Simplifying your Business Operations with OMS

The goal of using technology in business is to make your life easier and give you more options to run your business more efficiently. I'm sure like most retailers, you want software that's easy to use, simple to understand, and that doesn't complicate the running of their business.

What's more, as an online retailer, you need to continuously adapt to shifting expectations, buyer preferences and evolving shopping environments. This environment of continuous change can make the task of managing online orders very challenging.  

You will only be able to fulfil orders in an efficient manner if you manage them properly. So how do you keep track with market trends, without making your business operations more and more complex?

The answer is Order Management Systems (OMS). This is software that is specifically designed to manage your order fulfilment process, from the moment a customer places an order until the point a package arrives at their doorstop.

The software automates the processes of receiving orders, tracking their progress through your fulfilment system, and ultimately shipping them out for delivery. It will also automatically keep tabs on your inventory levels and update those numbers as you take and fulfil orders.

Which means that if your business isn't using Order Management Software at this point, you should seriously consider doing so. It will simplify your life considerably as a retailer, while at the same time making your business run more smoothly, efficiently, and cost effectively.

Why Your Business Needs an OMS

You might be thinking that you manage well with your current system, or that you're too small an operation to bother with fancy software. Which might be true if your business is still small and getting on its feet. At this point, it might not be that difficult to manage and fulfil all your orders.

But as you grow and the reach of your business expands, order fulfilment gets a lot more complex. You will have to juggle more and more balls in the air, from managing multiple sales channels, to fulfilling orders from various warehouses and third-party suppliers.

When you reach that stage, you really need dedicated software to automate all of these processes.

An order management system is a specific type of computer software designed to serve businesses and industries that takes and processes orders from customers. Depending on the products that the business offers, the OMS will take orders from other businesses, consumers, or a mixture of both. At the same time, the system can automatically advertise offers and prices to potential customers through catalogues, websites or other forms of printed and broadcast advertisements.

Furthermore, an OMS can integrate with several sales channels so that you can provide a seamless experience to your customers regardless of the channel they choose to do business with you.

How can OMS Simplify my Business?

An Order Management System is designed to streamline and simplify several of the operations in a business. The OMS can help your business fulfil orders in an efficient, expedient, and flexible way.

But even more than that, it will allow you to simplify several of the processes and operations in your business. Here are some of the business functions that an OMS is designed to manage on your behalf:

1. Tracking Orders

Most retailers need some kind of software system to process orders. Ideally, this software also needs to be integrated with inventory management, logistics, and other business processes.

This is where OMS excels. The software will keep track of orders coming into the business and monitor their fulfilment. Even the most efficient sales representative can't keep all of the details of every sales transaction in their head. The OMS automates these tasks, which will make life a lot easier for the members of your staff.

If the company sells through several channels, an OMS becomes essential. When an OMS is set up correctly, it will record all orders coming in through your web-store, marketplaces, and other platforms, and track their progress towards fulfilment. The goal is to centralise and unify all of the sales channels throughout the company in one system.

The result is a tremendous boost in overall efficiency and productivity, while also minimising human errors. When your customers can seamlessly interact with your brand across various sales channels, it creates a superior customer experience.

The OMS doesn't only track orders originating from digital channels. The job of the OMS is also to handle orders placed over the phone and in-store. Which means that all the orders from all the different channels become available in one place. This makes it a lot simpler to check the status of orders, make changes to an order, or contact a customer.

2. Inventory Management

The core of business operations is the placing and handling of orders. This will also impact other functions in a business, for example inventory management. Inventory is instantly affected when an order is placed and fulfilled. If you run an online store, inventory management becomes even more crucial.

A lack of accurate inventory management will lead to several problems:

• Overselling. This is when you accept more orders for a product than you have in stock—which leads to cancelled orders and disappointed customers.
• Overstocking. This is when you mistakenly order too much of a certain product because you think that you ran out of inventory. This wastes valuable warehouse space and could result in dead stock.
• Inaccurate Forecasting. When you don't have proper oversight of inventory levels, you might miss a spike in demand for a certain product. Which means you will run out of inventory quicker than anticipated. If you could have predicted the uptick in demand you could have ordered more inventory in advance.

The whole reason for implementing an OMS in your business is to simplify your order tracking process. Good OMS software will update inventory levels automatically as you take orders and fulfil those orders. Which means that up-to-date inventory figures become instantly available. The numbers will change automatically with each other placed and fulfilled.

3. Expedite Order Fulfilment

We saw previously that you can use an OMS to register and track orders coming in through all your sales channels. The OMS will then automatically update the inventory registry.

The next step will be the fulfilment of these orders and shipping the ordered products to your customers. An OMS is designed to streamline all your logistics processes. For example, the OMS will route the order to the right warehouse, automatically print out the shipping labels, and take care of other mundane order fulfilment functions.

The result is that your order fulfilment processes will run like clockwork, causing an increase in efficiency of your warehouse management and your overall productivity.

4. Handling Returns

Even if you run an online store, you might still have to handle a sizable number of returns. Some online retailers  experience return numbers of up to 30% of everything they sell online. This is a lot more than the about 10% of products which are returned to brick-and-mortar stores.

This means that the handling of returns and making sure that your customers are always happy with their eventual purchases are important facets of order management.

Handling returns with an OMS should be relatively simple. The OMS will give you several different options in how to handle returns. For example, the original order could be cloned and turned into a credit. These kinds of workarounds will make it relatively simple to handle all refunds, replacements and reorders in your business.

The OMS will also make sure that the returned product is added to the inventory or alternatively written off or put into some kind of quarantine pending inspection and eventual reinsertion into the inventory.

Conclusion

Here are some of the business functions which an OMS can automate and simplify:

• Registering product information, including product descriptions, attributes, locations, and quantities.
• Inventory control, including managing a range of products that are stored in your own warehouses or that are shipped directly from suppliers.
• Interactions with vendors, including purchasing of products for resale, as well as the administrating the receiving of goods.
• Sending out appropriate marketing, including catalogues, promotions, and pricing.
• Dealing with customers and prospective customers.
• Taking orders from customers and handling other customer-facing functions such as returns and refunds.
• Financial processing, including credit cards, billing, and payment on account.
• Order processing, which will include selection, printing, picking, packing, and shipping.

The goal of order management is to fulfil orders at any volume and provide exceptional customer service at every juncture. When you use an OMS, order fulfilment is simplified tremendously. Orders are processed quicker, cheaper and accurately. The system will also be able to give you real-time information about inventory and orders.

The end result is that you will be able to serve your customers better. Happy customers will translate into business growth and expansion. Your chances of doing repeat business increase—and those same happy customers will refer other people to your business. Good customer service translates into better reviews, repeat business, and ultimately, business growth.