If you're in the retail industry, you know there's been a real revolution across multiple channels, largely driven by changing customer expectations. The modern customer demands full transparency throughout the customer journey, right from when they order to when they receive the product, regardless of which channel they use.
How, then, do you adapt quickly to meet these new needs and still grow your profits? An order management system (OMS) is the right answer. There are many reasons why omnichannel businesses should consider having a specialized order management system, and here are some of the most notable:
1. Unified Order Processing
Managing orders from multiple sales channels often results in disjointed workflows and confusion. Fragmented order processing systems lead to errors, inefficiencies and fulfilment delays: a sure-fire way to lose customer trust.
A powerfulOrder management system consolidates orders from all sales channels (online, mobile, in-store, etc) into a single streamlined platform. This gives you a great overview, reduces mistakes and ensures efficiency and consistency, which in turn improves overall customer satisfaction.
2. Enhanced Customer Service
In today’s "Now Economy", the customer controls the market. Your customers not only want high-quality products but also a buying process they will love. However, omnichannel retailers have a particularly hard challenge in delivering personalized and efficient customer service due to fragmented customer data and order history across the various sales channels.
OMS provides a central repository for all customer data and order history, which empowers customer service representatives to quickly and efficiently address inquiries, resolve issues and facilitate returns and exchanges. The net result is happy and satisfied customers who keep coming back.
3. Supports and Inspires Your Company’s Growth
The exponentially growing competition in the retail market means your tools and processes need to constantly adapt to your growing needs. Retailers who fail to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer demands will surely fall behind and miss out on growth opportunities.
A smart OMS is an agile and flexible tool that will grow with you. Regardless of the size of your operations, your OMS employs scalability to seamlessly accommodate rising order volumes and additional sales channels. What’s more, a smart OMS is customizable and allows easy integration with other systems so you can rapidly respond to market trends.
4. Real-time Inventory Management
Underselling and overselling are common challenges for most omnichannel retailers due to unconsolidated stock count. But that's not even the problem. The problem is that a customer today has almost unlimited options. Combine that with the little to no patience for you to sort out inaccurate inventory information, and you can be sure your customers will switch to a different retailer before you even know it.
You need an OMS to get real-time and up-to-date visibility into inventory levels across all locations. This makes it easier to hold the right amount of stock at any time. Not too little to cause stockouts and, at the same time, not too much to tie up capital or increase holding costs.
5. Reduced Costs
You could say that the most notable benefit of having an OMS is that it eliminates guesswork and human error from the order fulfilment process. The result is a smooth and transparent customer journey that builds customer trust and loyalty. That's a crucial consideration, bearing in mind that the cost of dissatisfied customers can bring even the biggest retailers to their knees.
Besides, a smart and automated OMS saves employee time through task automation while also reducing overheads through accurate stock levels. Not only that, but it can even reduce the need for expensive legacy equipment and lower shipping costs through rate shopping and route optimization.
OMS is mission-critical for Omnichannel Retailers
For today’s customers, it is not enough to offer separate channels for purchases. Since your customers also expect an integrated experience regardless of which channel they use, you have to do everything you can to make that possible. By this standard, therefore, using an OMS is a great investment that saves you money; it is a necessity.
Looking for the best OMS for your business? Deck Commerce should be your first stop for that. Check out deckcommerce.com to learn more and get started!