If you are part of the eCommerce world, there are plenty of things for you to consider. As a business owner, you must understand that the bigger your business, the more complexities you will face related to it. Initially, you may handle some of the procedures independently, such as administration and customer service. However, if your business objectives are bigger and for the long term, you cannot get to them single-handedly. That said, many business operations cannot be conducted by a human being.
Business logistics is one of those procedures that do not require human influence. It is a very hefty process, from assembling your products to recording sales and then following it by tracking product shipment returns. If a customer orders an item, but it is out of stock, you are not doing any favors to your business reputation. Fortunately for you, technological advancements have made life incredibly easy for online businesses. You can now use an order management system (OMS) to manage your organization’s logistics.
What is an Order Management System?
If you want to ensure that your online business advances to the next level, you must understand what is order management system. It is defined as a platform or software that helps you in the automation of a company's logistic process. The procedures involved include tracking online sales, the number of products presented in a warehouse, and looking into the tracking of products.
Image taken from Microsoft Excel
Before you start using this software, you may have used Microsoft Excel in your college or university days. Using Excel is a pretty good idea for tracking your online sales. However, human error could be included, considering the complexity of your business operations. When we talk about complexities, we mean that the number of goods you have to process increases with time. A human error may result in a dissatisfied customer, which could hamper your credibility as a businessman.
Benefits of Order Management
1. Improved Sales Record
In the eCommerce world today, businesses conduct online sales through distribution channels. Businesses rely on numerous sales and relevant strategies to ensure that their online sales increase. Multiple distribution channels, from direct sales to the sales influenced by eCommerce websites, means that there will be a huge amount of data for you to visualize. There may come a time when your business won’t be selling dozens of products but thousands of them daily.
If you rely on an eCommerce order management system, these things would be nothing more than a meaningless distraction. Technological advancements have enabled business owners to conduct their operations within a couple of clicks. However, if you rely on software that relies on human factors, there are increasing chances of error. The business management systems help you transform all your sales channels into one. You can take sales reviews from all your sales channels and use them through a business management system to suit your needs.
2. Order Tracking
The delivery procedure is important to attain a high customer satisfaction score. The customers will leave bad reviews on your eCommerce website if they undergo the following situations:
- Unable to track their orders properly
- Poor delivery process
- Damaged products upon arrival
- Loss of goods
Image taken from Strikingly
Not only will the situations above take away your existing customers, but it will leave such a bad reputation that the new customers will also not consider you based on the previous sentiments. As we all know, a poor reputation will decrease online sales, and your business reputation would go nowhere.
Most importantly, products successfully received by customers don't need to result in positive feedback. The customers may still not be satisfied with your online store and may consider buying a replacement by sending the product back to the warehouse. If you understand the OMS meaning, you will know that it influences this regard. An extravagant order management system will ensure that the products in your warehouse are in the right amount.
Tips to Find Order Management System for Your Business
1. Business Objectives
Just like is the case with many other business procedures, you can choose the right order management system by creating business objectives. You can collaborate with your stakeholders, partners, company members, etc. You can also give solid reasoning behind using a business management system by creating a list of all the functions you require. There is a possibility that you just need this software for tracking orders or doing a sales recap.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
You can mention all of these details in the mission statement of your eCommerce website. Once you have a clear identity regarding your goals and objectives, you must create a proposal that defines them clearly. Once you have a defined proposal at your disposal, you can interact with the business management system providers in a better way.
2. Search for Vendors
Once you have the proposal, you can look at the best vendors by using an effective keyword strategy. This keyword research is conducted based on the needs and goals stated in your business proposal. These strategies will help you eliminate the order management software that doesn’t coincide with your goals and objectives. When searching for the best possible vendor, you must consider the following factors:
- Integration: Does the order management system have the ability to transform all the distribution channels into one
- Supply chain: Can the preferred business management system make changes to your supply chain? Will it be difficult to order products from suppliers and deliver them to the customers?
- Analytics: What reports does the preferred business management system produce? Can it use the existing data as part of its business operations?
- Customer service: Will the business management system be able to accept payments from multiple gateways?
3. Compare Vendors
Once you get a list of the best order management system vendors, you can draw comparisons within each and every one of them. Every vendor doesn't need to provide you with the same thing. Every business management arrives with its strengths and weaknesses. There could be some vendors on your list that don’t even match your ambitions in the first place. Therefore, removing them from your list won’t be a hard task. So, you must do a lot of research and may even hire a few eCommerce experts to help you determine the right vendor for your business demands.
4. Work Closely with Vendors
As a business owner, you must understand that you are in a relationship with your vendor while using the order management system. You must continue to use this software because it helps in the growth of your business. Apart from that, having good relations with vendors helps you attain better services.
Order Management System on Strikingly
Image taken from Strikingly
If you have an eCommerce website on Strikingly, you will have all the required features to handle your business's online sales. Strikingly provides its website owners with an order management system integrated with the online store. We provide you with an opportunity to track every order or shipment processed by your online shop. When it comes to online transactions, Strikingly is one of the best platforms out there in the digital industry. We provide our website owners with multiple payment gateways that allow customers from different parts of the world to conduct their online transactions.
Image taken from Strikingly
PayPal is the most common payment gateway used on Strikingly. However, we also offer payment services on Stripe if PayPal isn’t working for some reason. The delivery feature of Strikingly enables you to handle shipments related to your online store. You can specify your shipping costs by providing a standard rate, which can change based on the delivery destination. You can also enable your customers to certain pre-order products.
However, ensure you only have this feature when you have a decent number of products in the warehouse.
Conclusion
In today’s day and age, the evolution of eCommerce has truly stunned the world. Even the most experienced eCommerce and digital experts get stunned at times by the technological advancements they see on their computer screens. Gone are the days when you only had to rely on a physical store to manage your business. Nowadays, an eCommerce website is equally as important as your business's other set of requirements. The integration of order management systems is just one example of the evolution we have seen in the eCommerce world.
To integrate the right business management, you must build an eCommerce website on Strikingly, for starters. We provide you with a collection of mobile-friendly website templates, which you can customize per your business idea. You can create the best website design without writing a single coding line. You can collaborate with our Happiness Officers today if you are struggling with website development. So, integrate the best business management system in your online store and make life easy for your customers.
