Must-have features in an Order Management Software
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Centralized Order Management System Today, consumers have multiple option to shop for your products, be it through your web-store, online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, smartphones and even through call centers. Your order management software should have the capability to manage orders from all these channels through a centralized system that everyone in your organization can have an access to.
Inventory Management Having customers to purchase your products is the ultimate goal, but if your inventory isn't integrated with your order management software, orders become backordered and refunded due to out-of-stock or discontinued products. To avoid such scenarios, your order management software should allow the feature to sync your inventory. This way you ensure that your order are fulfilled efficiently which results to a happy customer!
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Customer Management
Any customer will always be inquisitive about his/her order status from the time the order is place until the time the product is delivered. Customer communication is crucial for every order. Hence, your order management software should ensure a positive customer experience allowing them know that the order was received, is being processed, when it will be shipped and any other issues. This way you increase customer engagement and make for repeat customers.
Your order management system should allow you:
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Fulfillment Integration
In today's competitive world of eComm no store owner will rely on a single source for order fulfillment. They may have multiple warehouses, drop-shippers, third party logistics and even in-store fulfillment.
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Easily integrate with multiple sources so that every order is routed and fulfilled at the correct fulfillment location.
The ability of negotiating with these different carriers directly for less than standard market costs.
The ability to discuss rates and choose carriers depending on the volume of orders, the weight, the turnaround time of delivery and several other factors.
Automation
Many steps are to be considered in an order fulfillment process. Manually undertaking those steps increase costs and invite potential errors. Your order management system must be able to reduce or eliminate manual steps in your order fulfillment process. This way you will improve efficiency and save a lot of time which can be utilized for more strategic uses (i.e. Improving sales and ROI).
Conclusion Today, business owners have to work smarter in order to remain competitive while continuing to grow their organizations. So, with the above tips and a little bit of research, you can have a strong order management software in place that will help you consolidate order data, reduce time and resources needed to manage an order fulfillment process, while improving overall efficiency.