Order management for online retail success

Order Management and fulfillment form the backbone of any eCommerce business. If you want yours to be highly successful, it is no secret that getting your products to the customer is a key contributor to that achievement. In fact, so much so, order management and fulfillment have become the competitive advantage for online retailers and marketplaces.

Benefits of an Order Management system –

For the eCommerce business to grow, you need an efficient order management system which ensures-

• Customer Delight: The ability to quickly process and ship orders accurately to customers can have a direct impact on overall customer happiness and increase customer loyalty
• Brand Building: When you have an efficient and automated backend order management system in place, you need not worry about the operations and fulfillment part of your e-business. Instead, you can concentrate on other areas like product development, brand building, new customer acquisition, etc. which will help you immensely in expanding your business by growing your revenues and profits
• Operational Sanity: As the channels grow, they have a direct impact on managing orders, inventory and returns on time and with accuracy. Automating these functions actually lay a strong foundation for any business to grow and scale operations without being bothered by the chaos of managing the operations manually using spreadsheets
• Integrations for Growth: Ready connectors to leading marketplaces, webstores, ERPs and 3^rd Party Logistics platforms should be available by default to enable the business to create newer revenue streams

Must-Have’s for a good order management system –

• Compliance to Tax and other Legal Requirements:The software should ensure all taxation (VAT, GST, etc.) and legal (TIN No., Other legal docs) formalities are duly recorded before the business starts using it. Plus to safeguard the interest of the business’ data, there should definitely be a Non-Disclosure Agreement in place. This enables a high percentage of orders meeting delivery performance with legal documentation
• Integration to ensure seamless order fulfillment across multiple Channels:One of the major concerns for eCommerce businesses is the recent trend in customers using multiple channels to order. Hence your Order Management System should equip you to integrate and fulfill orders for all customers using multiple ordering channels. Further augmentation of the core system should also enable businesses to transform from bricks to clicks
• Distributed Order Management:Efficient utilization of available inventory across multiple stock-points/ warehouses and delivering orders across multiple locations requires an intelligent and automated system, which can identify the location of the nearest warehouse holding the required inventory and deliver the order from the same. This system not only ensures delivery on time, resulting in customer’s delight; but also saves a lot of money for the online retailer by reducing the freight charges and logistics cost
• Real-time Inventory Sync:As the channels of order receipt and fulfillment grow for an online business, there arises a very critical need to maintain a sync in the availability and listing of inventory across multiple channels and not having that sync can cause issues serious complications in managing your online retail business. The software should maintain optimum level of inventory for all channels in order to avoid stock-outs and abandoned carts
• Cross-Border Commerce:Integrations with leading marketplaces, 3^rd party logistics, and last mile fulfillment partners enables a brand to extend their offerings to newer markets without actually having to bear the burden of paperwork and legal formalities

Vinculum Group, a global software company enabling the eCommerce ecosystem with SaaS-based products for MultiChannel Order management and fulfillment, has worked closely with many reputed brands in different domains (eTailers, Sellers, Marketplaces, Retailers) of online retailing space and helped them to overcome the challenges related to order, inventory, returns management with its cloud-based software – Vin eRetail. Today brands like Nykaa, PrettySecrets, Jaypore, Happily Unmarried and a range of sellers on marketplaces seamlessly manage and fulfill orders using Vin eRetail.

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