The promise of a modern retail strategy is simple: let customers buy anywhere and receive their orders anywhere. This omnichannel approach sounds great on your website, but the reality for many businesses is a disconnected customer experience.
The breakdown doesn’t happen at the front end where customers shop; it happens in the back end, during fulfillment. This article explores why so many omnichannel promises fall flat and how omnichannel order orchestration provides the critical operational backbone needed to deliver a truly seamless experience.
For most ecommerce businesses, the idea of omnichannel is simple. It means letting people buy from any place and get their order in the way they want. But in practice, things often go wrong after the customer finishes buying.
The problem is not your store, your place in the marketplace, or how it works on a phone. The issue is what goes on behind what people see. This is about things like how you handle inventory, how orders are sent, and how everything is delivered. If there is no strong system tying together your channels and where your stock is kept, your omnichannel efforts can feel like just words for marketing and not a real plan that helps your business grow.
This article shows why omnichannel ecommerce does not work without order orchestration. It also tells what ecommerce leaders need to do to make it work.
What Omnichannel Ecommerce Really Means for Growing Businesses
Omnichannel ecommerce is not just selling products on different sites. It is about running your shop as one linked system on all these platforms:
- Your ecommerce site
- Marketplaces
- Physical stores or showrooms
- Mobile apps and social commerce
From the view of a customer, these channels must feel like one brand and one experience. For how things work inside, they need to use shared data, shared inventory, and the same rules to get orders sent out.
The key distinction is this:
- Multichannel means to sell things in many different places.
- Omnichannel means to handle, help, and take care of orders as one business.
For owners of ecommerce stores, this is what will make sure if omnichannel helps your growth or if it causes confusion.
Why Omnichannel Has Become a Competitive Requirement
Customer expectations have changed for good. Now, customers expect to:
- Buy online and pick up orders near them
- Send back online orders using a different way
- Get quick delivery from the nearest stock spot
These things are not just for big stores now. People want the same from medium-sized online brands too. Shoppers now look for easy order pickup and steady help no matter where they buy.
When you meet those hopes, you get more people to buy. People come back to get more, and they stay with you longer. If you do not, people leave. Many times, they go without telling you the reason.
Where Omnichannel Ecommerce Breaks Down
Most problems with omnichannel are about how things are done, not about the plan itself. Some signs of this include:
- Stock shows as there online, but you can not get it from fulfillment.
- Orders go out from the wrong place. This makes shipping cost more.
- People have to step in by hand when something goes wrong.
- Return and refund feel different each time.
These problems often come from three things. All three issues are connected.
- Fragmented inventory visibility
- Channel-specific order management
- Limited fulfillment process
Real-Time Inventory Visibility Is Non-Negotiable
You cannot give people the same experience everywhere without having one clear view of your inventory.
Ecommerce teams often find that the inventory data is split up in different systems.
- Stock for the ecommerce platform
- Inventory in the warehouse
- Stock at the store or with a partner
When inventory updates are slow or kept separate, you might try to sell items you do not have. You could also fail to use local stock well. This can let customers down when they try to check out.
A clear view of your stock in one place is very important. It shows you updates in real time. This sets the base for many things you do in selling, like BOPIS and ship-from-store.
Fulfillment Requires Intelligent Order Routing
Just being able to see an order is not enough. After someone places an order, your system has to figure out how and where to get it ready.
Basic ecommerce order management systems usually think:
- One primary warehouse
- One default fulfillment path
That way of doing things stops working when you add more places, stores, or people helping with deliveries.
Modern online stores need routing rules that can look at:
- Customer location
- Inventory availability
- Shipping cost and speed
- Store or warehouse capacity
If there is no automated routing, teams have to use manual steps. This way does not grow well when you add more work.
Why Native Ecommerce OMS Capabilities Fall Short
Most ecommerce platforms have an order management system. But it usually works only with that platform.
Typical limitations include:
- There is no way to see all inventory in the different channels in one place.
- The system does not split or move orders in a smart way.
- It does not help much with store-based fulfillment.
- It is not strong at handling problems or returns.
These systems help to handle orders. They do not set up or arrange the orders.
When you add new places, shops, or storage spaces in different areas, the built-in OMS starts to slow things down instead of helping.
Order Orchestration: The Missing Operational Layer
Order orchestration is how you manage orders across all your channels and where you keep things. It starts at checkout and goes all the way to delivery and even returns.
With help from distributed order management (DOM), orchestration gives you these things:
- You get a live look at all inventory.
- All orders are collected in one place from every channel.
- The system uses rules to help choose the best way to send or fulfill orders.
- Handling of problems and returns is done automatically.
Instead of setting fulfillment paths in a fixed way, orchestration will pick the best way for each order. This is done based on your business rules.
What Distributed Order Management Enables
A DOM platform is the part that sits between your storefronts and your other work systems. It helps connect these two things.
It enables ecommerce teams to:
- Offer ship-from-store and click & collect in a reliable way.
- Split orders to more locations if needed.
- Re-route orders on its own when there is a change in stock.
- Manage returns the same way, no matter where people bought the item.
For businesses that are growing in ecommerce, this means there will be less need for manual work. It also means things will run better overall.
Omnichannel Experiences Powered by Orchestration
Many common omnichannel features will not work well unless there is good orchestration.
- Click & Collect (BOPIS): The items must be kept ready at the right place on time.
- Ship-from-Store: Orders need to go to stores that have items in stock and enough room to handle them.
- Endless Aisle: Store workers must be able to see all the items in all stores to help finish sales.
These are not features you see on the front end. They are ways to do work in the system.
Organizational Considerations Ecommerce Leaders Can’t Ignore
Technology alone won’t fix omnichannel execution.
Successful orchestration projects require:
- The ecommerce, operations, and IT teams work together and stay in alignment.
- There is clear ownership of fulfillment rules and any exceptions.
- Store and warehouse teams get training for their omnichannel roles.
When teams know how omnichannel fulfillment helps with revenue and customer experience, they are more likely to use it.
Designing a Scalable Omnichannel Architecture
If you run an ecommerce business and plan to grow, it is more important to be flexible than to be perfect.
A scalable architecture typically includes:
- Ecommerce platforms that focus on customer experience
- A single source to manage all inventory
- A system layer that handles orders and how they get filled
- ERP and logistics systems that work together without being overloaded
This way of dividing tasks helps teams make changes to channels. They can do it without causing issues in the work.
What Is EcomBalance?
EcomBalance is a monthly bookkeeping service specialized for eCommerce companies selling on Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, WooCommerce, & other eCommerce channels.
We take monthly bookkeeping off your plate and deliver you your financial statements by the 15th or 20th of each month.
You’ll have your Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement ready for analysis each month so you and your business partners can make better business decisions.
Interested in learning more? Schedule a call with our CEO, Nathan Hirsch.
And here’s some free resources:
- Monthly Finance Meeting Agenda
- 9 Steps to Master Your Ecommerce Bookkeeping Checklist
- The Ultimate Guide on Finding an Ecommerce Virtual Bookkeeping Service
- What Is a Profit and Loss Statement?
- How to Read & Interpret a Cash Flow Statement
- How to Read a Balance Sheet & Truly Understand It
Final Thoughts
Omnichannel ecommerce does not fail because the idea is wrong. It fails because the systems you use were not made to fit well together. The way things run is the problem, not the plan.
Order orchestration fills this gap. It joins channels, inventory, and fulfillment into one process. This lets online stores grow, and they do not lose good customer experience.
If you want to grow using omnichannel, you need orchestration. This is not something you can skip. Orchestration is what helps you deliver on your promises to customers and make things work in the real world.
Thanks to Netguru for collaborating on this post!
