Your Guide to Understanding Order Management

Let’s talk about order management and the things you need to know about it. 

This might not be the flashiest of topics, but order management is the backbone of most businesses, since it's all about making sure orders successfully move from the starting point of your logistics chain all the way to its final destination. 

What Is an Order Management System

An order management system (OMS) is software that coordinates the order lifecycle, 24/7, from the moment a customer clicks buy to the package arriving at their doorstep. 

Think of it as flight control for your products – dispatching, rerouting and overseeing all products based on customer preferences, order details and product availability. 

Let’s go over the key benefits, on both ends. 

Real-Time Visibility

With an OMS, you know exactly what your orders are, where they’re headed and their status. This means no more guesswork or frustrating delays, and customers will greatly appreciate the transparency. 

Inventory Optimization

The name of the game is efficiency, so an OMS is designed to help prevent stockouts or overstocks. You can track inventory levels across multiple locations and even predict demand based on former sales patterns. 

Enhanced Customer Service

All the info you need on a customer’s order, right at your fingertips – that’s OMS. And it instantly translates to stellar customer service, as your reps can immediately resolve issues, check on the order status or provide real-time updates. 

Types of Order Management Systems

There’s essentially two ways to go about managing your orders. 

There’s an old-fashioned hands-on and manual approach and there’s a tech-supported approach that incorporates automation to simplify various processes. 

Each of these methods have their own pros and cons, but truth be told, the number of companies still using the old methods is shrinking.

Manual vs. Automated systems

Manual order management relies on a pen-and-paper method, meaning, yes, it’s thorough, but can ultimately be slow, error-prone and tough to scale. Think post-its, spreadsheets and double-checking. It works for a smaller number of customers, but whatever the tipping point is, once you reach it, you’ll need something more efficient and reliable. 

That’s where automated systems step in, using smart software to handle the order process will boost your efficiency, accuracy and scalability, meaning you can focus on growing your business with technology taking over mundane tasks.

Cloud-based vs. on-premise solutions

Cloud-based OMS are easily scalable to handle your volume, are cost-effective with pay-as-you-go pricing methods, accessible and, most importantly, safe. 

On-premise solutions are installed on your own hardware and servers, meaning you do have full control over your data and system, but can also have a significant upfront investment, maintenance costs and the need for IT-expertise.

The Order Management Process

Challenges in Order Management

Order management isn’t always a walk in the park and the hurdles businesses often face are inventory management (impacted by fluctuating demand), order accuracy and dependability, shipping delays, returns and exchanges, as well as integration challenges. 

All these play a part in providing effortless service, so any one segment experiencing a hiccup can impact overall customer satisfaction. 

The Impact of E-commerce on Order Management

There’s no way around it – e-commerce has changed the way we shop from the ground up. But in revolutionizing business interactions, it’s also transformed order management processes. 

For starters, online retailers, even those operating at wholesale, often deal with higher volumes than brick-and-mortar stores, mostly due to an international market of highly active users. 

Next, a streamlined shopping experience means faster delivery expectations, so the new customer expects orders to arrive quicker and quicker. 

Omnichannel options – online, in-store, mobile – add complexity to managing orders as they entail different sales channels, while higher return rates require the handling processes up their game as well. 

How RepSpark Handles Order Management From Start to Finish

• Ordering Product:
  • RepSpark allows you to view, create, edit, and fulfill orders.
  • You’re also able to update products, prices, and discounts in customer shopping carts.
  • In addition, you can collaborate with buyers on suggested orders, email suggested carts to buyers, and roll up multiple orders for multi-date summation.
  • You can also streamline re-ordering by letting your customers add products to their cart by SKU. 
  • Your customers will also get live Inventory Views when placing orders to make sure you have enough to fulfill the order.
• Checking Out:
  • With RepSpark you can display an order summary with product images, your customers can save their shopping cart to complete their purchase later, and export an order summary as a PDF, Excel, or direct link to the order. 
• Order Status:
  • Order statuses you can email to customers include: allocated, picked, shipped, canceled, and returned. 

• Order History:
  • You can generate automatic notifications with order statuses such as returned lines, shipped orders, and customers on credit hold.
• Invoicing:
  • You can view, email, and print invoices with images. You can track packages directly from your invoice view and easily issue credits or refunds. 

Apart from all the benefits that we offer, if you have an existing Order Management System that you want to continue using, we're also able to integrate with it as long as it has an open API key.

After we integrate with your OMS or ERP, you'll be able to view Reports and Analytics to summarize key data takeaway for strategic decision-making.  

To learn more about how our Order Management capabilities can help your wholesale efforts, check out this other blog we wrote about order management. 

Or if you'd like a more personalized explanation of how our software could help you, schedule a demo.