can add complexity and costs without delivering tangible value. Achieving a balance involves integrating external tools only when necessary to streamline the order management process.

4. Difficulties with Bulk and Multi-Package Orders:

Bulk and multi-package orders are integral to business growth, but not all order management systems handle them seamlessly. Systems that overlook these complexities may necessitate manual handling, leading to challenges, especially with refund policies. Overcoming this involves selecting a system capable of efficiently processing and fulfilling bulk and multi-package orders, reducing errors, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

5. Limited Customisability:

While order management systems provide standardisation, businesses often require customisation to align with specific models and customer expectations. The challenge arises when these platforms offer limited personalisation. Striking a balance between standardisation and customisability is essential. Opting for a system that allows tailored adjustments based on your business model ensures flexibility without compromising the foundational benefits of order management standardisation.

6. Incomplete Integration with External Tools:

In today’s omnichannel business landscape, seamless integration with external tools is crucial for expanding across different channels. Incomplete integration or incompatibility can negatively impact the omnichannel experience for customers and the company’s operations. Overcoming this challenge involves selecting an order management system that seamlessly integrates with external tools, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined omnichannel experience.

7. Poor Service and Support:

Beyond software challenges, ineffective backend service and support can hinder the use of an order management system. This is particularly critical at the enterprise level, where integration with existing CRM and ERP modules may be intricate. The lack of responsive technical support can turn a functional solution into a hindrance, affecting the overall profitability of the business. Addressing this challenge requires prioritising a solution with reliable service and support.

8. Difficulty Managing Multiple Sales Channels:

Processing orders across various channels introduces complexity and potential delays. Managing multiple touchpoints increases the risk of errors, impacting your control over the business. Implementing strategies to handle orders from different sales channels efficiently is necessary. Streamlining processes and adopting technologies that unify order management across diverse channels can help maintain control and enhance efficiency.

9. Frequent Inventory Shortages:

Without an effective online order management system, your business has the risk of falling behind due to sudden inventory shortages. Managing inventory becomes increasingly challenging as your business expands. Investing in a robust order management system with efficient inventory management features is crucial to address this. This ensures real-time visibility into stock levels, minimising the risk of stockouts and enabling your business to fulfill orders promptly.

10. Scattered and Hard-to-Manage Information and Data:

Many businesses initially rely on multiple systems to handle orders, leading to scattered information. Simplifying operations by transitioning to a unified order management system is crucial. This integration reduces complexity, streamlines data management, and provides a centralised platform for overseeing all aspects of order processing.

11. Buyer-Friendly System:

As customer expectations rise, ensuring your user-friendly order management system becomes crucial. B2B customers expect transparency regarding order status and immediate responses to queries. Confidence in the availability and timely delivery of purchased products is paramount. To meet these expectations, prioritising an order management system that provides clear communication, real-time tracking, and responsive customer support is essential. Building trust with customers enhances their overall experience, fostering loyalty and satisfaction.

5 Order Management Software Your Business Needs

NetSuite

NetSuite is Oracle’s Inventory and order management system designed specifically for eCommerce businesses. It is a cloud-based order management solution that is efficient and makes the task of order management extremely easy for you. 

Here are a few salient features of NetSuite’s order management software that can help you run your business smoothly –

• Real-time visibility of inventory
• Analytics around inventory, including trends, stock availability, etc. 
• Billing management & invoice generation
• Sales Order Management
• Returns Management

ZOHO

ZOHO is a cloud-based inventory and order management solution that is suitable for managing your orders across multiple channels. Also, it is one of the best software to control your incoming orders and process them at ease efficiently. 

Here are few of ZOHO’s offerings to make sure your business aligns with the product – 

• Integration with multiple sales channels like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, etc. 
• Centralized order management system
• Label generation 
• Payment integration
• Order tracking

Veeqo

Veeqo is known for its software’s performance with leading retail brands. Their order management system is robust and offers you many features to make order management a simplified task for your business. 

These are a few features offered by Veeqo – 

• Integrated warehouse management
• Omnichannel selling with the integration of physical and online stores
• Manage accounts with an integrated inventory, and sales channels
• Single view for all purchase orders
• Cloud-based solution 

TradeGecko

TradeGecko is a comprehensive inventory and order management system designed to help you sell better. All data ranging from customer data, warehouse, and inventory are synced successfully on one platform. 

Here are a few characteristics of their OMS –

• Order management across multiple channels
• Detailed reports and insights about orders, customer insights, demand forecasting, etc. 
• Wholesale order management
• Inventory forecasting

Salesorder.com

Salesorder.com is also a similar order management system aimed to streamline your order management processes. It deals with inventory and order management to provide you with software that can integrate all aspects into one. 

A few features of the Salesorder.com OMS include – 

• Order allocation and stock management
• Order capturing
• Caters to stock & ship, drop shipping, manufacture & ship, and assemble & ship businesses. 
• Multiple channel order processing
• One view for all orders

BONUS! – Shiprocket 

A shipping solution integrating all these necessary features and more…

If you’re looking for an order management solution that can directly let you ship through multiple courier partners, you can utilize Shiprocket’s services. Shiprocket offers you shipping to over 26000+ pin codes in India and 220+ countries abroad, with 17+ courier partners. Moreover, you can integrate around 15 sales channels into the platform. These include platforms like Shopify, Magento, Amazon India, Amazon US/UK, etc. We keep adding to this list.

Along with this, all your orders are synced with the platform, and you get auto-generated labels once you begin processing. Not just this, there are many more features that you can use for seamless order fulfillment. Signup today using the link below to find out yourself! 

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)