Gone are the days when people would only go shopping physically.
Nowadays, online stores and sales channels have increased in popularity, and are surely going to grow at an unprecedented pace.
That, however, doesn’t mean offline purchases will come to an end. In fact, online shopping only complements the old-fashioned brick-and-mortar shops.
Moreover, with the growth of order fulfillment services like in-store and curbside pickup, the transition from online shopping and in-store sales has become more streamlined.
This asks for a better order tracking and management system in order to stay competitive in this ever-changing business climate.
Why do retailers need to track omnichannel orders in one place?
There are a number of reasons why retailers need to be able to track their omnichannel orders under one roof:
Firstly, this enables you to keep an eye on all of the different orders coming in from customers.
With information such as order processing time, shipping destinations, and item values readily available, retailers can get a better sense of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to order fulfillment strategies, outbound logistics, warehouse operations, but also sales and marketing campaigns.
Secondly, tracking orders helps you improve customer service and brand loyalty. By monitoring issues that arise with each order and responding quickly, retailers can make sure that any problems are immediately resolved or even avoided at all.
Tools like WeSupply provide order processing and tracking information for all warehouses, enabling retailers to make timely, informed decisions so the customer experience is not compromised.
Lastly, by centralizing all of their omnichannel tracking data, you can make sure that you’re making data-driven decisions about how to best optimize their business processes for maximum efficiency and impact.
Whether it’s reducing processing times or scaling up inventory management for peak holiday season, omnichannel order tracking is an essential tool for staying competitive in today’s retail landscape.
What happens if you don’t centralize all orders?
Not tracking all your orders in one place makes it more challenging for their customer service representatives and marketing teams to centralize and analyze relevant data in order to ultimately create a results-driven strategy.
Using multiple different tools, none of which offer you a complete overview of your efforts can negatively impact your performance, even compromising cross-team management and communication processes.
Moreover, if it takes your employees a huge amount of time to look up orders, initiate returns, track refund statuses, provide gift coupons or discount codes when necessary, etc., your system is not as effective as you might think.
Lack of efficiency also affects the customer lifetime value, and not in a good way.
This is where omnichannel order tracking comes into play: it enables you to remove friction within the organization and improve the customer experience, ultimately driving more sales and decreasing the churn rate.
What is the solution?
Using an omnichannel order tracking software that enables you to monitor orders across multiple channels, both online sales and brick-and-mortar purchases.
Moreover, being able to sell in-store enables them to drive more foot traffic, whereas curbside pickup services (or deliver to locker option) allow you to create a truly contactless experience in the context of a global health situation.
In fact, 85% of consumers who have used BOPIS say that they have made additional unplanned in-store purchases when picking up an order placed online.
Moreover, a 2020 study shows that 70% of respondents said BOPIS improved their shopping experience.
In today’s modern business landscape, online and offline retailers need to provide their customers with seamless order tracking services.
This has become an absolute must for long-term success, as customers increasingly demand a quick and reliable way to keep track of their purchases.
In fact, many customers will simply cancel their orders if they cannot easily access up-to-date information about the status of their shipments.
Omnichannel order tracking solutions allow both businesses and consumers to track items across multiple sales platforms in a single centralized dashboard.
This helps to ensure consistent customer service regardless of how customers choose to purchase goods or access information about their orders.
In short, omnichannel order tracking is a crucial component of any successful multi-channel commerce business in today’s digital age.
Whether your company operates primarily on brick-and-mortar storefronts or online stores (i.e., website, social media, etc.), omnichannel order tracking allows you to see all your orders in one place, regardless of which channel they were placed through.
This can be a huge time-saver, and it can help you avoid lost, misplaced, or even stolen packages.
In addition, omnichannel order tracking can help you keep track of your inventory levels, so you can quickly see which products are selling well and which ones need to be reordered.
Better order management = Excellent shopping and post-purchase experience.
Benefits Of Omnichannel Order Management
If you’ve reached this point in the article, chances are you’re really trying to create a seamless experience for customers who buy both from your brick-and-mortar store and online shop.
But you might also be wondering “What’s in it for me?“
For starters, collecting data that is essential for your marketing team will enable them to make well-informed decisions and create a results-driven strategy for your omnichannel retail business.
Marketing teams can use such insights to establish a realistic marketing budget that will generate growth in the long run.
After all, knowledge is power.
Using apps like WeSupply and Omnisend together will help you boost revenue-generating processes while creating an interconnected experience for the customer, upselling and cross-selling, providing them with relevant recommendations and offers according to their purchase behavior, product searches, and order history.
Besides giving you the order information you need to empower your staff and customers, below are four more benefits of implementing an omnichannel order tracking solution:
Faster Order Processing Time
In order to streamline order processing and shipping times, it is crucial to have an efficient system for tracking orders that are both in-store and online.
By knowing the exact location of each item in your warehouse and being able to accurately map out delivery addresses, you can create a more streamlined workflow and more efficient route planning.
Furthermore, having centralized information about orders allows store associates to easily locate and track customers’ orders, giving them access to all the necessary information about products, inventory levels, or customer preferences, reducing time spent looking up essential details.
By making use of omnichannel order tracking tools, retailers can provide faster delivery times and a better experience for their customers, ultimately helping them to stay ahead of their competition in this soon predominantly digital age.
Below we have an example of the evolution of the end-to-end processing time for a retailer using WeSupply Order Tracking over a period of 12 months:
Fewer Out-Of-Stock Situations
OOS (or out-of-stock) situations can be a blow to your retail business, especially if you’re selling across multiple channels.
Moreover, if you’re not tracking returns as well, you’re just making the entire situation more complicated for your employees and more unpleasant for your customers.
There are a few main reasons for discrepancies between item counts, and those are lack of centralized order tracking (unsurprisingly), human error, loss of items due to damage or theft, and other technical or logistics issues.
Just by automating and centralizing order tracking data, you’ll already be tackling most of the aforementioned issues. Besides, combined with delivery notifications, you can at least make sure your customers stay informed and satisfied with your customer service team.
They will know exactly where their package is and you can easily let them know a shipment exception has occurred and that it’ll take a bit longer for the items to arrive at their front door.
After all, stockouts cost retailers approximately $1 trillion per year, so why not avoid them if possible?
No More “Where is My Order?” Inquiries
Since the pandemic started, eCommerce has exploded. And while that’s great news for retailers, it’s not so great for their customer service teams, especially if your retail business is still selling at a physical store as well as online.
If you’ve ever been on a customer support team, you know the drill: a never-ending stream of emails, calls, and chats about where someone’s package is.
It’s enough to make anyone go crazy. And it’s not just the customers who are frustrated— staff members who can’t find orders in one single place are often even more frustrated.
But what if there was a way to track all of those orders in one place, regardless of which channel they came in on? That’s where omnichannel order tracking comes in.
All you need to do is to upload all orders, no matter where they came from, in one central location. By digitizing all order information and providing customers with real-time updates on the status of their orders, there will be no more “Where Is My Order?” (aka WISMO) inquiries or frantic calls to customer service— just peace of mind and seamless order fulfillment.
Besides, WISMO is directly affecting Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and your Net Promoter Score (NPS), which brings us to the next benefit.
Centralized Customer Feedback
When it comes to improving the shopping process, creating a seamless brand experience, and maximizing profits, omnichannel order tracking and management are key.
With a powerful system in place, retailers are able to centralize all their data on one convenient platform, allowing them to analyze trends and respond quickly to customer feedback.
What’s more, by accurately monitoring their post-purchase processes and listening to customer feedback, companies can spot inefficiencies or areas for improvement and take steps to address them.
In the end, this allows retailers to achieve extraordinary results that far surpass the standards set by their competitors.
Below you can see one example of how the CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score changes soon after implementing the WeSupply Order Tracking solution and its evolution in time:
Key Takeaways: Omnichannel Tracking For a Fantastic Customer Journey
Omnichannel order tracking is an essential component of modern retail businesses. In this digital age, customers are used to the convenience and flexibility of being able to shop across multiple channels, whether that’s shopping in-store, online, or via a mobile app.
No doubt, to create a seamless experience, you need to centralize all order data and have everything under one roof. That will also take a load off your customer service team.
Most importantly, offering a branded order tracking service will help you elevate the entire customer journey and drive more customer satisfaction.
After all, the success of your company is determined by an excellent customer experience that leads to an increased conversion rate and, of course, a reduced churn rate.
Omnichannel order tracking can be a game-changer for businesses that sell through multiple channels or are trying to implement an omnichannel strategy for their stores.
By integrating all orders into one system, you can get a real-time view of your inventory levels and know exactly where each order is in the fulfillment process.
Besides, tracking all orders can help you combat package theft and prevent return fraud. You’ll know the whereabouts of your orders at all times and whether or not the packages were pickup up by your customers.
This level of visibility is essential for providing great customer service and ensuring that orders are fulfilled accurately and on time.