Not too long ago, minor inconveniences were just a fact of life while shopping. The occasional stockout or a discrepancy between physical and digital stores were tolerated by the average customer. But that level of tolerance is getting harder to find.

Today’s customers have been conditioned by hyper-convenient retailers, such as Amazon, to expect speed and simplicity at every step of the shopping experience.

This trend is expected to continue. New frontiers in retail, such as AI purchasing and e-commerce chatbots, are expected to only cement customers’ beliefs that simple, immediate service is the normal.

Delivering this level of convenience requires real-time inventory visibility, synchronized data across channels and streamlined order orchestrations, capabilities many legacy ERP environments struggle to provide.

Signs You Have an Order Management Problem

Most organizations are entirely unaware that they have an order management problem. They assume that their order management system is, if not perfect, at least good enough.

You can’t provide every omnichannel feature customers expect

It used to be that omnichannel commerce, or the ability synchronize online and in-person shopping into one experience, was a novelty. Today, it’s a baseline.

To make these offerings work, you need access to real-time ERP data so you can get instant inventory visibility across all sales channels. In many cases, your sales associates need to access this information while serving customers so they can place complex orders in minutes. Data exchanges between in-store and online systems need to be automated, instantaneous and completely in sync; they need to draw from the same ERP data, so when inventory is deducted in-store, the numbers change online, too.

There are discrepancies between online and in-store information

More than two-thirds of customers check inventory levels online before driving to a store and many confirm prices online, too. If the numbers they saw online don’t match what they experience in-person, it creates frustration and ill will.

From the retailer’s side, price and inventory information for different sales channels is scattered across a variety of applications. But from the customer’s perspective, all your channels are part of one entity. Discrepancies erode trust.

Retailers who want to cultivate trustworthiness and reliability need real-time inventory data and seamless connectivity between all sales channels.

Employees are frustrated with the technologies they use

Often overlooked in this conversation are the employees who rely on these order management systems every day. Sales associates and customer service agents want to deliver a seamless experience. But when they are working with outdated technology, that becomes difficult.

Associates need instant access to real-time information to answer questions, check product availability and build orders quickly. Too often, however, these employees are forced to reconcile conflicting information or follow complex, multi-step processes just to put together an order while customers wait.

When technology slows employees down, customers feel it.

In high-touch environments, intuitive tools are essential to delivering seamless service. If the tools meant to support employees become obstacles, both service quality and customer satisfaction suffer.

The Consequences of Ignoring Your Order Management Problem

If you let order management-related problems persist, you’ll see significant downstream impacts on your organization’s success. Some of the most common consequences of poor order management include:

• Lost sales. Approximately 77% of customers consider convenience to be important and many will even pay a premium for a more convenient experience. Lost sales don’t just impact a single transaction; they erode lifetime customer value and future revenue potential.
• Reputational damage. Poor experiences spread quickly and can deter future customers. Stories of your business being unaccommodating or unprofessional may spread on social media or within social circles. If it does, it could deter up to 80% of potential customers.
• Wasted time. Customer or employee, no one likes having their time wasted. But that’s just what an outdated order management system does. Time gets lost searching for information, making corrections and even waiting for the software to load. By some estimates, the average full-time employee wastes as many as 24 days of worktime a year struggling with slow technology.
• Difficulty scaling and innovating. It may be trite to say so, but retail evolves rapidly and outdated technology limits agility. When your technology is outdated, you can’t move fast enough. You are far less agile and cannot capitalize on the many retail trends that depend on synchronized data and streamlined order management.

How to Meet the Order Management Imperative

If you have an order management problem, you also have an imperative to fix it. Here are some tips for meeting today’s order management imperative.

Evaluate New Order Management Systems

Start by identifying software that simplifies and unifies order management. You’ll want to choose a solution that:

• Connects all sales channels. E-commerce, retail stores, wholesale and fulfillment should operate from a single source of truth, not separate systems stitched together.
• Works with your existing ERP system. Choose a solution designed to integrate natively with your ERP.
• Automates manual processes. Look for a solution that automates all your manual processes so employees can spend more time serving customers.
• An intuitive user interface. Prioritize a modern, role-based interface that is easy to learn and built for frontline teams.

Find Opportunities for Process Automation

As you refine your order management approach, identify opportunities to automate repetitive, manual tasks, especially those that consume time without adding strategic value, such as data entry or complex order processing steps.

Look for meaningful applications of AI as well. For example, intelligent product search, automated order capture and AI-assisted customer support can significantly improve speed and accuracy. The most effective order management systems embed automation and AI, where they deliver measurable efficiency gains.

Clean Up Your Data and Your ERP Ecosystem

Modernizing order management starts with a clean foundation. Before implementing new technology, ensure all your data is reconciled, accurate and free of duplicates.

Next, examine your tech stack for unnecessary bolt-on solutions and other forms of technical debt. Over time, add-ons and customizations accumulate, creating complexity and silos that slow operations. A simplified, well-governed ecosystem allows new order management capabilities to deliver their full impact.

Help Employees Adopt the New Order Management System

Even the most intuitive system requires focused training to ensure adoption and long-term success.

Configure your system to align with each user’s role or job description. An agent in a call center, for example, will need a different user experience than an in-store associate, who will need a different experience than a sales rep working with wholesale customers.

Empower Business Growth and Customer Delight with Order Management

Once a customer experiences perfect convenience somewhere, they’re going to want to experience it everywhere. Retailers operating on outdated order management systems risk falling short of those expectations, as delays and data inconsistencies erode trust.

Modern order management is no longer optional, it’s imperative. Retailers must evaluate whether their systems can truly support omnichannel visibility, speed and accuracy. Because order management is the backbone of retail organizations, strengthening it unlocks more than efficiency. It paves the way for business growth, innovation and exceptional customer experiences.