What is an order management system or OMS? In short, it’s the system you use to track the orders your receive from customers for goods or services. An OMS also tracks customer data and inventory on hand. If you’re a retailer or wholesaler, you probably already have an OMS - even if it’s just in the form of a messy spreadsheet.

But first, let's take a step back and figure out exactly what order management is, and how it fits into your operations. Order management includes everything from organizing the orders your receive, stock movements, CRM, returns and refunds, billing and payments and order processing. 

Are order management and inventory management the same thing?

Not quite. Order management does include some aspects of inventory management - like tracking if there is enough stock to fulfill an order, or tracking the movement of stock as orders are shipped. Separately they track and take charge of different parts of the supply chain, even if they do overlap in some sections.

Inventory management, focuses more on past orders, helping your forecast for future demand, see sales trends, and order the right amount of stock, so you don’t end up with something like 12 years worth of extra batteries in your warehouse. 

Order management is more about organizing your ongoing orders, while inventory management looks into the past and helps you manage the future of your supply chain. However, the two go hand in hand and managing both in the right system is the key to impressive operations. 

Offline or in the cloud, this is what an OMS is all about

An order management system or OMS helps you organize the parts of your fulfillment process mentioned above and all the administration that goes along with it. It includes tracking orders from customers, processing orders, and organizing fulfillment - from when a customer purchases something from you until it’s shipped off to them. It also manages data from your customers and sales teams, if you have them. 

Then, the question becomes about using an order management system that is best for your business, and one that will help you grow and scale. Having a reliable system in place to manage your orders is essential. And if you’re using spreadsheets or another manual system, you’re probably losing a lot of time tracking and correcting errors that could definitely be used for something that will grow your business instead of just maintain it!

Using a system that is based in the cloud to track all of the above can really only bring advantages. If your OMS is in the cloud, it means that anyone will be able to access it at any time, any place with real-time data, which streamlines how you handle things.

Any system that manages so much data that is dynamic and constantly changing will be even more efficient in the cloud and brings many benefits, including: 

1. Efficient fulfillment: With all the data in one place, your fulfillment process will become more efficient with fewer delays, better tracking and easy access to all your orders and their statuses.
2. Improved organization: We're talking about organized sales orders and other information, allowing it to be available with just a few clicks, rather than searching through paperwork to find the order your looking for. The cloud improves data organization and guarantees fewer errors from manual entry and time lag in updates. Get paid faster with an organized billing data that you can use to quickly make financial decisions.
3. Better tracking: Managing orders in the cloud means you can track orders in the cloud, assuring constantly updated information and the knowledge of the current state of any of your orders at any time.

OMS in the cloud

An order management system that is based in the cloud will improve your efficiency, reduce errors and help your supply chain move along smoothly. Check out TradeGecko's order management and inventory management capabilities to see what difference a good system can make.