As retail businesses grow, their order management needs often outpace the capabilities of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. ERPs are powerful tools for managing resources across departments, but they aren’t always built to handle the specialized demands of high-volume, multi-channel order processing.
While their ERP was a great starting point, many companies find it falls short in key areas like real-time inventory updates, complex order fulfillment and streamlined returns handling. This lack of functionality can lead to inefficiencies and frustrated customers, ultimately creating roadblocks for growth.
For scaling businesses, a dedicated Order Management System (OMS) is designed to fill these gaps by offering advanced functionality tailored specifically for order and inventory management. An OMS enables companies to centralize, automate and optimize every step of the order lifecycle – from capturing orders across multiple channels to tracking real-time inventory and providing seamless returns processing.
The following sections will explore seven clear signs that it might be time to transition from your EPR to a dedicated OMS solution.
|
Feature |
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) |
OMS (Order Management System) |
|
Purpose and Specialization |
Broad business management covering finance, HR and procurement |
Focused on order management, including real-time tracking, multi-channel orders and fulfillment |
|
Scalability and Flexibility |
Handles general operations but may struggle with adapting to complex order demands |
Designed to scale, supporting custom workflows, multi-location inventory and high-volume spikes |
|
Integration Capabilities |
Limited integration with real-time retail and logistics channels |
Built for seamless integration with systems like WMS and TMS, enabling data synchronization |
|
Data Depth and Analytics |
Provides broad, generalized insights across various business functions |
Offers detailed analytics on orders, customer trends and inventory performance for optimizaion |
Transitioning from an ERP to an OMS can be a significant improvement for brands dealing with increasingly complex order management needs.
Below are seven signs that indicate your current ERP system may no longer be sufficient and that an OMS could be the solution to streamline operations, improve customer satisfaction and support growth.
As businesses expand into new sales channels, order complexity can quickly spiral as each pipeline has unique order requirements, fulfillment processes and customer expectations. For instance, an order placed online but picked up in-store must seamlessly communicate with inventory and sales systems to ensure accurate stock counts. Coordinating across multiple platforms can overwhelm ERPs, leading to processing delays and dissatisfied customers.
A dedicated OMS, like Constellation, is built to consolidate orders from every channel into a single interface, allowing for centralized management and real-time updates across the board. This added capability ensures that orders are processed quickly, accurately and without unnecessary steps, reducing the risk of errors and improving customer satisfaction.
Optimizing the multi-channel order process, an OMS can help businesses maintain a consistent, reliable customer experience, no matter how or where they shop.
Accessing real-time inventory is essential to keeping with customer demand and avoiding costly stockouts or overstocking. Without accurate, up-to-the-minute inventory information, businesses risk displaying incorrect stock levels, leading to disappointed customers and missed sales.
While capable of managing inventory, ERPs often lack the real-time synchronization needed for modern, fast-paced retail environments.
Constellation OMS provides continuous inventory updates across all sales channels, ensuring stock levels are accurate and synchronized in real-time. This feature allows businesses to avoid common pitfalls such as accidental overselling or displaying out-of-stock items as available. With live inventory data, you can make informed decisions about stock levels, helping to boost efficiency and building trust with customers who depend on reliable product availability.
Efficient fulfillment processes are crucial to maintaining customer loyalty and meeting delivery expectations. As customers increasingly expect same-day or next-day delivery options, businesses face pressure to streamline order fulfillment. ERP systems often lack the flexibility needed for these advanced fulfillment methods, such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) or ship-from-store options.
This system shortfall can result in slower processing times and fewer fulfillment options, limiting your ability to cater to modern customer demands.
With an OMS, you can customize fulfillment workflows to suit different order types and channels. For instance, moder OMS software enables businesses to optimize routes for same-day delivery, prioritize orders based on urgency or create streamlined processes for in-store pickup. These advanced capabilities give businesses the agility to meet customer demands quickly and accurately, resulting in a more flexible and customer-centric fulfillment process that can lead to increased loyalty and repeat business.
As your business grows, so does the complexity of managing a high volume of orders and an expanding range of products and services. For many organizations, an ERP that was sufficient initially can no longer handle the demands of scaling operations.
These platform limitations can create bottlenecks, resulting in delayed orders, inventory mismanagement and a lack of visibility into your entire order ecosystem. Designed with scalability in mind, Constellation OMS adapts to your business needs as you grow. Whether adding new warehouses, expanding to more sales channels or increasing order volume, Constellation’s customizable routing rules and workflows ensure that order management remains efficient and flexible.
With the ability to handle larger volumes and added complexity, an OMS provides the operational freedom you need to grow without being restricted by your technology.
Understanding customer behavior, order trends and inventory performance is key to making data-driven decisions that drive growth and efficiency.
While ERPs may offer basic reporting, they often lack the granularity needed to analyze order-specific metrics and gain insight into the performance of various sales channels. Limited analytics can leave businesses in the dark about critical areas like:
An OMS can go beyond surface-level reporting, providing in-depth insights into each stage of the order lifecycle. With advanced analytics on customer behavior, sales trends and inventory performance, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize stock levels and boost customer satisfaction.
The ease of returns and exchanges can make or break customer satisfaction, especially with the recent ecommerce boom. Customers expect a straightforward returns process, and any difficulties can lead to frustration and potential loss of future business.
Unfortunately, ERPs often lack the dedicated tools needed to handle returns smoothly. This inability to streamline the returns process can lead to delays, mismanaged stock and increased manual work as teams struggle to track and process returns.
An OMS typically includes robust returns and exchanges management capabilities, simplifying the reverse logistics process. By tracking returns in real-time, platforms like Constellation ensure that returned stock is accurately updated across all channels, helping prevent overstock or stock discrepancies. Additionally, by offering features like automated return labels or status tracking, Constellation enhances the customer experience, making it easy for customers to initiate and follow their returns. A dedicated focus on creating seamless returns processing can help businesses retain more customers and build a reputation for reliable service.
For modern retailers, a smooth connection between Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and ecommerce platforms is critical to ensure a cohesive order management process.
However, ERPs often struggle with integrations, especially when relaying communication between specialized systems operating in real time. This integration gap can lead to data silos, making it difficult to access critical order and inventory information across platforms.
An OMS should be designed for seamless integration with a wide range of systems, providing businesses with a unified platform for managing orders and inventory data. By connecting effortlessly with WMS, TMS and ecommerce platforms, an OMS can ensure that data flows smoothly and accurately between systems, preventing issues like double data entry or mismatched order statuses.
This centralized connectivity streamlines operations, eliminates data silos and improves overall efficiency, making it easier to maintain accurate, up-to-date information across your entire ecosystem.
Recognizing when your ERP system can no longer keep up with your business’s order management demands is key to sustaining growth and meeting customer expectations.
Investing in a specialized OMS like Cart.com’s Constellation gives you the tools to:
Transitioning to an OMS empowers your business to operate with greater agility and efficiency, allowing you to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced market. Contact our team today to learn how we can help your organization transition from ERP to OMS.