Has managing online orders become complicated? Is it difficult to see where your inventory is located? As businesses grow and become more complex, so do your order management challenges. And while your ERP and Commerce platform are great at supporting many functions, the basic order management configuration rules are no longer cutting it.
There are gaps
Are you confident in the inventory visibility you have using an ERP system or Commerce Platform? Typically, ERPs do not have the capacity to do real-time inventory calls, so all you see is a static picture of inventory. This leads to canceled orders—and upset customers.
How about backorders and pre-orders—can you accept those? Reserve stock that’s in the cart? And when it comes to your physical stores, can you quickly and easily rollout capabilities such as in-store pick and pack?
You probably are experiencing some challenges
Every business has manual processes. But they get in the way, especially when you need to process orders faster. Whether it’s a fraud check or value-added service, it’s easy for delays and errors to happen when these tasks occur in a different system.
And how about sourcing? Your ERP and Commerce Platform can provide basic sourcing—think simple split shipments, or shipping from the closest location to the customer. But when you start to ship from more locations, it gets harder. For example you may want to source based on certain attributes, such as inventory or location. But ERPs and Commerce Platforms are not built to handle sophisticated sourcing strategies.
CX is negatively impacted
Customer expectations are higher than ever. You need to adapt to where your customers are—and where they shop. But to do so, your tech stack needs to be flexible and nimble. Even when you add on to your Commerce Platform or ERP, it is likely only going to be a temporary fix and not a long-term solution.
From before the buy button through the post-purchase experience, there are multiple touchpoints that impact CX.
Summary
If you need better real-time inventory availability and to optimize your fulfillment processes, and can’t achieve your goals using your commerce and ERP systems, there’s a good chance you could benefit from a distributed order management system. Where does a (DOM) system come into play? How can you better navigate the intent of all of these systems and help drive the agility your organization needs in the current landscape?
Get a deep-dive into all of this and more in the on-demand webinar, So you think your Commerce and ERP systems do order management? featuring Chad Hooker from Fluent Commerce and Liz Duggan from Smith Commerce.
