By Patrick Prasad, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Mintsoft 

If there’s one industry that has peaked during the pandemic, it’s E-commerce. With the levels of online shopping set to continue to increase, online retailers are feeling the effect of the rising demand of order fulfilment.

Despite the sector re-opening its physical door, it’s predicted that 51% of post-pandemic retail is set to take place online. With 78% of consumers saying they value convenience more today than they did before the pandemic, the pressure to fulfil accurate orders to consumers – in a timely – manner is high.

With supply chain issues and driver shortages creating additional challenges during a peak for the industry, working more efficiently has never been more important.  Implementation of technology is a great way for online retailers to keep up with demand of E-commerce and multi-channel selling, and scale their business as needed.  In an ever increasing digitally led world, consumer demand and expectations are at an all-time high, and API integrations could be the answer to online retailers keeping on top of order fulfilment.

Using an order management system (OMS) that supports API integrations will allow online retailers to connect their systems and applications they rely on, from one centralised platform. The benefits of this is that the  systems and channels used, are able to work together to share data and provide helpful insights such as real-time stock visibility across multiple marketplaces.

By integrating all sales channels and services that help to power thieir business, E-commerce business owners will be able to trim down complicated processes and automate time consuming tasks and entire workflows. For example, copying data to multiple platforms with spreadsheets will save time, but also reduce human error. The need to log into multiple platforms is removed as well, meaning more secure and faster data transfer too.

In addition to streamlining systems and helping with productivity, implementing technology such as an order management system will allow online retailers to make more informed and calculated decisions – whether it be around inventory, returns processes or even selecting the best courier for the job.

Complete orders more efficiently

In an era where competition is high, customer loyalty is becoming hard to retain. Something as small as a payment error, missed order or delivery issue can be enough to lose customer loyalty these days, but by automating processes and connecting the platforms that are relied on to power their business, online retailers will benefit in many ways and ultimately work towards delivering a great customer experience every time.

The use of shopping cart and marketplace integrations allows online retailers to take control of orders from one centralised location. Shopping cart integrations that work alongside your order management system offer full flexibility when accepting payments from your online stores, offering customers a frictionless sale. In a time where ease and convenience are the number one differentiator for top E-commerce brands, ensuring a hassle-free customer buying journey is key to ensuring repeat orders.

Take control of your financials

Many order management systems will integrate with multiple accounting systems, meaning taking control of your finances is made easy. For example, the ability to connect your online store with your accounting system, enables you to streamline your operations by providing the ability to manage everything from one platform. Once the order is confirmed and paid for, the platform sends the data to the inventory management and accounting software to update inventory levels and process payment.

As well as taking control of your financials, connecting your online stores to your accounting systems improves efficiency by removing the risk of duplicated data entry by having easy access to information from a single platform.

Manage all your shipping needs from one platform

When running your own E-commerce business, time is your best friend. By not having to log onto courier systems to create shipments or manually type out tracking numbers, you’ll save a lot of it.

By integrating your online stores with your courier partners, online sellers can quickly and easily choose a preferred shipping method. In fact, some order management systems automatically select the cheapest shipping option based on your (and your customers) delivery needs.

Using courier and multi-courier API integrations removes the complications of multiple deliveries via third-party services. By integrating your online stores with you chosen couriers via on order management system, shipping management is made easy. Automatic updates, tracking numbers and despatch status are provided instantaneously, so your customers will always be kept in the loop about their order.

By integrating channels and services such as their marketplaces, couriers and finance software, online retailers are able to provide more accurate and efficient orders.