Tag Archive for: Warehouse management

What is an OMS e-commerce and how do you choose one?

What is an OMS e-commerce and how do you choose one_

In the world of online sales, having an e-commerce OMS is essential once you reach a certain sales volume. An e-commerce OMS allows you to gain productivity by facilitating order processing. In this article, Boostmyshop explains this type of software and how to choose the best option for you.

a) Detailed definition: e-commerce OMS

In the world of e-commerce, an OMS (Order Management System)  facilitates order management through 6 major steps, chronologically:

  • Centralising orders: A proper e-commerce OMS allows you to centralise orders from all your sales channels in a single interface.
  • Picking: An e-commerce OMS optimises the time spent retrieving ordered items from the warehouse, either through automatic routing of orders to the picker or optimisation of the picking path (and therefore the time spent picking).
  • Order processing: An ecommerce OMS systematically integrates various functions to facilitate order processing, such automatic label printing.
  • Connecting with CMS and stock management: An e-commerce OMS connects with your CMS (Content Management System): Shopify, Magento, etc.) and they are in constant dialogue. This means that the OMS is aware of the stock levels of the CMS, counts the processed orders and tracks potential stock shortages for ordered products.
  • Customer relations: The OMS – CMS connection allows your OMS to keep the CMS informed of shipments in real time, which in turn will inform the customer. This is highly useful, as customers have become very demanding in terms of order delivery times. This is one of the major factors in wining the buybox and selling more online. 
  • Up-to-date stock on sales channels: An e-commerce OMS allows you to keep your stock up-to-date on your sales channels. The processed orders are deducted from the CMS stock level, and the new available stock is transmitted to connected marketplaces.

 

b) Practical application for online vendors

An ecommerce OMS is an essential software program for successful online vendors as it increases productivity. Here is an example:

Keith is an online vendor. He sells on his Shopify website, Amazon and Cdiscount. Using his OMS:

All the orders he receives can be viewed by his order pickers on a single screen. The pickers pick up the products in order from the front, middle and back of the warehouse, top to bottom and left to right.

Once the orders have been prepared and the couriers are assigned, the labels are printed instantly.

As soon as the courier picks up the order, the customer receives a message from Keith’ shop with the order tracking number. Shipped products are automatically deducted from his Shopify stock, and stock levels are updated on Amazon and Cdiscount.

The order pickers were faster, their work was easier, the customer received their order faster and was informed about processing as soon as possible. Thanks to his e-commerce OMS, Keith is more productive, and his order pickers and customers are more satisfied.

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c) Choosing the right ecommerce OMS

When choosing an e-commerce OMS, there are certain criteria you should look at carefully.

Choose an OMS with maximum integration:

As we said earlier, an e-commerce OMS connects to your sales channels and CMS to work. Before choosing an e-commerce OMS, you should therefore make sure that it can integrate your sales channels and CMS. If a software program can integrate with another, this means that it is capable of communicating with the other program to increase performance.

Choose an SaaS tool:

Once you choose an e-commerce OMS, it becomes a key part of your logistics. If there is a problem with the software (although this is very rare), it can seriously affect your business. That’s why we recommend an SaaS e-commerce OMS for managing your orders. SaaS refers to a type of software that is less susceptible to bugs than standard software and automatically updated.

SaaS software is hosted directly on the servers of the company that provides it to you, rather than on your own servers. This provides three advantages:  

● No risk of bugs due to conflict with other software stored on your server. (It is not uncommon for software programs stored together to stop working).

● Software automatically updates, no risk of bugs due to compatibility problems when you update your CMS, and no time wasted doing the updates yourself.

● Lower costs and adaptable performance.

d) Our recommendation: myFulfillment order management system

If you are looking for an efficient, inexpensive and easy to use e-commerce OMS, we recommend myFulfillment.

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myFulfillment is an SaaS solution compatible with more than 50 integrations including CMS, marketplaces , couriers companies , and other complementary e-commerce solutions.

What sets us apart? We beat the competition on the 6 major OMS steps defined above and the software can be adapted to your needs. We are aware that not all online vendors have the same needs, so we adjust our pricing depending on the number of orders you managed per day.

The advantages of e-commerce OMS myFulfillment

To centralise orders : The manager of your pickers can decide who to allocate an order to based on weight, courier, etc.

For picking: Each picker has an overall picking list so they can retrieve all the products to be prepared at once, optimising time spent in the warehouse. The list can be printed or consulted on a smartphone. Your manager can analyse their performance.

For order processing: E-commerce OMS myFulfillment includes a barcode check to ensure that each order leaves with the correct products. This maximises customer satisfaction. Our e-commerce OMS also allows you to set up shipping rules that assign a default carrier based on weight, customer address, etc.

As soon as the order is ready, a courier is assigned, the label is printed and your parcel can be shipped.  

Customer relations: Orders are always accurate, tracking numbers are automatically sent. Manages customer returns.

Connecting with CMS, marketplaces and stock management:

myFulfillment is not just an e-commerce OMS. Our tool is versatile and includes a WMS (Warehouse Management System) that allows you to manage warehouses, stocks, and reordering.

myFulfillment is one of the most complete e-commerce tools available on the market. Our software covers such a wide range of needs that it is difficult to touch on all of them in one article. That’s why we recommend that you make an appointment with our experts to see how our tool can help your logistics in just a few minutes.

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Manage supply needs with myFulfillment

Manage supply needs with myFulfillment

Good supply needs management is a key factor in a company’s profitability. myFulfillment, our multichannel solution developed by Boostmyshop, has been designed to help you manage your e-commerce site, whether it be for order preparation or supply requirements.

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What is the supply chain?

Supply for a company consists in buying products for resale. It is an integral part of stock rotation, i.e. the entry of products but also their exit. Good supply needs management will boost your profitability.

Supply requirements are a key feature of procurement, they summarise the products that the system recommends to purchase.

How do you manage your supply needs with myFulfillment?

myFulfillment has been developed to help you manage your e-commerce, including the replenishment of your products. From the replenishment screen, you have access to a list of products that myFulfillment recommends you to purchase. There are two reasons why a product may appear in this list :

  • You have sold the product but do not have it in stock
  • The stock of the product falls below your ideal stock level

For each product, you can see the recommended quantities to be supplied in order to dispatch customer orders, but also in order to reach your ideal stock level.

Each product has a “low stock”, “backorder” or “awaiting receipt” status:

  • Low stock: you must buy the product in order to reach a minimum stock level.
  • Remaining: you must purchase the product to ship a customer order.
  • Awaiting receipt: there are one or more supplier orders expected that cover the requirements. Once the purchase order has been received, the product will be removed from the supply requirements screen.

How to select the quantity of products to be supplied?

You can select the quantity of each product to be added to the purchase order. myFulfillment recommends two quantities to replenish :

  • A minimum quantity you need to ship customer orders
  • A maximum quantity that you need to ship customer orders, plus the quantity needed to reach a minimum stock level.

In the column “quantities to order” you have 3 possibilities:

  • Fill in the desired quantity manually
  • Use the button to the left of the text box to select the minimum quantity recommended by myFulfillment.
  • Use the button to the right of the text box to select the maximum recommended amount of myFulfilment.

How to select products from a single supplier?

You have the possibility to filter products per supplier. This means that you can select supplier X and you will then see a list of products that myFulfillment recommends you to replenish based on this supplier.

If a product is associated with one or more suppliers, the associated suppliers are displayed with the purchase price.

How do I create a purchase order?

The purpose of the replenishment requirements screen is to help you easily create a new purchase order.

First, you need to apply the filters to identify the products for the supplier for which you wish to place a purchase order :

  • Using the “Supplier” column
  • Using filters by product name
  • Optionally, using the “Status” column (if you wish to order only the products required for backorders)

Once you have filtered the products, you must define for each product the quantity to be purchased.

Then, once you have filled in the product quantities, you can create a new purchase order using the “Create a new purchase order” button: a list of suppliers appears, click on the desired supplier and a new purchase order is created for the selected supplier, with the product and quantities required.

With myFulfillment, you save time in managing your procurement needs. So you can optimise your e-commerce logistics even further without neglecting your profitability.

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Glossary

Backorder quantity: This is the quantity you need to purchase to process backorders (backorder status).

Low stock quantity: this is the quantity you need to buy to reach the ideal stock level.

Quantity to be received: this is the quantity expected from the purchase with the status “expected”. Orders with another status are not taken into account.

Suggested quantity to be ordered: this is the sum of the quantity needed for the late order + the quantity needed for a low stock, from which the quantity to be received is deducted.

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Optimising order preparation with myFulfillment

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Optimising order preparation with myFulfillment

Order preparation is an essential activity when you sell in e-commerce. You have one or more warehouses, you have to manage a certain number of orders per day but you waste too much time preparing them? At Boostmyshop, we have developed myFulfillment, the tool that allows you to manage your e-commerce logistics from a single interface that is accessible in a SaaS. In our article on dropshipping, we explained the benefits of myFulfillment for using this sales method. Today we are going to show you how effective it is in optimising the preparation of your orders.

With myFulfillment, your orders are prepared in 4 steps: selection of the orders to be prepared, collection of the articles (picking), preparation (packing) and dispatch (shipping). Here’s a more detailed description of each step.

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First step: select all the orders you wish to prepare for dispatch

From the myFulfillment order picking screen, you will find all the orders that need to be shipped, split according to the availability status of the products they contain:

  • In stock: all the products in the order are in stock, the order can be prepared.
  • Partial: some of the products included in the order are currently out of stock.
  • Out of stock: all the products included in the order are currently out of stock.
  • Blocked : Orders have been put on hold for a specific reason (unbilled order, customer request…).

 

When you are in the tab in stock, click on “preparation” to add one or more orders to the tab being prepared.

If you wish to ship an order with a missing product, it is still possible for you, it will be a partial shipment. All you have to do is add this order to the orders being prepared manually so that only the products in stock can be prepared and dispatched. Moreover, as soon as the missing products are received, the partial orders are automatically reassigned to the orders in the stock tab.

Second step: collecting items or picking

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Picking list myFulfillment

Picking consists of collecting in your warehouse the products that make up the orders that you have selected in the first stage. From the order preparation screen, you can print out your picking list which will be made up of two parts :

  •  A list that summarises all the products you need to prepare the selected orders and their location in the warehouse in an optimised manner.
  • A dedicated preparation sheet for each order with the main information and details of the products.

In this way, the route is optimised for the order picker.

Third step: packing your orders

Once your items have been collected from your warehouse, it is now time to prepare the orders.

You can scan the barcode in the top right-hand corner of the picking list for each order or you can manually select the order via the drop-down menu. You then simply need to validate the presence of each product ordered in the package to be shipped by scanning the barcodes using the barcode scanner, or manually to confirm that they are in the order by indicating the quantity as well as the weight.

Once your order is complete, you can validate the packing, print your shipping label and stick it on your parcel. A PDF document can then be downloaded and contains the invoice and delivery note for all orders.

Fourth and last step: the dispatch of your orders, known as shipping

This step allows you to export your order information to your shipping carrier (TNT, UPS, Chronopost, etc.) and then import a tracking file that will fill in the tracking number returned by the carriers. It will let you notify the order shipment progress to the customer.

Once the order preparation has been completed, the order will be considered dispatched. A button will then be used to flush shipped orders from the orders being prepared, so that a new batch of orders can be prepared.

myFulfillment available on mobile phones

Our myFulfillment application, 100% compatible with Android devices, is designed to make your life easier. It allows you to manage your warehouse tasks directly from your mobile phone:

  • Manage your stocks
  • Prepare and ship your orders
  • Receive your supplier orders
  • Simplify your inventories
  • Save time and flexibility

Paperless at the heart of our development at Boostmyshop

Every year, more than 300 million tonnes of paper are produced worldwide. At Boostmyshop we care about this, which is why our mobile application myFulfillment enables paperless order picking by making your picking list available directly in the app.

As a real milestone in online sales, order picking is not to be neglected. By optimising this task with myFulfillment, you will gain in productivity, improve your services and thus enhance your brand image.

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Your one-stop solution to manage order, inventory and purchase orders.

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A beginner’s guide for dropshipping

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A beginner’s guide for dropshipping

Who has never heard of dropshipping? Popularly used on marketplaces for many years such as Amazon, Rueducommerce, or Ebay, it’s a term massively used in the e-commerce sphere. Are you planning to launch your dropshipping activity but not sure from where to start? This article will help you understand the basics to get you started.

What is dropshipping?

It is a retail fulfilment method where the concept is to sell products that you do not keep in stock. Therefore, it is a tripartite system amongst the seller, supplier and customer. The seller chooses the range of products he wants to sell and the suppliers, respectively.

Here are the 3 distinct stages of dropshipping:

  • The customer creates order from the seller
  • The seller receives the customer’s order and places the order with respective supplier
  • The supplier accepts the order and sends it to the customer.

What is the aim of using this method?

Dropshipping makes it easier to sell quickly at a lower cost.

The seller doesn’t have to invest in managing inventory or stock. Mainly, if you sell fragile products, valuable products or any high maintenance products, it’s a major cost saver if you do dropshipping. Besides, the seller can reduce 30% of his cost as he doesn’t have to manage delivery.

It can be beneficial for sellers as it saves a lot of time in the supply chain process. Moreover, the time saved can be utilised to focus on improving e-commerce websites, marketing campaigns and website traffic.

How to choose your supplier?

It is important to choose the right supplier as it plays an impactful role in the process. Avoid googling “best dropshipping provider” as you will find 100s of different suppliers around the world.

Here are the easy steps to qualify the right suppliers –

  • Geographical location of the supplier
  • Type of products the supplier offers (generalist or specialised)
  • Quality of the products
  • Delivery time and options offered
  • Ability to ship B2C vs. pallet shipping
  • Type of method used to avoid overselling and manage inventory

After you qualify your supplier do not hesitate to test the products yourself to judge the delivery and quality. In this way, you will be able to create a relationship of trust with your supplier and satisfy your customers.

Who is dropshipping for?

Dropshipping is now aimed at anyone wishing to sell on the Internet.

Freelancers are the most adept because it is effortless and fast to create an online store without having to manage a stock of products.

If you already own an online store, you can also diversify your sales methods and start dropshipping in addition to your standard e-commerce. This will allow you to diversify your product catalogue without increasing your stock or costs and thus, satisfy your customers in the best way.

How to manage Dropshipping?

Dropshipping looks simple on paper, and it does have many advantages but it can be challenging to manage because you will be entering a business partnership with the suppliers. That means if there is any mistake by the supplier then it will have a direct impact on your company. However, you will have to manage your suppliers with the utmost care.

myFulfilment product offered by Boostmyshop can cover you from the possible mismanagement of dropshipping.

We can help you to synchronise your supplier’s stocks in myFulfillment so you can put your supplier’s inventory on your watch list.

Here is how you can manage dropshipping on myFulfillment

  1. Push your stocks as well as your supplier to your CMS

  2. Automatically assign orders to dropshipping

  3. Transmit orders by email / PDF / EDI to supplier

  4. Supplier has access to a portal allowing him to update the progress of dropshipping orders

  5. Tracking dashboard will help you to follow your dropshipping orders

However, you can rely on the Boostmyshop solution to help you to manage your profitable dropshipping business.

 

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