A Guide to Automation in Order Management 

Using automated order management software helps businesses to speed up fulfilment processes, minimise manual efforts, and increase reliability across the order lifecycle.  

The order lifecycle includes key processes that can be automated, including order processing, inventory updates, advancing shipments, invoicing, and reporting. We explore each of these processes and present practical scenarios to show you how automation can change the way you handle most of your operations. 

Order processing 

Order processing includes capturing, validating, and routing orders to fulfil the order. Automating this process takes away the need for manual input and speeds up this all-important step.  

An online retailer could use their order management software to automatically extract orders from platforms such as Shopify or Amazon. The automated order management tool would validate the customer data and product details, then route orders to the nearest warehouse based on the stock availability. This lets you flag priority orders that require next-day delivery and prioritise them without any human intervention, reducing processing time from hours down to minutes. 

Inventory updates 

Automated inventory management gives you real-time inventory updates across all your sales channels, ensuring that you never oversell or stock out when it’s not necessary.  

A 3PL provider could integrate their order management solution with all of their eCommerce clients’ platforms. Whenever a customer places an order, inventory levels will get instantly updated across all platforms like eBay or Etsy. When stocks start to run low, automated low stock notifications from their OMS will go to the warehouse managers. They can take over to reorder stock as necessary, so sales can run uninterrupted. 

Raising shipments 

Another way to support efficient order management automation is to generate labels, determine carriers, and track shipments. This will lead to faster times to fulfilment and give your customers more visibility into the location of their orders.  

You can automate shipments every step of the way, including automatically generating correct labels based on weight and destination. Shipping management tools comes in handy, to help you choose the cheapest carrier, send tracking details to the customer via email, and improve shipping times. 

Invoicing 

When you automate invoicing, you let your invoices be generated and sent upon order completion without human intervention. This reduces manual effort while ensuring they’ll get paid on time thanks to routine payment reminders and easy-to-access payment gateways. 

For instance, a 3PL provider can make use of tracking activities within their software and automatically generate month-end invoices for their clients based on activity performed on their clients’ behalf. These can then be automatically sent via integration, to their accounting software. 

This takes away the need for manual data entry, automatically syncing all financial records, and frees up hours of administrative time weekly. 

Reporting 

Automated reporting records information regarding sales, inventory, or operational performance and presents actionable insights in an easy-to-understand report, with no manual effort.  

Managing a warehouse at a third-party logistics company? Ditch the spreadsheets and use automation together with reporting to generate dashboards daily. Not only will you get insights more often, but you’ll also increase the level of detail you use. The perfect automated report should display order volumes, stock turnover rates, delivery performance, and so forth.  

Your platform can then automatically email these reports to the operations team, giving them the data necessary to make evidence-based decisions without having to spend days on research and analysis. 

But why does order management automation have such an impact on your business and why do you need a tool that can do it all instead of just aleatory operations? We explore the three key benefits of automating order management and why a unified tool should be in your tool stack. 

Reduce errors 

Manual order management leads to human error and visibility issues. Retailers might enter incorrect order information, handle orders without knowing the stock on hand is not correct, pick incorrect items or even ship packages to the wrong customer address.  

All these examples result in returns, extra costs, and dissatisfied customers, but automation eliminates that. Or rather, you’ll deal with fewer opportunities for these errors to happen since automation gives you a concrete way to standardise typical processes. Plus, it’s similar to having an additional helping hand to verify information against a stock list as soon as changes occur. 

For example, a retailer using Mintsoft would have automatic order verification processes to confirm they have the correct customer address and product SKUs before putting together orders for fulfilment and delivery to customers. Beyond ensuring data accuracy, you’ll avoid lower return rates and maintain your profits. 

Why is a single tool important here?  

If you have separate tools for order processing and inventory, they might not sync together perfectly, causing all kinds of data mismatch. However, with a comprehensive system like Mintsoft, you can trust that all your processes will use correct and, importantly, live information. 

Save time and money 

Automating routine work related to data entry, label printing, or reporting is often the missing piece that allows staff to focus more on strategic areas, while saving labour costs and removing operational inefficiencies. But it’s not just about the budget. Potential mistakes can cost even more when stock overages or late shipments enter the picture.   

Use Mintsoft to create shipping labels and select carriers to cut fulfilment time down from hours to minutes. Expect to change your current workflows when you add a unifying tool to redirect your time and budget towards your resources and strategic efforts instead. 

Offer better customer service 

73% of consumers are willing to switch to a competitor after going through several different bad experiences. 

Automation helps fulfil orders faster and more accurately for customers by providing real-time updates that can create a sense of trust and loyalty. It also means you’ll finally be able to keep up with the increasing expectations of consumers for both speed and transparency.  

Send automated order confirmations and tracking emails to build up your customer satisfaction efforts. Faster order processing with automation in place also means same-day dispatch will now be a reality that can encourage repeat purchases.  

Mintsoft's order management features are provided as part of a complete warehouse management platform, making it a versatile and scalable solution, allowing fulfilment houses, 3PLs, and eCommerce retailers to automate all the critical processes that come with order management.  

Mintsoft connects with over 150 platforms, including marketplaces, courier service providers, and accounting packages, providing users with a fully automated order lifecycle, reducing manual tasks, list noise, decreasing the potential for errors, and improving efficiency.  

Its intuitive user interface and simple rules-based automation system give users back their time, reduce cost, and improve customer service standards.  

Some key automation capabilities that come with Mintsoft include: 

• Mintsoft automatically transfers customer orders from your eCommerce platforms, validates customer details, and sends the order to the appropriate warehouse or fulfilment channel according to the fulfilment rules established by the retailer.  
• The platform synchronises inventory levels across multiple sales channels in real time, preventing overselling and ensuring that stock levels are accurate. 
• The tool connects with over 100 couriers (like Royal Mail and DPD), allowing you to set rules so that the best carrier can be chosen based on weight, destination, or cost. It then collates the best courier, creates, and prints the shipping labels. All without human intervention. 

And more! Hear how Mintsoft customers are making a difference through order management automation:  

Radius Warehouse and Logistics Services chose Mintsoft’s order management automation platform to streamline order management for their B2B and B2C 3PL operations.  

They used Mintsoft to automate order processing by integrating existing platforms like Unleashed to eliminate manual CSV uploads and now route orders based on custom rules. The tool’s batch scheduling module groups orders for picking, saving the team 15 hours weekly. Mobile barcode scanning now ensures 99.6%+ picking accuracy.

Ultralight Outdoor Gear (UOG) moved to a cloud-based order management solution through Mintsoft's automated order management system to finally automate their fulfilment process. Switching from a paper-based system, Mintsoft now automates picking lists for UOG, synchronising them with plenty of tools the team was already using, including their ERP system, Shopify, and couriers. They’re now able to dispatch orders placed before 3 pm the same day. The batch scheduler module supports them in differentiating between multi-line and single-line products. This enabled the team at UOG to create specific trolleys in the warehouse for associated batches. 

Since implementing Mintsoft, UOG has seen a 90% drop in returns in terms of value. This level of savings essentially pays for the software itself, besides the significant increase in customer satisfaction.