As a workbench that uniformly manages multi-channel orders, the importance of OMS to omni-channel merchants is self-evident. So, what is order management? What abilities does OMS need to include in order processing? Let’s take a look together.
Under the new retail e-commerce model, OMS is a workbench that uniformly manages multi-channel orders, and its importance to omni-channel merchants is self-evident. So, what is order management? What capabilities do OMS system need to include?
1. What is order management?
"Order management is an effective extension of customer relationship management . It can better integrate personalized and differentiated services into customer management and promote the improvement of economic benefits and customer satisfaction."
In layman's terms, order management is to obtain buyer orders from e-commerce platforms, and after processing the orders, allocate the orders to the warehouse for delivery. The entire link of e-commerce orders is roughly shown in the figure below. Under the complex business model, merchants have different order types and different types of orders are processed differently. This article will discuss the product design ideas of OMS system on B2C order processing.
2. B2C forward order processing
B2Ch forward order processing includes download orders, order conversion, order marking, gift calculation, order review, order splitting and orders, etc. The processing process is roughly shown in the figure below:
1. Order download
OMS system connects to various sales channels/e-commerce platforms. It must be able to download the original orders to be shipped on the platform store to the local area, and provide the platform order list for viewing and management by merchants.
Usually, order downloads can be automatically downloaded and manual downloads:
- automatic download: merchants set automatic order download rules (such as downloading once every 5 minutes) and enable the automatic order download task, the system will automatically download the platform order.
- manual download: merchants can set some conditions (such as order update time, platform store, platform order number, etc.) and manually trigger the system to download platform orders that meet this condition.
2. Order conversion
platform orders are generated by each e-commerce platform, and some information on the orders are expressed in different ways. For example, the same product Apple may be called " Red Fuji " on platform A, and the same platform B may be called "domestic Red Fuji". For unfamiliar staff, it is difficult to know that these two actually correspond to the same Apple; not to mention that for the system, different expressions are two different things.
Therefore, if you want to achieve unified management of orders, the platform orders must first be converted into internal orders in the system to ensure that the order information is expressed in the same way and can be recognized by the system. During the order conversion process of
, the following information is usually checked and converted:
- Product information conversion: Check whether there is a distribution relationship corresponding to the product on the platform on the system. If it exists, the platform product will be converted into a system product; if it does not exist, it will prompt that the product is abnormal.
- Address Information Conversion: The OMS system will maintain a set of address area information (divided into four-level structures of the country, province, city, district) to verify whether the address information of the document is valid. If the address on the sales order does not conform to the system area information structure, it needs to be converted into the corresponding area information on the system, otherwise an abnormality will be reported.
- carrier conversion: The OMS system will maintain a set of carrier information files and maintain the relationship between the platform carrier and the system carrier. The platform carrier information on the order needs to be converted into the system carrier, otherwise an abnormality will be reported.
- Order status conversion: The state machine of the internal order of the OMS system is different from the state machine of the orders of each platform, so the order status should also be converted accordingly. After the
platform order is converted into an internal order of the OMS system, the next order can be processed based on the internal order of the system.
3. Order import
Considering some special scenarios (such as the platform has not yet been connected, helping customers place orders, etc.), OMS usually also needs to support manual order creation and import order creation methods to directly create internal orders in the system.
4. Order marking
Based on certain characteristics of orders, merchants need to provide corresponding special services for such orders. In order to facilitate the quick identification or screening of these orders, merchants can label the orders with corresponding tags. The tags on the
order can be set automatically by the system or manually by the staff. The ability to automatically set labels corresponds to automatic marking rules. Automatic marking rules allow merchants to set corresponding marking conditions according to business needs. When the order flows into the system, if the marking rule is hit, the corresponding tag will be automatically added to the order to reduce the workload of manually identifying the order.
5. Order Intercept
For some reasons, the business does not allow orders to continue to flow to the next processing link. The order needs to stay in the current processing link. Only after the interception factor is automatically or manually lifted, the order can continue to flow downward. For example, in scenarios such as ultra-low order prices and logistics control of the place of receipt, orders may need to be intercepted. Order interception is generally automatically intercepted by the system according to the interception rules. Merchants only need to configure the interception rules in advance and review the intercepted orders afterwards.
6. Giveaway calculation
The gift event set by merchants on the OMS system is exactly what it does. After the order is pushed to the gift center for processing, the gift center will feedback the gift calculation results of the order, and the order center will add the corresponding gift line to the order based on the feedback results to ensure that the gift can enter the fulfillment process.
7. Order review
The purpose of order review confirms that the order does not have any risks, the information is accurate, and the delivery and fulfillment is required. During the order review process, if necessary, some manual adjustments can be made to the order, such as modifying the order address, modifying product information, adding gifts, modifying the shipment warehouse, modifying the carrier, etc. For orders that have been reviewed, the status of the order will be updated to be reviewed, and some information of the order will be locked and no longer allowed to be modified.
8. order split /combined order
OMS order splitting means splitting the order into multiple sub-orders and shipping separately, and combining orders means multiple orders are shipped together. The purpose of dismantling orders is to better fulfill orders, thereby reducing merchant costs or improving user experience. On the one hand, merchants can set rules for automatic order dismantling and order collection to reduce manual workload and improve order dismantling and order collection efficiency; on the other hand, merchants also need to be able to manually intervene and manually dismantle orders and order collection operations on orders.
order dismantling and closing orders must be completed before the order enters the warehouse to find the source/delivery order is pushed to the warehouse. In some OMS systems, the disassembly and combo process is placed before order review, while others design the disassembly and combo process after order review and before pushing it to the downstream system. No matter which solution, it is reasonable to consider differently.
9. Order Scheduling
Order Scheduling is to find a shipping warehouse for the order (the rule of source search and order dispatch is here), and push the order to the WMS system corresponding to the warehouse.
3. B2C order after-sales processing
after-sales business includes: refund, return, exchange, reissue, and after-sales application. On the one hand, buyers can directly initiate after-sales applications on the online platform. On the other hand, buyers can also communicate with customer service, and customer service personnel can directly initiate after-sales applications on behalf of the buyer in the merchant’s backend. The after-sales processing capacity that
needs to provide on OMS roughly includes the following aspects:
1. Online after-sales application form download
The download and conversion of online after-sales application form is similar to that of forward orders.
2. After-sales application form creation
Customer service helps buyers create after-sales application, customer service can directly create after-sales application form on the OMS system and associate the after-sales application form with the corresponding forward order.
3. After-sales application review
After-sales application also includes automatic audit mechanism and manual audit capabilities. If it is only a refund type after-sales service, after the review is approved, the corresponding amount can be directly returned to the buyer; if it is a return, exchange, or reissue type after-sales service, after the review is approved, the after-sales service will enter the next step (such as the buyer sends it back, warehouse shipping, etc.).
4. Return processing
Return processing refers to the process of returning the express delivery by the buyer, including the signing for the return express delivery, unpacking and inspection of the parcel, and headless processing. Since returns are usually sent back to the merchant warehouse, returns are usually managed by the warehouse through WMS. Generally, SAAS OMS will also provide this part of the capability to enhance product competitiveness.
Usually, the system will associate the return of the goods with the after-sales order based on the carrier and waybill number information on the return express, thereby verifying whether the goods are returned as required. If the requirements are met, the after-sales service can enter the next step (such as refunds and reissue). However, there are inevitably some special situations. For example, if the buyer backfilled in the after-sales order, the return items received by the warehouse cannot be associated with the after-sales order. This is the case of no header. Headless processing means linking the return express delivery with the after-sales order.
summary
OMS assumes the important task of centralized processing and efficient transmission of order information, and belongs to the role of the middle platform in the entire business link. Merchants may not have WMS and TMS, but there is definitely a set of OMS on the road to reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and digital transformation to .
This article was originally published by @Lan Chenxi on Everyone is a product manager. Reproduction is prohibited without permission.
question picture is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.
The views in this article only represent the author himself, Renren are both product managers and only provide information storage space services.
