In eCommerce, order management is one of the most important factors in determining a company's success. Businesses may streamline processes, boost customer happiness, and boost income with the help of an efficient and effective e-commerce order management system.

Across all businesses, the order management system often takes a similar route.

Customers that want to purchase a product visit the online store and do so. The order is compared to a company's inventory to see whether the item is in stock and to determine where it is. The item is located, packaged, and shipped to the client who is waiting. After the customer receives the item, the employee takes care of any problems that may have arisen during delivery and finds a solution.

Except for unusual situations, many online retailers use these fundamental procedures to speed up their fulfillment process. This approach has been demonstrated to work, regardless of whether you run a small shop or a bigger and expanding business.

What we mentioned above sounds quite simple, however, these processes can get overly complex when it comes to medium and big enterprises. In such cases, businesses may want to consider order management outsourcing to streamline the procedures.

It is way more practical to outsource order management to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider than to manage e-commerce order management internally as a business grows and its processes and tasks get more complex.

This article will describe order management outsourcing, outline its procedures, and list all the benefits that make outsourcing essential for your company.

First, let’s see the eCommerce order management process, in more detail

A business must go through several phases in the order management process before fulfilling an online order. A series of communications involving numerous other services is triggered when a transaction is made offline or online.

To give you an example, the typical workflow involves several key tasks, such as:

Order receipt: This is the first step in the process and involves receiving orders from customers through your e-commerce platform or other sales channels.

Order processing: Once orders are received, they need to be processed. This includes checking inventory levels, calculating shipping costs, and creating invoices.

Picking and packing: After orders are processed, the items need to be picked from inventory and packed for shipping.

Shipping: The final step is to ship the orders to the customers. This includes arranging for a carrier to pick up the packages and deliver them to the customer.

Tracking and confirmation: After the order has been shipped, tracking information should be provided to the customer, and the status of the order should be updated in the system.

Customer service: Managing customer service can include responding to customer inquiries, handling returns, and exchanges, and managing customer complaints.

To manage e-commerce order management effectively, it's important to have a clear and accurate inventory management system, keep accurate records of orders and shipments, and communicate with customers about shipping times and tracking information. Also, it is crucial to be responsive to customer inquiries and address any issues that may arise.

So, why order management outsourcing?

The order management procedure involves several steps, so the length of a single thorough run-through of the system typically ranges from days to weeks.

What appears to be a straightforward operation becomes immensely more challenging when you multiply this by as many consumers as you may have.

It could be challenging to concentrate on this procedure on top of other internal issues that may occur for a business that is either just getting started, facing a large influx of orders, or seeing increased site traffic. Therefore, many businesses turn to outsourcing!

Advantages of outsourcing order management

If you’re trying to find out whether outsourcing order management is the right thing for your business, keep reading this article and you’ll have a well-defined answer in no time.

Below, you will find some of the benefits of order management outsourcing:

•         Faster and more affordable shipping costs

You can ensure quick delivery times for your customers when you use an eCommerce order management outsourcing firm, which is one of its main benefits. Many e-commerce business owners are unaware of the significant influence quick delivery times can have on client happiness.

This means that in order to keep consumers satisfied and encourage them to make further purchases from you, you must get orders out the door as quickly as possible! If you're not careful, customer dissatisfaction with order management can result in a high churn rate.

When you have a higher volume of orders because of holidays, sales, or successful marketing campaigns, keeping your order management in-house may result in delayed delivery times.

You won't have to worry about your expansion slowing down your delivery times if you work with an outsourcing provider for your order management services.

Due to 3PLs' capacity to negotiate volume-based discounts with major carriers, retailers will have access to more reasonable shipping rates by outsourcing e-commerce order fulfillment. Additionally, collaborating with a company that offers e-commerce fulfillment services and has access to several warehouses gives you the freedom and option to store your products closer to your customers, which lowers shipping costs and speeds up last-mile delivery times.

•         Save business time

It takes science to create a reliable order management system. A system that properly matches how your business is conducted and the kind of goods you sell takes time to develop.

It could take months or perhaps years to perfect this procedure.

This could result in a significant delay in order fulfillment and a reduction in revenue for a new business or one that is new to online shopping. Additionally, it can be challenging to anticipate every potential issue when working with inexperienced order management staff. It is possible for inventory to be lost, shipped products to disappear, and databases to be abused.

For many businesses, especially new ones that are growing rapidly and are still figuring out other aspects of their organization, outsourcing this procedure can be a lifesaver.

•         Reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate

There are many reasons why a consumer would choose not to complete a transaction, but many of them might be readily resolved by outsourcing order management.

According to surveys, factors like expensive shipping, sluggish delivery, and a difficult checkout process, discourage buyers from completing their purchases.

•         Ability to scale & expand easily

Your company's ability to expand swiftly is very constrained if you keep your order management in-house. If you can't keep up with the orders pouring in, your fulfillment can act as a barrier to growth, halting your progress completely.

It can take a long time and a lot of money to expand and improve your system to meet demand. If your success experiences a boom that you are unable to keep up with, this can be extremely dangerous. Delays in shipments, disgruntled consumers, and lost revenue may follow.

You rely on a company that already has everything set up when you outsource order management. A 3PL can easily handle a spike in business because they already have the equipment and expertise required to meet the demand.

•         Keep customers in the long-term

Customer retention is crucial to any business’s long-term survival because there are so many online retailers to select from. A customer's loyalty may require a lot of effort to develop, but it's challenging to win it again once you lose it. Outsourcing order management will make sure to keep a high customer retention rate with its expertise and customer politics.

•         Lower risk during the fulfillment process

New businesses are not exempt from providing excellent customer service.Customers anticipate that their orders will be dispatched on time and will arrive on schedule. This could be problematic for any business with little experience with cargo organization.

One way to increase the likelihood that each order will be handled and delivered efficiently for the customer is to outsource your order management system. The company that provided the goods can also address any issues that a consumer could have with it. These businesses have the knowledge and know-how to get beyond any challenges in the fulfillment process thanks to their years of experience.

Additionally, these businesses have their own personnel and rules. This implies that you can reduce the amount of time and money you spend on staff training and recruitment. You can avoid the stress of having to find many people to complete one specific work by outsourcing these specifics to others.

•         Lower costs

Outsourcing order management means cost savings from not having in-house full-time employees, not having to buy the latest technology, and not having delays. All of these result in lower overall costs.

•         You can focus on the core tasks of your business

You already know that small enterprises and start-ups may be very time-consuming. Your to-do list is never-ending, and something urgent always requires your attention. The last thing you want to worry about is packaging and delivering an order when your focus is being diverted to so many different places.

By outsourcing your order management, you can now give your whole attention to what really matters.

Long-term and short-term benefits of this can both be enjoyed by your business.

•         Improve your business through customer data

Every time a client makes a purchase, a general profile of the customer is produced in a database, allowing for the creation of approximations of the sort of customer, possible buying habits, and interests of the customer. Even though many businesses have access to this data, they are unsure of how to use it to their benefit.

Order management companies can use that data to generate results, giving your business new information about the kinds of customers who are most likely to visit your store. Your company will be able to utilize this information to improve the shopping experience for its customers by extrapolating customer data.

We Are Fiber has your back

One of the most important aspects of operating an eCommerce business is order management. With efficiency and knowledge, We Are Fiber can assist you in managing this aspect of order processing.

Our software and order management operations have helped countless businesses grow and expand their customer bases.

Visit our website and get in touch with us right away to find out more about our offerings and what to expect from order management outsourcing.