Ecommerce Order Management: Boost Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction
TABLE OF CONTENT
What is Ecommerce Order Management?
Why is Ecommerce Order Management system important?
Key features of an effective Ecommerce Order Management System
How to choose the ideal Ecommerce Order Management Software for you?
The best Ecommerce Order Management softwares: Top 5 For Your Business
Conclusion
What is Ecommerce Order Management?
In a nutshell, ecommerce order management presents the process of tracking an online order from the initial moment customers make purchases, until it reaches the destination. During each stage, data is gathered, providing a deep insight in the lifecycle of customer order.
Ecommerce order management is a crucial part of an online store’s success. It has a huge impact on customer satisfaction by dictating the speed and convenience of the entire order fulfillment process, allowing data-driven decisions for more effective ordering processes.
Modern ecommerce order management involves an all-in-one system that affects almost every part of your business. This includes:
- Customer interaction: How customers interact and support
- Product information: Accurate description and details
- Order routing and fulfillment: Getting order ready (picking, packing, shipping)
- Checking and returns: Providing updates to customers, handling returns, and exchange smoothly
Why is Ecommerce Order Management system important?
An ecommerce order management offers superior flexibility by utilizing cloud-based operations. Regardless of distance and time, you have the overall control of the order-to-cash lifecycle, empowering the shipping process to be more effective, adjusting customer’s demand from various regions. This section will unlock the significant power of this system.
Improve order accuracy
A modern ecommerce management system reduces the risk associated with manual processes. Not only does this ruin customer experiences (particularly if you ship the wrong product to the wrong customer), but it creates logistical nightmares.
Similarly, manual data entry across many platforms is a recipe for mistakes. However, ecommerce order management software can reduce the number of errors triggered by human intervention. Its automation can eliminate the need to correct purchase order mistakes, saving time for both you and your customers.
Pick, pack, and ship faster
While delivery cost remains a primary concern for online shoppers, the rapidity of delivery after ordering is also a crucial consideration which affects the whole satisfaction of customers.
Tanner Arnold, President and CEO of Revelation Machinery has once emphasized that “Order fulfillment speed is paramount”. In fact, delays in processing and assigning orders to a facility can result in longer delivery times. And an ecommerce order management system is able to automate the selection of the most expedient fulfillment method, leading to a more accelerating delivery and enhancing customer satisfaction.
An ecommerce order management software optimizes the picking and packing process by performing inventory checking across multiple warehouses. It pinpoints the ideal fulfillment center based on priority and stock availability. Once an order is made by a customer, it seamlessly transmits order details to that center, paying the way for faster picking, packing and shipping times.
Reduce shipping costs
It is interesting to note that ecommerce order management offers integrations with the top shipping carriers worldwide. This enables you to purchase and print shipping labels within its system. What is more, ecommerce order management software also leverages its partnerships to make your shipping rates to be favorable negotiable, which can considerably save your time and budget when it comes to choosing the right shipping services for your business.
Scalability
The power of an ecommerce order management is that it can foster long-term scalability by collaborating with more integrated supply chains. This is especially important for small and medium-sized businesses who intend to expand their market globally.
An advanced ecommerce order management system can provide additional functionality to adapt to your business’s evolving needs. Unlike conventional systems which can be struggling with sudden changes, a robust ecommerce order management software seamlessly scales operations to keep pace with company growth.
Key features of an effective Ecommerce Order Management System
The primary goal of an ecommerce order management system is to get a product into customers as efficiently as possible to surpass their expectations. Hence, your systems should ensure a comfortable experience, making customers return to use your services. Wondering if you are owning an effective ecommerce order management or not? Consider the following key aspects, you will have the answer soon.
Analytics and Reporting
The ecommerce order management should offer helpful analytics and reporting tools to assist business understand business health. As analytics empower businesses to make data-driven decisions that optimize processes and fuel growth, you should look for an ecommerce order management that generates insightful reports and dashboards covering sales trends, fulfillment rates, customer behavior, inventory performance, and other critical metrics to yield valuable improving suggestions.
Multi-channel integration
A robust Order Management System (OMS) must be able to support diverse sales channels. If you are an SMB, this feature is crucial for future global expansion and adapting to business evolution. Multi integration offers merchants a centralized perspective on orders and inventory, leading to a cohesive customer experience for a wide variety of sales channels.
Process automation
A truly advanced ecommerce order management should both automate fulfillment and warehouse management processes. By eliminating manual order adjustments, automation can greatly speed up the operation of your business, offering real-time insights and auto-invoicing.
Moreover, the best ecommerce order management software will check for new orders constantly and apply those rules to eligible orders immediately. Consequently, it replaces hours of manual work with an ecommerce order management and delivers results within seconds.
Real-time Inventory Visibility
An indispensable feature of an effective ecommerce order management is its ability to provide real-time inventory visibility. This empowers businesses to closely monitor stock availability, check inventory movement and take corrective measures to prevent stockpiles all over stocking. Accurate inventory information streamlines all the location and fulfillment minimizing back orders and the risk of overselling.
Refunds and Returns
Reverse logistics can be a significant challenge for small and medium-sized businesses. Therefore, an effective ecommerce order management system should make sure that returns and refunds are handled with maximum efficiency. For example, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction by offering “instant” or “immediate” refunds, implementing the return process with automation.
Accepting backorders and pre-orders
It is true that inventory stock outs can be detrimental to sales. This is the reason why the functionality with an ecommerce order management system should encompass a solution which allows store owners to capture sales opportunities even when a product is temporarily unavailable.
By enabling backorders, businesses can retain customers who might otherwise abandon their purchases due to stockpiling.
Pre-order functionality is also beneficial for business. It allows for precise demand forecasting, streamlining inventory blending for product launches. Pre-orders also serve as a marketing tool, fostering excitement for upcoming product releases.
How to choose the ideal Ecommerce Order Management Software for you?
Before onboarding to implement any ecommerce order management, do not overlook the following steps to make sure you are not going in the wrong direction.
- Step 1: Carefully scope your business to determine the fulfillment demands and the appropriate level of ecommerce order management software sophistication. If finding it extremely difficult, you can contact an ecommerce consulting agency. They will help you as much as possible in scaling your business from the first step.
- Step 2: Get understanding how fast you need to implement an order management system to your ecosystem.
- Step 3: Make a list of vendors based on a comprehensive evaluation of features, integrations, available services, and the ability to adapt to adjustment.
- Step 4: Seek out reviews and case studies from similar business models with high trustworthiness.
- Step 5: Finalize your decision by weighing up pros and cons in terms of features, integrations, reviews, along with pricing models and customer support offered by each vendor.
The best Ecommerce Order Management softwares: Top 5 For Your Business
Every ecommerce company will have distinct priorities and considerations when choosing an order management system to meet their business concepts. Let’s take a look at top 5 best ecommerce order management to see how they suit your business model.
Shopify
Shopify is the leading B2B ecommerce platform and its ecommerce order management empowers scaling brands as an all-in-one solution for inventory management. From a single dashboard, store owners can track, manage, and fulfill orders effortlessly. Shopify also automatically navigates orders to the best routes, optimizing fulfillment location selection based on merchant rules.
Businesses can seamlessly manage inventory across up to 1000 fulfillment locations and warehouses, meeting the demand of high order volume. When those orders are made, the fulfillment process is quickly in progress with the ability to generate up to 100 shipping labels in bulk from the top shipping carriers.
Additionally, Shopify ecommerce order management also integrates with third-party logistics (3PL) solutions for additional features and convenience for merchants. Despite utilizing multiple functions and extensions, data users ensured real-time synchronization of order inventory data between Shopify and the 3PL’s warehouse management system.
Magento
The Magento Order Management System is considered a flexible and affordable solution for cross-border delivery for any sales channel. Its ecommerce order management provides a seamless customer experience by optimizing order fulfillment, managing inventory and increasing sales. By leveraging high technology in stocking management, it helps reduce costs and foster the process of product distribution to the world.
Magento enables retailers to have a sharp visibility in inventory status, identifying areas for improvement to drive better customer service. With advanced features within the system, it allows cross-border distribution, responding to shoppers from all over the world.
Brightpearl
Brightpearl is an ERP system which is designed and built for larger-scale brands with complex fulfillment and inventory management requirements. This solution is suitable for larger-scale brands having troubles with complex fulfillment and inventory management. That said, it offers extensive ecommerce order management capabilities to cater comprehensive customer ordering operations.
Although its full-scale ERP functionalities can out-perform what customers desire, for small and medium-sized businesses, the cost and complexity of this comprehensive software may be challenging.
ShipHero
ShipHero is a platform that impresses users with a user-friendly interface, making it simple for ecommerce businesses of all sizes to manipulate and tailor workflows to their specific requirements.
ShipHero offers robust tools for handling multiple sales channels. It helps save a lot of hassle for humans by optimizing shipping routes and automating repetitive tasks daily.
NetSuite
NetSuite is a powerful ecommerce order management company as it combines ERP, CRM, and robust inventory management tools within its system, providing real-time visibility of inventory levels across multiple sales channels and store locations. This software even offers customization for merchants to tailor solutions to specific needs.
Netsuite’s extensive feature set may be excessive for most small companies. However, its scalability makes it a wonderful option for growing businesses seeking a comprehensive solution to manage and gain insights across their operations and fulfillment processes.
Conclusion
Effective ecommerce order management isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a crucial contributor for success in the competitive ecommerce marketplace. By streamlining the processes involved in fulfilling orders and implementing automation, optimizing order management and warehouse operation will not be a far future for any ecommerce businesses.
However, for some companies owners, maybe including you, setting up and mastering the complexities of an effective ecommerce order management system can be challenging as it may require technical skills and in-depth considerations among many platforms. This is where AHT TECH shines. As a leader in ecommerce development, we have collaborated with more than 25 ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, etc. We are confident to provide you the best consultancy and solutions in terms of order management on ecommerce platforms, paying the way for your strong business growth.
If you’re looking to optimize your order fulfillment and take your ecommerce business to the next level, don’t forget to contact us and we can be your key to unlocking lasting success.
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