As a business owner, especially in the food and beverage industry, the number one complaint across the board is the lack of a useful order management system. As a wholesaler or someone looking into running a wholesale business, the ability to streamline your order fulfillment processes is critical to your success.
After all, 46% of wholesalers monitor their order cycles via manual systems; and 19% of wholesalers don't track their cycles at all. Continuing down this route easily leads to incorrect data, fulfillment issues, and customer complaints.
In this article, we'll explain BlueCart's order management system, the definition of order management, and answer some frequently asked questions about BlueCart.
What Is Order Management Software?
When considering order management systems (OMSs), it's best to think of them as the driving force of a business taking orders from cart to customer. Successful delivery is important to customers, so it should be important to you. Not only that, but for businesses, successful order fulfillment means increased profitability and continuity.
Order management begins the moment a customer makes a purchase and the products are delivered. However, behind the scenes, there are a lot of moving parts that make order management work so well. This includes downstream operational processes, people, systems, and partnerships (see supplier relationship management software) to fulfill each order.
Why Is Order Management So Important?
Order management plays an integral part in both the sales and order fulfillment process.
It allows you to avoid stock issues, mainly overstocking, dead stock (see dead stock meaning), and understocking.
When uncontrolled, all of this leads to backorder issues. As a result, you lose out on potentially valuable sales and increase customer churn.
Order management is also important because it helps prevent and reduce shipping errors. No shipping team is perfect, so you might be dealing with delayed delivery, wrong orders, and slow operations. However, with proper order management techniques in place, you have the ability to avoid these errors and issues altogether.
Additionally, order management saves businesses time and money. Order management is made to streamline your processes; without it, there's lots you may be losing out on. You might find that your team is mainly spending too much time on the fulfillment process. Investing in quality order management software, hospitality software, or hospitality procurement software is the best way to reduce errors and waste.
What Is a Wholesale Order Management Platform?
A wholesale order management platform is a platform for managing orders, customer records, fulfillment, inventory visibility, payments and invoicing, and eCommerce customer service. Knowingly, your order management process can easily make or break your brand’s relationship with your customers.
Why? Because consumers and B2B online marketplace users want to know if there’s a problem in transit, and they want transparency on location and hassle-free returns.
Let's take a look at what happens behind the scenes of an order management platform:
- Providing Merchants with Accurate Merchandise Inventory Counts: In so doing, you're providing customers with accurate shipping information. This includes origin and last mile delivery. Products ship from various locations, have different warehousing and distribution centers, and even different stores.
- Order Routing: The next important step in order management is order routing. Whether you use standard flat rate shipping or offer customizations, your OMS should be able to handle it.
- Shipping Integrations: A critical component of OMS is offering both fast and flexible shipping options. This is the best possible way to earn customer loyalty and brand trust. In fact, studies show that 57% of shoppers remain loyal to brands that offer same day delivery or overnight shipping. As customer expectations rise, businesses should work to meet these expectations. If you're unsure of how to calculate shipping costs, you can use a shipping cost estimator to help.
- Delivery Management: After items have been picked up, packed, and prepared for shipping, the OMS completes the payment. This triggers the delivery process.
As you can see, order management acts like the human brain. When everything works in unison, it's so much easier for the process to flow without issue. So, you can see why choosing the right platform can make or break your business.
What Is BlueCart?
We've talked a lot about choosing the right order management platform, but how do you know what platform is right? Well, there are many factors to consider like price, integrations, and overall usability. If you're going to choose an order management platform, why not choose one that provides multiple functions?
BlueCart offers just that. BlueCart is an all-in-one order management platform, tailored to food supplies and the hospitality industry, meant to streamline your services and increase sales. With BlueCart, you have access to an eCommerce platform tailored to wholesalers, and D2C business models, a wholesale platform, and a subscription platform.
Beyond that, BlueCart eliminates the extra costs associated with commonplace eCommerce and website integrations. You get unlimited flexibility without the giant price tag.
eCommerce
With eCommerce platforms, there's nothing more you'll want than the ability to get your brand out there and reach more customers. Any eCommerce platform you choose should provide you with proven eCommerce tools, helpful resources, and the ability to sell in whatever way you want.
Wholesale Management
Wholesale management operates through the use of catalogs. While many businesses still use the tried and true paper catalogs, today those are rather inefficient. A digital catalog is the most efficient way to update your pricing and provide customers with real-time updates. It's a vital part of efficient business systems.
Subscriptions
Subscription eCommerce platforms and eCommerce marketplaces are software that sits between your products or services and the eCommerce payment processing gateway that lets you bill and invoice customers periodically.
These platforms allow you to offer regular purchases on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. Subscription payments lower the barrier to entry for products and services and allow more potential customers to purchase your product. While they may pay a larger amount over the long term, they can get immediate access to the product.
How Can BlueCart Help Me?
Now that you know what BlueCart does, you may be rightfully asking, “How can BlueCart help me?”
Here's what BlueCart can do for you:
- Streamline your processes shaving hours off of your day, so you can get back to running your hospitality business.
- Provide you with access to menu design and payment processing software.
- Help you organize your products by providing you with access to multiple catalogs.
- Eliminate worrying about payments because BlueCart offers low fees and no transaction fees.
- The ability to access your storefront anywhere, anytime. The BlueCart platform is accessible via smartphone, computers, and tablets with customized integrations for iOS and Android.
Frequently Asked Questions About BlueCart
Does BlueCart Offer Dropshipping?
No, BlueCart does not offer dropshipping. BlueCart does not sell and store products. Instead, we offer businesses access to a hosted platform with the ability to add necessary dropshipping integrations. You can run your dropshipping business from our platform, but we are not a wholesale supplier.
Will I Get Trained on How to Use the Platform?
Yes, when you sign up with BlueCart, we offer training every step of the way. This way, you know how to use our platform as well as we do.
Can I Have Unlimited Users On the Platform?
Yes, you can have unlimited users. Everyone who needs access to your storefront, invoices, and reports has access.
Is BlueCart a Warehouse?
No, BlueCart is not a warehouse. We are an order management platform tailored primarily to the food and beverage industry.
Is There a Limit to How Many Products I Can Create?
No, BlueCart does not have a cap on how many products you can create. Whether you have a large inventory or small one, BlueCart allows you to remain flexible with products and what your catalog offers.