When customers come to your Amazon store and click Buy Now, their journey is over. They’ve made their purchase, and it’s time to eagerly await their products. For sellers, the journey of managing orders is just beginning. Order management is an important part of keeping your business operating smoothly and delivering a great customer experience. In this guide, we’ll look at all aspects of Amazon order management to keep your storefront running effectively.

Key takeaways

• Order management refers to how sellers handle orders, from initial processing to preparing products to leave warehouse shelves.
• Improper order management can cause big problems for a business, from losing customers to being penalized in ways that can hurt things like the chance of Buy Box wins.
• Using automated tools to streamline order management can be key in keeping order processing and inventory strategy running smoothly.

What is order management on Amazon?

Order management on Amazon simply refers to the process of managing the orders buyers place. It sounds easy, but the complexity of logistics involved with every purchase can be extensive, particularly for sellers doing a large volume of sales.

The order management process involves numerous steps, from tracking inventory availability to ensuring products arrive in the mail in time to meet key deadlines. Staying organized means having a solid strategy in place, which is imperative to customer satisfaction. Without an order management system, your eCommerce business won’t be able to keep up with demand.

The significance of effective order management for sellers

Effective order management looks like the ability to deliver products to customers. Without a way to stay organized, you’re not going to be able to provide the services customers paid for, and that can turn reviews sour, ruining your reputation in the process.

Slow, delayed, or lost shipments can compromise how Amazon sees your storefront, reducing the likelihood of winning the Buy Box and ending up lower in search results. They can also result in angry customers painting your business in a bad light, which is hard to recover from. Even if you think your order management is fine, looking for efficiencies can protect your business from potential pitfalls in the future.

The Amazon order management process

The Amazon order management process is anything but simple. There are many moving pieces, so understanding what they entail and how to manage them best can be the key to success.

Order placement and initial processing

The order management process kicks off when a customer buys something from you on Amazon. This is when the real work of selling products gets underway.

Once an order is placed, the details will appear on your Amazon Seller Central dashboard. Here, you can find information about the order itself, including the purchased products, any shipping preferences a buyer selected, and where the order needs to be sent.

Inventory control and management strategies

When you have the details of an order, you can move forward with inventory control. This entails checking the products you have in stock and whether they are ready to be shipped. If you’re prepared for large volumes of orders, this should be a simple step. However, if you’re a new seller or going through a growth phase, it could take more legwork than you realize.

To make this process easier, invest in a sound inventory management system to help you know what’s available in real time. Inventory tools can show you trends in purchasing, notify you when products are getting low, and keep tabs on what it will take to get your stock in boxes and out the door.

Even if you’re using Fulfillment by Amazon, you’ll need to do some aspect of inventory management. After all, Amazon may handle the packing and shipping, but it’s your responsibility to keep your products stocked.

Fulfillment options and best practices

Fulfillment on Amazon can be handled in two different ways: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and seller-managed fulfillment.

FBA is a popular choice for sellers who don’t want to handle the onus of fulfillment. Stock is sent to an Amazon warehouse, and warehouse staff manage all packing and shipping. In addition, all FBA sellers are automatically enrolled in Prime, which can make placing purchases more compelling for Amazon buyers who expect two-day shipping.

Not all inventory needs to be managed with FBA; sellers can pick and choose which items they’d like to fulfill independently and which they’d like handled by the Amazon supply chain.

Seller-managed fulfillment is ideal for those who know logistics and can handle their orders in-house. Sellers can set their own shipping timelines, and this doesn’t exclude them from Prime; sellers with stellar track records can qualify for Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP).

Regardless, there are some best practices all sellers should keep in mind:

• Keep inventory strictly managed so you can get fulfillment underway as soon as possible,
• Ensure packaging material is always on hand,
• Have a fulfillment resource, like USPS or FedEx, arranged to make shipping as simple as possible,
• Don’t promise fulfillment timelines that can’t be consistently managed.

Ensuring timely shipping and delivery

For Amazon shoppers, especially those who pay for Prime, timely shipping is non-negotiable. Being unable to meet promises made by Amazon can tank your ratings, lose SFP privilege, or compromise the performance of sponsored ads. As such, you need a way to ensure you can deliver on the promises you’re making to buyers.

Using FBA means Amazon’s resources do this part for you. As long as you have adequate inventory in the warehouse, your role in delivering products to customers is over.

Hand-delivering packages to the post office on a daily basis isn’t sustainable for larger operations, so finding a way to ensure packages can reach your fulfillment company of choice in a reasonable amount of time must happen if you want shoppers to trust your brand. Generally, this involves scheduled pick-ups with postal or delivery services, requiring regular communication and set schedules for ease of use.

Managing customer updates, service, and engagement

As your products make their way to customers, those customers want to see consistent updates. This can include order confirmations, status details when products leave warehouse shelves or are in transit and any delays that may impact a shipment. The more engaged you can be, the more comfortable customers will be putting their trust in you.

During this process, customers may have questions or concerns, so you’ll also need to be prepared with adequate customer service support. In general, commit to responding to customers within 24 hours. Acknowledge issues, take responsibility where needed, and offer sincere ways to make amends.

Handling returns and refunds efficiently

In most cases, your work is done once your package arrives at a customer’s house. You’ve sold a product and delivered on your commitment. However, as you know, not every purchase works out. Maybe a customer ordered the wrong size or color of an item or realized that what they purchased didn’t meet their needs. Ideally, there won’t be any issues related to the quality or fit of what you’ve sold, but defects happen. In these cases, customers will expect a prompt refund upon merchandise returning to you, so make this a priority.

Amazon has established return policies, including return merchandise authorization, so your process should mimic what’s required; failure to meet Amazon’s policies can impact your abilities as a seller, including potential removal from the platform.

Amazon order management tools

As an Amazon seller, it’s essential to recognize what support tools can offer. For every part of the selling process, there’s a platform available to make things a bit easier. Order management tools are no exception.

Utilizing order reports for business insights

Amazon’s Order Reports feature is a great way to learn more about the orders you’re getting and how to handle them when they come in. This feature can be found in the Orders section on an Amazon Seller Central account, and you can select the metrics you want visible in the report. You can view all orders at once, new orders, unshipped orders, archived orders, and end-of-day forms; this provides important resources you can use to evaluate orders placed and how they are being managed.

Integrating with Amazon’s Selling Partner (SP) API

This interface allows sellers to integrate an Amazon Seller Account with any internal IT systems that may be in place. This kind of integration can ensure all of your database systems are talking to one another, so to speak, minimizing the risk of missing updates on orders and fulfillment tasks. SP API lets you create dashboards for ease of management and leverage third-party tools to integrate directly with your Amazon account.

Optimizing your use of Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)

While not the right fit for every seller, using Amazon FBA can be a great way to streamline the fulfillment process. When your products are in an Amazon warehouse, ready for on-site crews to package and put in the mail, you benefit from a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. Instead, you can focus your time on product development, customer service, and enhancing advertising strategies.

Often, FBA can be more expensive than in-house fulfillment, primarily because you’re paying a premium to have someone else do the hard part for you. However, for sellers who don’t want or are unable to create an infrastructure to manage a supply chain, optimizing the process with FBA can make managing orders straightforward.

Advanced strategies for optimizing Amazon order management

Sticking to the basics might not be enough for companies with high sales volumes. These more advanced strategies are intended to help you look for efficiencies to reach new levels of optimization.

Inventory management techniques

Managing inventory is about far more than having items ready to ship. For businesses moving plenty of products, it’s important to dig into analytics and in-depth reporting.

Inventory management software can replace simplistic spreadsheet tracking and help you monitor every aspect of inventory management. Look for demand trends, determine peak seasons for products, and evaluate how long inventory sits on your shelves, eating up space you could be using for items that sell at higher volumes. With Trellis, you can meet the demands of your products based on customer needs, including dynamic pricing and promotions that help keep you competitive while improving sales.

Some programs can also notify you when it’s time to replenish and make purchasing suggestions to help you optimize orders without creating waste.

Streamlining order processing

Processing orders can burden sellers with numerous products or those who make hundreds or thousands of monthly sales. It’s easy to lose track of what is sold, when, and to whom, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.

Automation can be a significant asset on this front. With a comprehensive order management system, you can process orders as soon as they come in, monitor inventory in real-time, and avoid the risk of manual errors. This way, your products can be ready for packing and sending almost as fast as a customer clicks Buy Now.

Elevating customer service to boost retention

Customer service matters, especially when it comes to order management. How you handle orders influences how customers view your business and their relationships with your products. Late deliveries, lack of tracking information, lost packages, and unreturned emails and phone calls can damage your reputation and retention.

By streamlining the other elements of your order management process with automated tools, you can spend more time ensuring customers are happy with your products and you as a seller. Satisfied customers return, which should be priority number one in every business.

Employ automation

Automation can be leveraged in many ways in the order management and fulfillment process. This can mean inventory management software that updates in real-time, platforms that can process orders as soon as they come in, resources to print shipping labels, and tools to keep your shelves stocked so customers are never waiting for a back-ordered item. The more you can leverage automated resources, the better chance your order management systems will run smoothly.

If you want to spend more time actively managing your supply lines, our platform leverages automation to help sellers with advertising across Amazon and other eCommerce platforms, making it easier to get your products in front of the right buyers while you do some of the other heavy lifting. To learn more about how we use AI to grow Amazon businesses, reach out to us.

Common inventory management mistakes (how to avoid them)

The concept seems simple: stock your shelves and sell the items. However, we know it’s easier said than done. Since product availability is paramount for an eCommerce business, inventory challenges can create a snowball effect that may be hard to reverse. These are some of the most common management mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

Avoiding missteps in demand forecasting

Most products have busy seasons or periods of high demand throughout the year. If you don’t know your sales cycle, you may find products collecting dust on your shelves or a long list of backorders at key sales times—both scenarios are costly as a seller.

A robust order management platform can aid in forecasting. AI can help you track inventory while highlighting trends and showcase opportunities you may have otherwise missed. The right tools can make demand analysis simple, and that’s something worth investing in.

Understanding and planning for lead times

When you’re running low on inventory, re-upping your supply doesn’t usually happen overnight. Instead, you have to wait on suppliers. This can take days or even weeks.

Keeping an eye on sales trends means building more lead time into your inventory strategy. Tools can help with this, such as informing you when supply is running low or advising when to reorder. This gives your business enough time to avoid delays and prevent back-orders.

The importance of regular inventory audits

The right automation tools can help you manage your inventory, but they’re not perfect. A few numbers transposed, for example, can lead to errors in the available information—one you might not notice until it’s too late.

To prevent accidental issues in your inventory management system, ensure physical audits are still on your agenda. Walking through the warehouse, counting products, and cross-referencing with your systems lets you keep every element of your management process in line.

Maintaining adequate safety stock levels

Safety stock is just what it sounds like—inventory you keep in your back pocket in case of unforeseen spikes in sales. Out-of-stock items can hurt your brand in more ways than one, like hurting organic SEO results and promotional opportunities, like winning the Buy Box.

You can either do the legwork on determining how much stock you should keep as a safety net or let an order management automated solution make suggestions for you. Regardless, hold onto enough of a reserve to keep you covered if trends change on a dime.

Customizing inventory strategies for diverse product lines

Inventory strategies shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Different products and product lines will have different needs, and your approach needs to reflect that. Custom strategies can be related to demand, seasonality, product production time, return rates, and fluctuations based on unpredictable factors, like sports paraphernalia in season and when a team has a winning record.

When planning strategies, determine which products are either the most significant or face the most variability, and leverage the tools you have in place to assess ways in which you may need to customize your approach. The right software support can help on this front, as can monitoring sales trends on a broader level.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use third-party Amazon order management solutions?

Third-party Amazon order management solutions may not be right for everyone. Still, third-party software platforms can be an excellent way to go beyond the basics for brands that need robust resources. If your business needs to streamline order management related to other operational needs, AI-driven tools can keep a finger on the pulse of all aspects of your brand.

What’s the difference between order management and order fulfillment?

While there’s certainly overlap between order management and fulfillment, they refer to the two components of processing orders: managing the initial order and getting it packed, shipped, and out the door. Broadly speaking, order management can include elements of fulfillment as it’s part of managing an order from beginning to end, while order fulfillment refers solely to preparing and completing shipments.