Imagine running a company that has no trouble getting its brand in front of the right people and accumulating new orders. However, you can’t seem to optimize the order management process. This can lead to substantial issues, such as dissatisfied customers and decreased performance

Issues like these are some of the many reasons approximately 20% of US businesses fail within a year. Integrating streamlined order management is essential, but not everyone understands the best way to get started.

We’ve written a brief guide that can help you hit the ground running and get the best results for your situation. Let’s explore how your brand can optimize this process and take your performance to the next level.

What Is Order Management?

As the name implies, order management is the process of receiving and fulfilling customer orders. It begins when a customer places an order and ends when they receive their product.

This is one of the most important details for scaling companies to keep in mind. Left unchecked, you could easily become overwhelmed by incoming orders.

What Is an Order Management System?

This is a system that allows you to gain insight into your order. It also allows you to handle them with ease from a centralized location.

Not only does this allow you to get better results, you can also avoid obstacles you could’ve had to overcome. When integrated correctly, you’ll be able to seamlessly track your orders from start to finish.

What Is Order Processing?

Your workflow of handling your order from placement to delivery is known as order processing. For example, retail order fulfillment processing might include picking, sorting, tracking, and shipping. General order processing often includes both manual tasks and automated ones.

Benefits of Accurate Order Management

There’s no shortage of reasons your company needs accurate order management. Leveraging them can help you maximize your performance and have an easier time scaling your company. Listed below are some of the most notable.

Maintain the Correct Inventory

Having a high inventory turnover ratio is often ideal as long as you maintain the correct inventory levels. It can be difficult to find the balance at first, and it often requires trial and error.

Overstocking causes you to lose money by spending it on unused products. Understocking damages your company’s reputation since your customers won’t be able to buy what they need from you.

Fewer Mistakes

Even a single mistake during order fulfillment can have dire consequences. For example, you might input the wrong address for an order and lose that customer in the future.

In cases like these, they’ll often work with competitors instead. During the early stages of running your business, you’ll likely find it easy to avoid making mistakes.

This becomes exponentially more difficult when you begin scaling your business, though. You’ll likely receive new orders 24/7 and have constant inquiries about the status of a customer’s shipment. A robust order management system can help you synchronize and automate your order fulfillment process while minimizing human error.

Make Better Decisions

Order management systems can allow you to see all of your sales information in one place. From here, you’ll have no trouble making better decisions based on this data.

One of the most important key performance indicators to consider is where the geographic locations the bulk of your orders are placed. This can help you choose optimal fulfillment centers that are close to most of your customers. Doing so allows you to minimize shipping times and increase overall customer satisfaction.

Better Efficiency

Since you’ll have access to comprehensive information through your order management system, you’ll save a substantial amount of time during the process.

As time passes, the hundreds of hours you save can be invested in other obligations. For example, you could focus on improving your customer support policy to keep them as satisfied as possible. You can also use the extra time to jumpstart your company’s growth.

Order Management Cycle

Understanding the different order management stages can help you make better decisions in the future. They all come together to provide a cohesive experience for the customer. Let’s explore them below.

The Order Is Placed

Customers will place an order from various locations at different times. They’ll also use different sales channels.

A multichannel or omnichannel fulfillment tool is often required to accommodate situations like these. These can automatically push relevant info from your store to your order management system.

The Order Is Received

After receiving the order, the relevant info can be transferred to an appropriate fulfillment center. As previously mentioned, it’s best to have access to different fulfillment centers close to your most popular geographic locations.

Doing so improves shipping speeds and keeps your costs as low as possible. The cheaper you can ship your products, the more you’ll profit from each sale.

Picking

This is the process of retrieving the product from the warehouse and sending it to a packing station. Warehouses often have dedicated employees for this task. The way you store and arrange your inventory can help streamline order picking.

Packaging

After the order is picked, it’s then packaged. Packaging methods minimize dimensional weight and make the product easy to ship. However, protection is still a priority.

Shipping

Once packaged, the order will then be shipped to the customer. Orders are given a tracking number so the customer and business can see where the package is. It’s worth noting that customers who don’t receive tracking numbers might not choose your company again in the future.

Delivery

The items are finally delivered to the customer. If your order management was handled correctly, there won’t be any issues. Most companies also ask for feedback after delivery.

Don’t Neglect the Order Management Process

Without refining your order management process, you risk encountering issues you may have otherwise avoided. The information in this guide will help ensure you have no trouble getting the best results for your needs. Just be sure to work with the right professional.

ACI Logistix prides itself on offering premier logistics services to eCommerce businesses. We work with both domestic and international companies, and we service millions of US addresses daily. You can learn more about the many benefits we can provide when you get in touch with us today.