Prioritizing Order Management

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

According to a report by Boston Retail Partners (BRP), in the next 3 years, 250 percent more retailers are transitioning to a single order management solution (OMS) to support a unified commerce experience across all channels.  BRB explains in its report that integral to unified commerce is a unified commerce platform — a single centralized commerce platform for all channels, combining traditional POS, mobile, Web, clienteling, order management and fulfillment into a consolidated, real-time platform.

My colleague, Matt Pillar, goes long on this very topic in the January/February issue of Innovative Retail Technologies. In his article, Matt writes, “Virtually every omni-channel retailer is at least experimenting with store-level omni-channel services, such as buy or reserve online and pick up in store, buy online/return to store, and endless aisle capability. More progressive retailers are extending omni-channel to include any-channel visibility into order status, control of appeasements, and the payments life cycle. Those services, and the store-level tasks associated with each, are all fed and managed by the OMS.”

Retailers, take note. The OMS’ role in modern retailing is no joke.

Indeed, the 100-pound gorilla retailers need to wrestle to the ground is order management. Whether an order originates online, in-store, through the call center or catalog, retailers need real-time view of inventory, order status, and location. All other areas of omni-channel retailing are somewhat at the mercy of the retailer’s effective use of an OMS. A robust digital strategy that aligns seamlessly with brick-and-mortar is critical to successful retailing. But, if retailers are to market their merchandise via personalized messages across the various digital and physical touchpoints consumers use to engage with the brand, they need to take into consideration and think differently about the OMS’ increasing importance on the enterprise.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And so it goes with order management. With an effective OMS in place, retailers can achieve a single view of the customer and implement additional technologies to promote accordingly. Without it, personalized messaging, a mobile strategy, experiential retailing inside the store, as well as a knowledgeable and well-trained have a much harder hill to climb to increase conversions.