How technology is changing the face of order management?

You may have come across many blogs that have addressed the best practices to improve customer service, however in this blog we will focus on how technology can improve customer service for online retailers. And, when we speak about online retail business, the ability to process and manage orders efficiently will determine the growth of your business.

Today, technology has advanced so much that it allows customers to access your products from multiple touch points. Therefore, it becomes very crucial for to adopt technology to manage and process orders accurately.

Below are some key factors that will help you understand how technology is changing the face of order management.

– Store and marketplace integration

Today, customers have various touch points to order for your products and if you do not have a system to capture orders from all those sources, then you are losing huge amount of money on the table. Technology has not only made it easy for online retailers to capture orders coming from various channels but also allows them tools to integrate and manage all those orders from one centralized system. There is no need to log into different system and manage channels individually, because adopting an order management system will help you track and consolidate orders efficiently.

– Automation

Many online retailers who yet follow the traditional way, often complain that they have to perform one or even more manual steps for each and every order. And, with every manual step by different members of the team, increases costs and open the doors for potential errors. Technology has eliminated the risks of such ugly scenarios by avoiding manual steps and bringing automation in your order lifecycle. This way retailers will not only improve efficiency, but also free up resources for better strategic use, which in turn improves sales and ROI for their online business.

– Fulfilment integration

Before the advent of technology, retailers had to either email or forward the order details over the phone to carriers or dropshippers for fulfillment. And, in most cases orders were not processed in time. Technology has to be a bliss for retailers, as today they do not have to rely on one source for fulfilling order, instead it allows them tools to easily integrate with multiple fulfilment providers that makes it easy, quick, and accurate to route orders and fulfill them from the nearest fulfilment location. For Amazon sellers, fulfilment by Amazon is an ideal choice. However, other fulfilment companies like Shipwire, ShipStation, can also be a perfect pick for online retailers.

– Customer management

Keeping customers in loop since when they have placed the order until they receive it, results to a positive customer experience and the success of any online retail business. Technology has not only made it so easy manage customers but also allows a real-time access to their order history, order status, shipping status or any other issues to offer positive customer experience. Salesforce, Retail Anywhere, NetSuite are few examples from the preferred and effective CRM tool available in the market.

– Centralized database

Earlier you had to access each channel and process orders individually. This resulted to more time and cost consumption. However, adopting technology and implementing a cloud based order management software, online retailers can consolidate all order data in one centralized system reducing time and resources needed to manage orders, as well as eliminates potential errors, while improving overall efficiency.

In Closing

Managing orders has always been a biggest challenge for online retailers. And, today ecommere industry is booming and changing in a rapid pace. Therefore, being able to live up not only to your customers – how and where they purchase, but also with technologies, that is changing too, is imperative to success.