In Chapter 16 of our order management guide, we will show you how to improve the order management process.
This chapter is ideal for anyone who’s just stepped into an order management role and realizes there are many problems to fix but is unsure where to start.
Confused? Maybe this is too advanced or too basic for you? Head back to the order management homepage.
How Do You Improve Order Management?
Firstly, have faith—a lot can be done to help a company struggling with order management.
Order management processes can become disorganized if employees lack experience and the company has grown to the point where it needs to invest in new tools, update its process, and provide training.
Some improvements will instantly help alleviate problems, while others will take longer to implement. So, start with what you can do now and implement more challenging tasks later.
Here are eight things you can do to improve your business’s order management process.
1. Hire An Order Management Consultant
If you are really lost, you can hire a consultant to review your business operations, give you pointers on what to change, and help you improve your order management process.
Order management consultants are experts who help apply what they have seen other companies doing to your business. They have also likely encountered the same problems in other companies.
They can also tell you what to be careful of and answer any questions. Be sure to show them everything because not every problem will originate from order management.
You don’t have to agree to everything a consultant suggests. You can hire more than one consultant to get multiple opinions before implementing their suggestions.
2. Become an FBA Exclusive Seller
If the burden is too great, you may decide to sell only through Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) service. FBA will handle the shipping, orders, customer service, and returns. It can alleviate many of the challenges for a price.
Bear in mind that becoming an FBA-exclusive seller won’t solve all your order management problems. You must still prepare your inventory for handover to FBA and order inventory from suppliers.
3. Work with a 3PL
Working with a 3PL is similar to working exclusively with FBA, but it will be easier to serve orders from other e-commerce platforms besides Amazon. A 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) service can alleviate much of the manual work required to handle orders and inventory.
Just like FBA, though, you may miss out on a lot of information about issues with your products. You will still need to prepare your inventory for shipment to your 3PL and handle supplier orders.
You can divide your operations between a 3PL and FBA—or even three ways—3PL, FBA, and fulfill some orders yourself. However, this can also increase order complexity, which you may want to avoid.
4. Start Using A WMS
You can’t improve order management without also improving inventory management. In many ways, they are two sides of the same coin.
Adopting a WMS (Warehouse Management System) can increase the accuracy of your orders and reduce mistakes. With fewer errors, your company will have a lower return rate and fewer complaints.
Employees will also find using a WMS easier, as they only need to follow what the WMS device tells them to do, removing any guesswork.
5. Hire Labor with the Right Skill Set
Your workforce might not have been adequately trained enough to handle their tasks. They may lack the experience to improve tasks and make them easier, faster, and more efficient.
Your warehouse workforce may have experience gaps that you need to fill by hiring new employees or focusing on training your current staff.
It may take time to uncover what skills your employees lack. You may need the help of a consultant and spend a lot of time on the warehouse floor to understand how employees work.
6. Hire Part Time Workers
Your order management challenges could stem from your business’s seasonal nature. Your business may be calm most of the time but chaotic during certain times of the year.
You may be in the middle of your industry’s peak season, and problems could be solved rather quickly if you hire temporary, seasonal workers.
Be sure to develop a plan for seasonality and always aim to get ahead of it. Figure out a way to quickly train seasonal workers in your warehouse operations.
You may look to keep on some seasonal staff if they are exceptionally skilled, solving any challenges from point 5 above.
7. Get an Overview
You might not understand what is causing order management problems in your warehouse because you have no visibility on how staff handle orders.
Bringing an OMS (Order Management System) into your business operations gives you this much-needed visibility. It enables you to determine what issues must be addressed and how to address them.
A top-down overview of your business will also prevent you from assigning problems to the wrong causes and accidentally making changes that could worsen the situation.
8. Always Follow the Best Order Management Practices!
If you stick to the order management best practices we explained in Chapter 15, you can avoid many of these challenges from occurring in the first place.
It may be necessary to review these best practices periodically to ensure that you are following them correctly. Remember to train others on the best practices, too.
Head back to Chapter 15 for more on the best order management practices.
Key Points From Chapter 16
There’s not an order management problem you can’t fix! Remember these key points.
- If you’re unsure where to start, a consultant could help you identify issues and advise you on improving your processes.
- Consider utilizing FBA and 3PL services to reduce the workload. You can even rely exclusively on these options or find a combination that works for you.
- Explore hiring labor with the skill sets you may be missing or seasonal workers if your business is subject to seasonality.
- Utilize an OMS and WMS to monitor how things work in your business and determine how to improve them.
In the next chapter, we summarize everything you should know about order management now from our guide.