3 Key Considerations for Order Management Systems During COVID-19

Before COVID-19, a majority of sales were in-store vs. online. In the present climate, consumers are increasingly turning to online sales to prevent illness and comply with government mandates. In fact, between March 12th – March 15th alone, BOPIS sales were up 82.8% according to Rakuten Intelligence*.  

As society continues to weather this storm, retailers should consider moving to a powerful eCommerce order management system to keep pace with demand and stay competitive.

Below is a list of three considerations for your omnichannel operations to ensure success during COVID-19 and beyond.    

Why a Powerful Order Management System (OMS) for eCommerce? 

A powerful OMS allows for:  

One of the fundamental features of a powerful system for order management is the ability to scale on demand. In the pandemic’s wake, consumer buying habits have changed. Retailers are seeing more shoppers trying online buying for the first time, and consumers already familiar with the concept are now exhibiting bulk-buying tendencies. These new habits are straining current systems as retailers rush to deliver on promises.  And these behaviors will not slow down. As the virus peaks at varying times across the globe, retailers will need to continue to prepare for dramatic spikes in eCommerce sales.  

Three Key Considerations for Choosing a Powerful OMS 

Not all order management systems are created equal. In the current climate, you need an OMS with the below features:  

Turnkey Abilities: Your OMS should have the ability to easily turn on and off fulfillment locations like fulfillment centers, specific stores, specific regions, or even an entire store network. This adequately protects your fulfillment promises to potential customers if a location can no longer fulfill orders, ship, or pick up products.   

Routing Rule Configuration: Another feature to look for is the ability to easily configure and reconfigure routing rules. Routing rules help allocate products to locations that have been less impacted by government mandates and/or labor shortages.  

Flexible Fulfillment Options: A powerful OMS should allow for flexible fulfillment options such as temporary or pop-up locations. These solutions safeguard for fulfillment locations that have been impacted by social distancing and non-essential shutdown mandates. As a bonus, these convenient locations can be turned on quickly, increase promotion and meaningfully improve delivery times during peaks.  

If your OMS does not allow for any of the enhanced capabilities listed above, or you wish to take advantage of these options, contact us.  We’re here to help.  

*Rakuten Intelligence 2020 – Digital Commerce 360 Flash Report