Order management is crucial for successfully handling inventory and maintaining orders. In the supply chain context, strong order management solutions can optimize efficiency, boost revenue, and lead to valuable improvements across channels and processes.
What’s more, leveraging data to assess strengths, weaknesses, and future needs will help drive sustainable improvements and inform your order management solutions. So, the question is, where does it all begin? It starts with visibility.
Visibility provides instrumental insights into your supply chain to uncover processes and procedures that can be tweaked and strengthened. Once identified, order management solutions can be employed to enhance customer service, improve your bottom line, and drive efficiency across the supply chain. Let’s explore four order management solutions that will yield long-term benefits for your business.
Whether you’re an eCommerce or omnichannel business, properly tracking orders from the point of sale through arrival at a customer’s doorstep is vital for success. A centralized order management system allows easy access to real-time information — anytime, anywhere.
To illustrate why this is so beneficial, let’s take the following scenario. Say your business has a physical retail location, as well as a presence on Amazon and Shopify. Without a centralized system, you’re accountable for the arduous tasks of gathering, organizing, and updating orders as they come in from each channel. Not only is this approach time-consuming, but it leaves your business vulnerable to costly manual errors.
The order fulfillment process is highly complex, and integrating channels into one seamless system saves valuable time and ensures a strong customer experience. With data accessible via a single platform, you can pull crucial data surrounding demand, turnaround time, bulk purchases, and more: all information that can help inform future business initiatives.
Imagine this: the right order management solutions allow you to pull real-time information spanning order status, inventory levels, picking and packing, shipping details, and so on. With this data instantly accessible, you have the ammo needed to strengthen the efficiency of your order fulfillment process while ensuring orders arrive on time and error-free.
You’ll no longer be burdened with the responsibility of updating order information, as this is done through a centralized, automated process. So, how does this order management solution translate into tangible benefits for your business? It’ll eliminate stock-outs and unfulfilled orders, inform you when to replenish inventory, allow you to forecast demand, and provide insights needed to drive customer loyalty and repeat business.
Automation is an undeniable force in the business world and a valuable order management solution for your business. So, what exactly is it? Automation is a broad capability that can essentially be applied to any repetitive task. This makes it an ideal solution for improving efficiency and collaboration while optimizing the supply chain.
Within your order management system, action-based automation can facilitate order management, making tasks quicker and easier. For instance, automation can streamline the process for bundled orders. Let’s say you offer a bundled product that includes multiple items, such as a pair of shades, a beach chair, and a cooler. In this scenario, automation would be employed to successfully combine products based on item SKUs. What’s more, if the products are located across multiple warehouses, the system will still be able to track, manage, and update inventory levels for each bundle order placed, keeping your product counts synced and accurate.
Automation can also be leveraged to morph inventory management into a turnkey process, minimize labor costs associated with packing and shipping operations, and recommend products to your customer base. Just picture how many labor-related hours you can conserve simply by allowing your order management solution to automatically reorder items based on the POS systems, shipping data, and online cart checkout.
Similarly, weaving automation into your order management initiatives can drive better collaboration and communication as well. Analytics can be used to speed up fulfillment, decrease picking time, and even recommend changes to the design and layout of your warehouse storage area to drive efficacy. As a result, you can enjoy a self-optimizing, self-replenishing supply chain. Seriously, could you ask for anything more? Having access to this capability will vastly improve your order management practices.
The implications of analytics can apply to almost every facet of the supply chain – from understanding supplier opportunities and fulfillment rates to carrier management and adhering to compliance standards. Order management solutions that are data-driven can help your business unlock accurate on-demand forecasting and identify what steps need to be taken to accomplish your business goals. Deploying an analytics strategy within your order management process will drive greater visibility across the supply chain and equip you with the insights needed to make informed decisions.
There’s no denying the increasingly competitive nature of today’s business world. Having a strong, efficient order management process in place can mean the difference between success and unnecessary headaches. By partnering with a logistics and fulfillment company like Smart Warehousing, your business can streamline order management, increase efficiency across the supply chain, and improve your bottom line. Contact us today to learn more about how your business can benefit from our technology and experience.