The bigger your business, the more complex the process you will have to go through. Initially, you may be able to handle some of the business processes on your own, such as administration, marketing, and customer service. As your business grows, you will be sure to hire other people to help with your business. However, it turns out that not all business processes can be carried out by humans.
One of them is the logistical process. The logistics process is one of the most complex processes in business. From ascertaining the quantity of your product and other materials, recording all sales made through various channels, tracking product shipments and returns, to making contact with suppliers and retailers, all of these are important processes that can affect the life and death of your business. Your business will be in trouble if a customer orders an item but it turns out that the item is out-of-stock. You can also get into trouble if there are problems in the delivery of goods, such as unclear delivery conditions, incorrect delivery, or even the item is lost in delivery.
Fortunately, advances in technology can help you and your business. You don't have to worry too much about yourself now with the above processes. You can use an Order Management System (OMS) which can help you carry out your company's logistics process smoothly.
Let's take a look at what an Order Management System is and how to choose the right one for your business.
What is Order Management System (OMS)
Order Management System is also often referred to as Ecommerce Order Management Systems or Order Management Software. Whatever you call it, an Order Management System, simply put, is a platform or software that can help you automate your company's logistics processes. This includes keeping track of the number of sales, the number of products in your warehouse, and tracking the delivery and return of goods.
Before using an Order Management System, you may have used software such as Excel to record details of your company's logistics process. Using software like Excel is certainly a pretty good idea, but the more complex your logistics process is, meaning that your company processes more and more goods, the more likely it is that problems will arise due to human error. As has been said before, a mistake in the logistics process can lead to decreased customer satisfaction.
Because of this automation feature, Order Management Systems are widely used by many E-commerce. By using Order Management, your business can easily focus on other things and still be able to serve large numbers of customers well.
What Ecommerce Order Management Can Do For Your Business
Let's take a more detailed look at what order management can do for your business.
- Better Sales Records
In modern business, businesses make sales through various channels. Businesses are now implementing various sales and marketing strategies to increase their sales volume. Using multiple channels, from direct sales to sales via other eCommerce platforms, means that your sales data will become increasingly complex. Your business may no longer be selling dozens of products every day, but hundreds. Getting the correct sales data can be more difficult if you only rely on humans. Order management can help you by integrating all your sales channels into one channel. You can collect all your sales recaps from multiple channels in the order management platform and use them according to your business needs.
- Better Inventory Management
Not only do you collect all sales data, but you can also collect all data about the number of items in your warehouse. This can really help you to find out whether your product is out of stock or overstock.
- Assist with Order Tracking
The process of sending goods is one of the important processes to keep customers satisfied. A poor delivery process, such as unclear delivery process, damage to goods during travel, even loss of goods, can make your customers leave bad reviews which can affect your business reputation.
Not all items that you have sent to customers will be received well. Sometimes, there will be customers who are not satisfied with the item they received and send the item back to ask for a replacement. This process will certainly disturb your inventory management if it is not recorded properly. Order management software can help you to track this well and ensure that the number of items in your warehouse is always the right amount.
How to Find Good Order Management System for Your Business
After knowing all the advantages and how the order management system works, you might want to immediately use an order management system for your business. However, before you start using one, you should know that no order management system is right for any type of business. Everything, like any business element, depends on your needs and goals. Let's take a look at what you can do to find the right order management system for your business.
- Determine Your Business Goals
Like any other business process, you can start the step of choosing the right order management system by setting goals. You can talk to stakeholders, members of your company, and partners such as suppliers and retailers.
You can also determine the purpose of using an order management system by listing the functions you need. You may just need an order management system that can track orders, or maybe do a sales recap.
- Create a Business Proposal
After you get an idea of your goals and needs, you need to make a proposal that lists all your needs and goals well and clearly. Having a proposal can also help you better communicate with order management system service providers.
- Start Searching for Vendors
After having a proposal, you can start looking for the right vendor by using keywords. These keywords can come from the needs and goals stated in your proposal. This can help you eliminate an order management system that doesn't suit your goals and needs.
When looking for the right vendor, you can use the following criteria:
- Integration - Does the order management system integrate all your sales channels well?
- Supply Chain - Can using this order management system change your supply chain? Will you find it increasingly difficult to order goods from suppliers and deliver products to customers?
- Analytics - What kinds of reports can the order management system generate? Can you monitor data reports in real-time? Can order management provide input using existing data?
- Customer Service - Can the order management system accept payments from multiple channels and in multiple currencies?
- Scalability - Is the order management system flexible enough to keep up with changes that occur in your company?
- Service - To what extent can the vendor provide service to your business? Will you get 24/7 assistance? Will the vendor only help you get to the order management system installation?
- Compare Existing Vendors
After getting a list of suitable order management system vendors, you can start comparing each vendor on the list. Not all vendors offer the same thing, of course. Each vendor certainly offers an order management system with its respective strengths and weaknesses. You may not even find a vendor that fully matches your goals and needs. Therefore, make sure you choose the right vendor by comparing each of the options carefully.
- Work Closely With The Vendor
Using an order management system also means that you are in a relationship with the vendor that provides the order management system. Working with a vendor is an important thing that you must do to ensure that the order management system you use will continue to be able to help your business grow. Not only that but having a good relationship with the vendor will also get you better service and assistance.
Order Management System by Strikingly
If you have a website with Strikingly, you can easily handle the orders your business receives. Strikingly has an order management system that is integrated with your online store. You can easily accept, process and track every order your online shop receives.
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Strikingly can also help you set up various types of payment methods in multiple currencies. You can accept payments from various channels such as PayPal, Stripe, and Alipay. You can also receive more than 50 currencies for your online shop.
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You can also easily manage shipments with Strikingly’s delivery feature. You can set your own shipping costs by specifying a flat rate which will change according to the distance to the delivery destination.
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Get customers to pre-order using an order management system with Strikingly. This is especially helpful if you don't want to lose sales even though you don't currently have any items in your inventory
Image taken from Strikingly product
That's the explanation you need about the order management system. You now know OMS meaning in the business world. It is a software or platform that can help you manage your business’s logistics process better. Now, you can easily make sales using various channels without worrying about whether your sales will be recorded properly or not. You can also know the condition of your inventory well. The order management system also offers reports and analytics that you can use to grow your sales better.
Strikingly offers an order management system that is integrated with your online store. You can receive payments from various channels and in various currencies. You can easily manage your sales process with the order management system by Strikingly.
Are you ready to increase your sales? Build your website now using Strikingly!
