In present omni channel world, consumers anticipate the same level of service whether they buy in the store or something online. They want useful product details, near-real-time product accessibility, and the capability to check on the status of an order or return. Awkwardly, many retailers lacking in customer expectations because their separated back-end procedures for order and inventory management stop them from seeing where inventory exists across a diverse back-office network.
For years, many retailers left their legacy order management procedures together as “something for the warehouse to worry about.” In its place, they capitalized in customer-facing advantages such as smart in-store merchandising, dynamic ecommerce storefronts, CRM and social media for custom-made marketing. As those elements become virtual commodities, it’s the inventory management and back-office order that’s developing as a make-or-break factor for Omni channel success.
Below are 4 ways retailers can leverage order management to deliver a true omnichannel experience to customers:-
1) Put all inventory in a sellable position
It’s not rare for a retailer to have multiple warehouses, with some dedicated to ecommerce inventory and others for physical store stock. The retailer may also depend on drop-shipments and third-party distribution centers from manufacturers. In-store inventory is another resource, but it normally remains locked in the store, inaccessible to other channels, which include other stores. Omnichannel order management provides retailers prominence into all of these inventory orchestrates & locations any-to-any fulfillment. With a combined view of all products, a retailer can effortlessly fulfill the order from any location.
2) Sharpen your marketing with rich customer insights
Order management and CRM have conventionally been separate systems. An incorporated solution, however, empowers customer interactions and transactions logged in both systems to be mined and combined for deeper insight into customer activities. With this wealthier pool of data, retailers can create effective tailored marketing campaigns.
3) Make fulfillment efficient and fast
Legacy order management often makes use of batch processing, which hurts fulfillment effectiveness. With omnichannel order management, retailers shear hours and days from delivery times by routing orders in real time to the warehouse nearest to the customer, thus providing rapid delivery at reduced costs.
4) Empower customers with self-service
Order management incorporated with your ecommerce website and shipping partners provides customers with payment methods, online order details, returns and shipping status. By prolonging order management to point of sale systems and call centers, store associates and agents also have up-to-the-minute information to satisfy customer queries.
Final Words
Retailers that can abandon yesterday’s channel-specific approaches and combine their applications organized with order management at the center will be well placed for success as omnichannel demands continue to rise.
