Guide
All About Order Management Systems (OMS)
An effective Order Management System (OMS) is essential for businesses looking to streamline their operations, whether they’re just starting out or managing high volumes of orders across multiple channels. An OMS is critical in improving operational efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction by optimizing the entire order lifecycle, from inventory management to fulfillment and customer service.
What is an Order Management System (OMS)?
An Order Management System is a software platform that manages the entire lifecycle of an order—from the moment a customer places it, to order fulfillment, and even the post-delivery return process if necessary. An OMS integrates with various business systems—inventory, sales channels, payment gateways, and shipping providers—to provide a unified view of your orders across platforms, ensuring that every order is processed efficiently and accurately.
Whether you’re running an online shop, a physical store, or both, an OMS helps keep track of inventory, manages order processing, automates fulfillment tasks, and provides real-time updates to customers and staff. In essence, it simplifies and centralizes all your order-related operations into one cohesive system.
How Does an Order Management System (OMS) Work?
An effective OMS streamlines and automates the steps involved in processing an order. Here’s how it works:
1. Order Capture:
When a customer places an order (online, in-store, or through a marketplace), the OMS captures the details—what was ordered, from where, and how it’s being paid for.
2. Inventory Management:
The OMS checks inventory levels in real-time to confirm the availability of the product. It can sync with warehouses, stores, and third-party suppliers to ensure accurate stock visibility.
3. Order Routing and Fulfillment:
Based on factors like stock availability, customer location, and shipping costs, the OMS automatically routes the order to the best fulfillment center or store. This step often involves automating the pick, pack, and ship process.
4. Shipping and Tracking:
The OMS integrates with shipping carriers to generate labels, schedule pickups, and track shipments, providing real-time updates to both the business and the customer.
5. Returns Management:
If a customer returns a product, the OMS tracks the return, updates inventory, processes refunds or exchanges, and manages restocking.
Why an Order Management System is Important for Businesses of All Sizes
An order management system isn’t just for enterprises—it’s a vital tool for any business that wants to operate efficiently and grow. Here’s why an OMS is essential regardless of your company’s size:
- Efficiency Across the Board: Automating routine tasks like order routing, inventory updates, and shipping logistics reduces the time and effort needed to fulfill each order. This makes your operations leaner, faster, and more reliable.
- Scalability: Whether you’re processing 100 or 10,000 orders a day, an OMS grows with you. As your business scales, the system adapts to increasing demand, ensuring that your operations can handle larger order volumes without sacrificing speed or accuracy.
- Multi-Channel Management: An OMS syncs all sales platforms for businesses selling through multiple channels—whether that’s an eCommerce store, marketplace, or physical retail. It ensures that your inventory is updated in real-time and that you don’t accidentally oversell or run out of stock.
- Improved Customer Experience: Today’s customers expect real-time updates on their orders, fast shipping, and easy returns. An OMS ensures that you can meet these expectations by providing transparent order tracking, accurate delivery times, and a simplified returns process—all of which contribute to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Cost Control: Automating your order processing reduces manual errors, decreases labor costs, and optimizes shipping decisions, helping you keep expenses in check while maximizing your profit margins.
OMS Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Right Order Management System
Who is Kibo Commerce?
Kibo Commerce offers a modular, microservices-based eCommerce order management system designed to help businesses of all sizes streamline operations, deliver complex customer experiences, and maintain operational efficiency. With a focus on flexibility and scalability, Kibo’s order management system (OMS) adapts to your unique needs, allowing you to scale faster without compromising on customer satisfaction.
Breaking Down Silos Across Channels
Kibo’s OMS eliminates data silos by providing a unified view of all real-time order and inventory data across multiple channels and locations. This ensures businesses have complete visibility, improving the accuracy of inventory tracking, and enabling more efficient order fulfillment from any channel—whether it’s online, in-store, or via third-party logistics.
Advanced Order Routing and Intelligent Fulfillment
Kibo’s Intelligent Order Routing engine enables businesses to source inventory from the most optimal location based on custom business rules. Whether you need to prioritize shipping speed, minimize costs, or balance inventory levels, Kibo provides the tools to automate these decisions and ensure every order is fulfilled efficiently. The system supports advanced workflows such as split shipments, custom order attributes, and backorders, all while giving you the flexibility to configure rules without relying on developers.
Scalability for Growing Businesses
Kibo’s modular architecture makes implementing the specific OMS modules your business needs easy, allowing you to scale incrementally. Whether you’re launching new fulfillment programs like dropshipping or BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), Kibo’s composable solutions give you the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions without overhauling your system.
Real-Time Reporting and Data Insights
Kibo’s rich reporting and analytics provide a 360° view of your order and inventory data, helping you make data-driven decisions that enhance both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. You can easily track performance metrics such as revenue generation, shipping costs, and product performance, with customizable alerts to notify teams of key thresholds that may trigger changes in fulfillment strategies.
Customer-Centric Support and Care
Kibo’s OMS enables superior customer service with a comprehensive view of order, inventory, and customer data. Customer service reps can manage orders, handle returns, apply omnichannel promotions, and modify orders—all within a single system. This ensures that every customer interaction is smooth, transparent, and leaves a positive impression.
Agility Driven By Choice
Kibo’s MACH-based order management system allows you to quickly deploy only the functions and modules you need — avoiding the costly and timely endeavor of ripping and replacing an entire legacy system. Whether you’re managing B2B, B2C, or D2C operations, Kibo’s headless eCommerce solutions are built to support your specific business model, offering scalability and flexibility as your operations grow.
Lynn Langenfeld
Director, Omnichannel Technologies, GIII
Kibo tells us all our information about our fulfillments, our sales, even data points that we haven’t even thought of.
We can see the journey from the when the customer started the order all the way through our business channels, dropshippers, our store fulfillment, anywhere that the order has gone.
FAQs
What are the stages of order management?
Order management typically consists of five key stages:
- Order Capture: When a customer places an order, it’s captured through various sales channels such as online stores, marketplaces, or in-store systems.
- Inventory Check: The system verifies product availability by checking inventory across warehouses or stores.
- Order Processing: The order is prepared for shipment, including picking and packing.
- Shipping and Tracking: The order is shipped, and tracking information is provided to the customer.
Returns Management: If the customer initiates a return, the OMS handles the return process, updates inventory, and processes refunds or exchanges.
What is the difference between OMS and ERP?
While both an Order Management System (OMS) and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system manage key business functions, they serve different purposes. An OMS specifically focuses on managing the order lifecycle—capturing, processing, and fulfilling orders across multiple channels. An ERP is a more comprehensive system that integrates various business processes, including accounting, procurement, inventory, and human resources. In short, an OMS specializes in the order process, while an ERP manages overall business operations.
Who uses an OMS?
An OMS is used by businesses of all sizes that manage customer orders across multiple sales channels. This includes eCommerce businesses, brick-and-mortar retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Any business that handles order fulfillment, inventory management, and multi-channel sales can benefit from an OMS integrated with its eCommerce platform to streamline operations and enhance customer satisfaction.
Why is an OMS important for small businesses?
An OMS helps small businesses automate their order processing, reduce manual errors, and scale their operations as they grow. It integrates with various sales platforms, ensuring real-time inventory tracking and faster fulfillment. This automation leads to improved efficiency, cost savings, and better customer service—all essential for small businesses looking to put their time, money, and energy into growing their business.
Can an OMS help with multi-channel selling?
Yes, a good OMS is designed to manage orders across multiple channels—online stores, marketplaces, social platforms, and physical stores. By integrating these sales channels into a single system, an OMS provides real-time inventory updates, ensures consistent order fulfillment, and helps prevent overselling or stockouts.
How does an OMS improve customer satisfaction?
An OMS enhances the customer experience by providing real-time order tracking, offering flexible delivery options, and ensuring timely, accurate shipments. Additionally, it simplifies the returns process, allowing customers to return items easily, which can foster trust and encourage repeat business.
