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Being confident that you’re despatching the correct products to the right customer is a crucial part of running any ecommerce or fulfilment business; meaning you rely heavily on your order management processes. Choosing the right order management system (OMS) for your business needs is important and there are some disadvantages of order management software that should be considered, before making your decision.
Before discussing the disadvantages, it should be mentioned that there are many benefits of using order management software. It is a great tool to maintain a clear view of inventory, orders and shipping and can make the job of order fulfilment much easier with the automation of paperwork such as picking lists, shipping labels and invoicing, saving time and increasing efficiency.
We believe that being unbiased in our discussions about order management is key to helping businesses figure out what is best for them. We encourage all businesses, whether a retailer or 3PL, to think about both the advantages and disadvantages of any software they’re considering implementing.
5 Disadvantages of Order Management Software
Whether you’re looking at using order management software or transitioning from one to another, the following 5 disadvantages of order management software could have a significant impact on your decision making:
1. High set up costs
Cost is a significant factor when choosing any software and many order management systems have an initial set-up cost as well as the monthly or annual billing. Depending on the complexity of your fulfilment processes, the cost of set up and implementation could be of considerable value.
Initial costs should be off-set by the efficiencies in time and money savings you could get in return from using an order management system for a prolonged period of time.
2. Training
New internal systems and software require training before they can be used to their full capabilities. Some order management software will have training packages included during on-boarding only, resulting in only your current staff being adequately trained.
Further training for new staff members or on new features could be charged at a premium or may not be available once onboarding is complete - relying on internal staff training each other or newer employees trying to figure it out for themselves. This could lead to inefficiencies as your team are unaware of the quickest way to perform a task or it could cause errors from employees not knowing how the system works.
Some providers may offer on-going training support, including guides or online training for new features, upskilling of existing users and training of new employees.
3. Integrations
Order management software is only as powerful as the data that’s being processed by it – for ecommerce retailers and fulfilment businesses, that data usually comes from integrations to shopping carts, marketplaces, accounting and couriers, that directly sync to the OMS.
If order management software offers insufficient integrations to the channels you require and does not offer a way of developing your own custom API connections, it could prove inefficient as you’ll still be required to manually input order details.
4. System management
With a large amount of key business data being inputted and outputted through a single order management system, the management and maintenance of that system and data is important.
Business operations depend on the reliability of its systems - order management software that requires a large amount of manual intervention to maintain connections or manage data is a disadvantage. Time spent managing these core functions, could be better spent planning the future and growth of your business.
5. Customisation of Documents
Your brand is a key part of your business. Being able to customise and personalise the documents created in your order management system such as invoices, labels and despatch notes can have a positive effect on your brand image and customer relations.
The level of document customisation available in order management systems varies; some may not support the level of brand personalisation you require, or may offer none at all. This may affect your decision on whether that software is right for your business.
Choosing the right order management software
Your business needs and budget are likely to influence which order management software you choose and we strongly encourage you to consider these disadvantages alongside the many benefits of an OMS.
You may also be interested in reading our additional article on the key benefits of an order management system; and if you’d like to learn more about Mintsoft’s order management, please book a personalised demo with one of our product experts.
