When your online store starts growing, it’s essential that you find an order management system to get more control over your sales and manufacturing.
An order management system or OMS is a tool that helps you in improving your order management processes and efficiency.
It allows you to track your orders, sales, inventory, and fulfillment order rate so that you can identify your manufacturing bottlenecks and track your products from the manufacturing source to the customer.
Here are the specific areas you can track with an order management system:
- Customers
- Multi-channel selling
- Multi-location inventory management
- Purchase order and receiving management
- Customer service
- Order processing
- Make to stock or make to order business model
Order Management Process
Before going through the considerations to help you pick the best order management system for your online store, let’s first understand the process of it and how it actually flows.
Step 1 – Customer
The OMS starts with the customer placing the order, which would be online in your case, and the customer’s details are saved here.
Step 2 – Fulfillment
The sales details are sent over to the warehouse for picking and packing.
Step 3 – Accounting
The sale is recorded with all its accounting details, the system verifies the payment and generates a receipt or invoice.
Step 4 – Shipping
The order is dispatched and the sale is finally recorded as delivered to the customer in the order management system.
All these steps take place for every single transaction and it’s difficult to keep a track of each step manually.
Hence, you would need an efficient order management system to streamline all these processes and keep them in a centralized location.
How To Choose Your Order Management System
There are various options of order management systems available on the market right now and they might put you in a fix. Here are a few things to keep in mind when picking a good OMS for your online store.
1. Look for one that falls within your budget
An efficient order management system will determine the success of your business. You could think that it’s a good idea to invest in a cheap one, but it might cost you more money in the long run.
On the other hand, there are a few tools that cost as high as over $1,000 but are no better than a simple cloud-based system.
Fix a budget and scroll through different options and what all are they providing in that money, and then pick one accordingly.
2. Do a basic market comparison
A lot of order management systems don’t match very well with manufacturers.
You’d want an OMS that can support your business from a single dashboard and doesn’t need you to set up lots of tools.
Learn about the different systems and their key features, and then narrow down which ones would fit your business well.
There are lists for finding the best- manufacturing inventory tools and some of the best MRP software tools with comparison, that can help you make your decision.
3. Check for available integrations
It’s important to find out if the OMS would integrate well with your existing business.
You would have eCommerce, accounting, or other active tools for your business, and you’d need to make sure that your new system can integrate these tools.
Different systems would have different integration features, and you’ll want something that supports all your sales channels.
Look for only the necessary integrations, as the cost for the system will keep increasing with the number of integrations you need.
4. Look for one that adapts easily to production flow
D2C or Direct-to-Consumer manufacturer’s production processes keep changing frequently.
An assemble-to-order model might come in handy for the holiday seasons, or maybe you start to offer bespoke products for customers who are looking for customization.
Go for an OMS that can easily adapt to the changes in your production flow.
A flexible order management system will make it easy for you to change your business processes, handle custom orders and inventory.
5. Ensure it’s user friendly
A complicated OMS could get overwhelming for you.
You need a great system to streamline the processes for you, but if the system is not easy to use, it could increase your workload.
You also wouldn’t want to spend more money and hire a professional to manage the system for you.
Look for a user-friendly system, so that you and your team can use it efficiently without trying too hard to use it.
6. Automate repetitive tasks
The point of getting an Order Management System is to automate tedious order management tasks so that you can focus your time and energy on growing your business.
An OMS is supposed to automate manual tasks like sending orders to warehouses, generating invoices, updating sales reports, tracking orders, etc.
Go through the catalogs of the different systems you’ve picked and assess how many tasks are being automated and how that can benefit your business.
7. Check for system transparency
Besides sending through orders and updating information, another important job of an OMS is to report the trend in your sales and revenue.
It should be able to forecast and identify potential issues such as stock shortages.
Find a system that is good at reporting and forecasting so that you can plan for those issues ahead of time.
8. Look out for free trials and demos
Most order management systems give you a free trial, sometimes even using your business as an example. Sign up for these trials to find out how each system would work for your business.
Final Thoughts
An order management system is an investment for your business, which is why it’s necessary that you find the perfect fit.
Before you begin your search, start by analyzing the order management requirements of your online store and then look for a system that can cover all of them.
Use the above considerations to filter out the systems and then pick one that helps you get better organized and boost sales.
