How Does Supply Chain Order Management Impact Your Omnichannel Retail Success?

Omnichannel retail & its challenges

Say hello to Sarah—a busy mom who’s on the hunt for a new pair of sneakers. While browsing her favorite retailer’s website, she finds a pair she loves but isn’t sure about the size. Instead of guessing, Sarah uses the app to check if the shoes are available in her local store. The app confirms availability, so she purchases the pair online and selects in-store pickup at her local store. Later that day, she visits the store, where the purchased sneakers are waiting for her at the pickup counter. A store associate helps her confirm the fit. Delighted, Sarah uses a discount code from the retailer’s loyalty app to complete her pickup.

Omnichannel retail is about creating a seamless and integrated shopping experience across all channels—whether online, in-store, or mobile. In Sarah’s case, the website, app, and store worked together to make her journey effortless and enjoyable.

Nevertheless, implementing omnichannel retail is not without its hassles. A survey reported that the seamless integration of different selling channels was the key barrier for over 50% of respondents trying to enhance their omnichannel strategies. Here are some other practical challenges faced by retailers that make omnichannel retailing difficult.

Inventory visibility

The fundamental pillar of omnichannel success is accurate, real-time inventory across all the channels you’re selling on. You must know the stock levels across your warehouses, third-party logistics, stores, and so on. However, inventory management is impossible with outdated systems or siloed inventory data. Unless you know what you have where, you lose your competitive edge, missing opportunities to attract customers with the right offers. Similarly, if inventory data isn’t updated in real-time across all your channels, stock discrepancies would arise and you might be promising something to your customers when they’re already out of stock.

Order fulfillment complexity

Omnichannel retail often means managing multiple fulfillment methods: buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), curbside pickup, ship-from-store, dropshipping, etc. Imagine facilitating all this across all the connected channels. Without the right tech stack, you would cave into overselling, shipping delays, and misplaced inventory. An order management system (OMS) can lend a hand here and help you streamline inventory tracking, order routing, supply chain management, and customer communication across multiple touchpoints.

Meeting customer expectations

Today’s customers expect fast, accurate, and flexible shopping options. They want the ability to buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS), receive same-day delivery, or return items wherever it’s convenient. To meet this customer demand, you need order management software that notifies customers promptly about delays or stock-outs and shelters them from having a negative experience in the face of unforeseen disruptions.

What is supply chain order management?

Supply chain order management is a strategic approach that encompasses planning, execution, and optimization of all order-related activities across the entire supply chain. A robust supply chain order management system revolves around several critical components such as the following to make omnichannel retailing successful.

• Order orchestration: Coordinating and automating the flow of orders across multiple channels and systems to ensure smooth processing.
• Inventory allocation: Strategically assigning inventory to orders based on availability, location, and demand.    
• Fulfillment execution: Ensuring timely and accurate picking, packing, and shipping of customer orders.
• Transfers: Responding to increased retail foot traffic by strategically transferring inventory from warehouses to stores.

With such order management technology in place, statistics show you can lower supply chain operation costs by 15% and ensure less than 50% of inventory holdings with three times faster cash-to-cash cycles. Here are the benefits of a robust supply chain order management system.

• Improved order fulfillment: An effective supply chain order management system speeds up order processing, reduces lead times, and increases delivery reliability. By automating workflows and leveraging real-time data, you ensure faster, more accurate order fulfillment, cutting down on delays and minimizing delivery errors.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction: Meeting customer expectations is directly proportional to building trust and winning loyalty. A strong supply chain order management system helps you deliver seamless experiences by offering precise delivery windows with real-time order updates.
• Reduced costs: Supply chain order management optimizes fulfillment paths and transportation management to minimize shipping costs and reduce the risk of returns caused by errors or delays. By streamlining these processes, you create a more cost-effective and efficient supply chain, and thereby, keep expenses in check while maintaining high service levels.
• Increased efficiency: With supply chain order management, you can streamline order processing, improve resource utilization, and gain better control over the fulfillment process. This efficiency boosts operational performance, reduces manual processes, and frees up valuable resources to focus on growth and strategic initiatives.

How supply chain order management benefits omnichannel retailers

Managing orders and inventory across multiple channels can be a real challenge for omnichannel retailers. But with the right supply chain order management system in place, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how supply chain order management can help streamline operations and boost efficiency.

Order fulfillment flexibility

Supply chain order management lets you orchestrate orders seamlessly across every channel—whether that’s online, mobile, or in-store. This means you can easily handle orders no matter where customers choose to shop. By supporting a range of fulfillment methods like ship-from-store, in-store pickup, BOPIS, and curbside pickup, you can meet customers where they are, offering them the options they want.

The order management system optimizes fulfillment paths by factoring in things like inventory availability, delivery speed, and customer location. This way, you’re always choosing the most efficient way to get orders out the door.

Inventory optimization

When you get real-time visibility into inventory levels across all your channels, you know exactly what you have and where it’s located. This helps you avoid stockouts and overstocks, keeping your supply chain running smoothly. It also helps you allocate inventory more strategically—placing products where they’re most needed based on customer demand. This reduces the chances of overstocking in one location while not having enough in another, saving you money and improving order fulfillment times.

Enhanced customer experience

According to Bain & Company, if you can deliver a better customer experience than your competition, you can obtain a revenue that’s between 4% and 8% above the market average. An order management system helps you accomplish this margin by helping you be more accurate and reliable—the two key aspects that make or break the customer experience.

By providing real-time order tracking and accurate delivery windows, you can let your customers know when to expect their orders and build trust. With supply chain order management, it’s easy to offer fulfillment options that fit customers’ preferences—whether that’s fast delivery, in-store pickup, or curbside service. What’s more, you can ensure a smoother experience by reducing order errors and cutting down on delays.

Important factors for a successful supply chain order management implementation

Implementing a supply chain order management system isn’t something you can just “set and forget.” To get it right, you need to focus on a few key areas to make sure the system works for your business. Here’s what to keep in mind.

Data integration

Integrations is the first key factor for supply chain order management to be effective. It needs access to accurate data from every channel you’re using. That means integrating data from point-of-sale (POS) systems, e-commerce platforms, and warehouse management systems (WMS) into one unified system. If your data is siloed or outdated, your supply chain order management system won’t work at its best, and your fulfillment processes will be slower or less accurate. Integrating all this data gives you real-time visibility into inventory, orders, and customer interactions, allowing for smoother operations and fewer errors.

Technology selection

Your supply chain order management system should align with your business needs, scale as you grow, and fit within your budget. Don’t just pick the first system you find or the one that looks the most advanced. Look at the specific features you need—like integration capabilities, order routing options, and real-time reporting. Make sure it can handle your business volume and adapt to future growth.

Process optimization

Supply chain order management is only as good as the processes it’s supporting. Before you go live, take time to re-engineer your order fulfillment processes to fully leverage your new system. Look at areas like inventory management, order routing, and fulfillment to find inefficiencies or bottlenecks. Streamline these processes to take advantage of the supply chain order management’s capabilities, such as automating workflows or optimizing fulfillment paths. The smoother your processes, the more effective the system will be.

Change management

A new supply chain order management system can only work with team buy-in. Change management is crucial here—training employees on the new system and making sure they understand the new processes. Without proper training and support, you’ll see resistance, mistakes, and slow adoption. Get your team involved early, provide hands-on training, and offer ongoing support to help them adjust.

Partner with fabric for supply chain order management success

fabric OMS is an AI-powered order orchestration platform that uses artificial intelligence to enable retail businesses to thrive in the age of unified commerce. By matching customer demand from digital, social, and physical channels with optimized fulfillment, we ensure the right product is delivered at the right place, time, and margin.

fabric’s reimagined OMS bridges pre- and post-purchase experiences by connecting real-time inventory with enriched product information from owned and third-party procurement data sources. AI powers our platform to streamline fulfillment and provide valuable, real-time insights, helping you manage orders efficiently and meet customer expectations. With a modern architecture that easily integrates into existing systems, fabric offers fast time-to-value and auto-scaling capabilities for a seamless, always-up experience.

Looking to enhance your order fulfillment and stay ahead of the competition? Let’s collaborate! Book your personalized demo session of fabric OMS and explore how our supply chain order management solutions can give your business the edge.

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