Using Order Management Software

As ecommerce stores grow, the process of filling orders becomes increasingly tedious without software to help. Some shopping carts have some of the features needed to fill orders, such as the ability to print packing slips, track order history as well as packages, and so forth. But bringing an order management package online is often one of the best things a business owner can do to streamline this process.

At its heart, order management software allows a company to review, alter, and track the status of orders received via the website. It usually allows you to print forms, enter manual orders, and purchase and print shipping labels. In a nutshell, order management software takes over where the website leaves off, and ends when your carrier picks up a package for delivery.

Order management software usually offers tools to accomplish a variety of post-sale tasks, including:

• Downloading of order data from the website
• Reviewing the order contents, address, and payment details
• Assigning a status to the order (pending, shipped, backordered, cancelled) and even individual items
• Printing order forms, such as packing slips or invoices
• Accumulating certain order data into reports for business intelligence
• Exporting data to financial software
• Generating shipping labels, whether simple address-only labels, or prepaid shipping labels from UPS, FedEx, and others
• Transmitting status and tracking information to the customer
• Altering an order, such as editing the address, or adding or removing products

Options in order management software are varied, and offer different levels of functionality and price. Some of the more common ones are Shipworks by Interapptive, Order Manager by Stone Edge, and Mail Order Manager by Dydacomp.