The customer’s order journey starts when he clicks on the “Buy” button.
When new orders are placed on your online e-commerce platform then the person who is stocking your inventory must select, package and ship the correct products to the correct place.
It might seem easy when you start a new business. You get a few orders each day, and you can fulfill them quickly and cheaply. It’s not difficult.
However, potential obstacles may arise as your sales grow and channels expand your products increase, your inventory grows, and your customer base increases.
As your e-commerce shop grows, an order management system can remove bottlenecks. Here’s how.
Order Management
An order is placed in the store, and the procedure continues until the order is fulfilled. This is called order management. It is the process of keeping track and fulfilling customers’ orders. The order acceptance process usually involves picking, packing, shipping and tracking the items until they are delivered.
Process of Order Management
Whenever a customer places an order and pays, the process of order management begins right away and order information is forwarded to inventory. Picking, packing, and shipping are all completed by their warehouse workers. The store checks in with the customer after they have made their purchase to determine if they are satisfied. Below are the steps:
Step 1: Order received
When a customer places an order with your company, the first stage in order management starts. Receiving means accepting the customer’s order and collecting payment. Once the payment is received, the details are forwarded directly to your warehouse. This allows your staff to start preparing for shipment.
Step 2: Fulfilling orders
In the second stage, You can even break it down into 3 stages:
Stage 1: Picking
The picking stage is the most vital step in completing an order. To begin, you’ll need to remove all the items from the warehouse. The shelves in warehouses are filled with different types of products. Warehouse employees must be able to swiftly and precisely select the correct item. After the items have been chosen, they are transported to a packing facility where they will be packed.
Stage 2: Packing
The job of the packing station extends beyond simply packing items and shipping them. The packing station is responsible for choosing the appropriate packaging materials for each product to ensure it arrives at the customer in good condition and uses resources efficiently. Fragile objects, such as glassware, must be wrapped in bubble wrap or air cushions to prevent wasting packaging materials.
Stage 3:Â Shipping
After you’ve picked and packed your order, you need to ship it. The usual tasks of the warehouse employees at the shipping point are:
- Attach the relevant shipping invoice to your order
- In all your sales channels, mark the order shipped.
- Sending the customer shipping confirmation emails and tracking emails
So what to do when you don’t have the product in stock? Then you can do two things: Turn customers away or postpone order delivery using dropshipping and back-ordering.
Step 3: After-sales activities
After-sales is the last stage in order management. Customers should be contacted for follow-up and feedback. Make sure they’re happy with their purchase and handle any returns and refunds if they’re not. This is a common order management technique.
However, organizations that provide services might also benefit from ordering management.
Basic elements of a successful order management
Visibility
Examine the entire supply chain and identify events to prevent problems and make your processes more efficient.
Intelligence
Tune the order management process to an organization’s performance goals and business rules.
Flexibility
Break down tasks or events so that they can be channeled to relevant systems or resources.
Inventory
A single view of inventory lets you see what’s available, what’s in transit, and what is currently being demanded. This allows for a reduction in the need to expedite shipment or maintain excess safety stock.
Planning
In this way, service requests can be addressed more efficiently.
Engagement technologies
Customer-facing personnel should have access to customer information, back-end inventory, and other resources in order to be able to execute transactions more efficiently.
Optimization
Analyze data, analyze it and propose options that address shipping and delivery methods, time-to delivery, and cost.
Importance of order management
It can take a long time to adopt Order Management, and it can feel like an extra effort. For your organization, Order Management is a must-have. Following we have provided the top 3 reasons where you can know why it is important in your business.
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Track Overstocking/Under stocking
Overstocking as well as under stocking could endanger your business. Stocking up on too many items makes your brand look like a sitting duck with less money.
Order Management is a program that allows you to manage seasonal sales based on previous client purchases. This ensures that you are protected against overstocking and understocking.
Fewer mistakes when fulfilling your orders
Even if you have only a few orders to handle each day, it seems like everything is going according to plan. The more your firm grows, the more orders you’ll have to process per day. Failures are inevitable.
Delivery of incorrect orders, addresses, or shipping delays can cause damage to your business reputation. Order management automates the process and eliminates the possibility of human errors.
Save time
Without planning for order management, you will find that most of your resources are spending hours doing mundane tasks such as fulfillment. I’m certain this is not the plan you had when you started.
Order Management System:
An order management system is a digital method of monitoring the progress of an order. It keeps a record of all information and processes, such as order entry, inventory management, fulfillment, and customer service. OMS gives both buyers and businesses visibility. Organizations can view inventory in real-time and customers can track when an order will be delivered.
Benefits of Order Management system
To save time and avoid wasting valuable resources and manage all your order fulfillment tasks. This is the next generation of automated order management that’s affordable and cheap. And bizbloqs provide the best solution compare to the other companies. An order management system has key benefits. Here are the benefits of an OMS.
Automation efficiency
An automatic order management system saves time and money by reducing time and effort, decreasing the risk of human mistakes in invoicing and order data and allowing businesses to focus on growth and customer satisfaction.
Management of inventory
It is beneficial to have a real-time order management system since it allows for the distribution of sales, returns, and exchanges information.
24/7 Access
Businesses may access their order management system online from anywhere in the world. This allows them to process orders remotely from any location. This provides greater control over data, better customer service, as well as faster order processing.
Real-time Data
It is possible to react faster to any difficulties that may develop because of an OMS’s real-time data display, rather than risking customer unhappiness with inaccuracies or delays.
Inventory management
An order management system’s real-time features help inventory management by sharing data about things sold, returned, or swapped in real-time. This eliminates overselling of inventory and improves customer satisfaction.
Summary:
Order management is a key element of your warehouse’s activities. It can become quite overwhelming to handle all the processes manually when your business receives increasing numbers of orders. This is why most businesses turn to an order-management system. It automates your fulfillment processes and simplifies tracking.
Want to know more:
- Which of the following is a function of warehouse management software?
- How can warehouse management reduce costs?
- Â What is warehouse management from the view of logistic management?
