As an online retailer you most likely deal with a large number of orders for many products. Unfortunately, what often comes with these orders is a lot of manual data entry and the challenge of keying errors, misunderstandings, follow-up phone calls, and even missed orders. Integrating an order management system (OMS) is critical to running your operations seamlessly and eliminating costly errors. If you are considering adding an OMS in order to streamline your administrative processes, here are some features to look for before deciding to buy.
- Seamless Order Management
Order management should save you time by collecting all your orders into one system and provide your customers a great ordering experience. The OMS you choose should easily accept orders from multiple channels in one interface. It should also have a flexible product catalog for you to upload product images and descriptions. - Inventory Management
Your OMS should also simplify your logistics. It should sync with your inventory in real-time so that you can avoid stock outages and fulfill orders accurately. - Reporting
With orders and logistics simplified a good OMS should also provide reporting capabilities. Reporting can often be overlooked but will help you to analyze processes and understand your customers buying activities. By automatically receiving delivery reports, customer lists, pick slips, and more you’ll be able to cut down on admin work and be able to focus on growing your business. - User-friendly Interface
Your order management system should be able to provide your customers an intuitive interface, so they can place orders quick and easy and with no errors. It should let them see the status of their order, track shipping, and even see their order history. - Notifications
Manually notifying customers about the status of their orders can be a time-consuming hassle but it is necessary to give your customers piece of mind that their order has been received. The OMS you choose should have a feature that automatically notifies and gives detailed information to your customers about their order being received and processed. - Flexible Payments
Not only should your OMS enable you to accept credit card payments it should also let you offer flexible payment methods as each customer will likely have a different method they prefer. - Customer Database and Management
Choose an order management system that will help you to create a customer database. This key feature will allow you to instantly access the contact details of your customers and target them with promotional messaging. - Easy of Customization
The right solution should conform to your business needs, and not the other way around. If there is very little customization available, it may be a red flag in today’s ever-changing market. Validate the solution you decide upon is not too rigid, and that it can be flexible to support your company. Ask questions, can emails be customized, how configurable is the order flow, understand what you have access to change or customize versus hard lines so that you understand the strengths and limitations.
Adding an order management system to your administrative processes is a crucial step in improving your business. Though these features are a good start in your search it is still vital that you do some in-depth research into the tools you are considering. Each OMS is going to have a different set of features, so you’ll need to have a clear idea of what you really want. The most important thing to remember is to choose a platform that will delight your customers, streamline your admin work, and make order-taking painless and hassle-free.