Speed and accuracy pose a mounting challenge for operations and e-commerce teams, who must handle orders from a vast (and growing) array of channels and devices while maintaining excellent customer experiences and swift delivery times. 

And when you throw in seasonal demand spikes like Black Friday, it becomes clear that manual processes, spreadsheets and outdated software can no longer cope.  

But help is at hand – modern order management solutions are now leveraging the power of AI to do the heavy lifting. Let’s look at some of the ways this is already happening. 

5 Common Pains with Orders & Fulfillment

Purchasing trends like social commerce continue to rise, and customers now expect to buy, track and receive/return their orders however and wherever they want. 

Which means that operations and e-commerce teams commonly encounter the following challenges in order management and fulfillment:  

1. Manual Data Entry Errors: Human errors in data entry can lead to incorrect order processing, delayed shipments, and dissatisfied customers. These mistakes are not only time-consuming to rectify but also damage the brand's reputation.  

2. Inefficient Inventory Management: Keeping track of inventory levels manually is prone to inaccuracies. This can result in overstocking or stockouts, both of which are detrimental to business operations. Overstocking ties up capital in excess inventory, while stockouts lead to lost sales and unhappy customers.

3. Complex Order Processing: As businesses scale, the volume and complexity of orders increase. Managing these orders efficiently becomes a significant challenge, especially when dealing with multiple sales channels and diverse product lines.  

4. Slow Fulfillment Times: Customers today expect fast and reliable delivery. Traditional fulfillment processes often fail to meet these expectations due to inefficient workflows and lack of real-time data visibility.  

5. High Operational Costs: Manual processes and inefficient workflows contribute to higher operational costs. These costs can escalate quickly as the business grows, impacting profitability.

How AI Can Solve These Problems

While distributed order management (based on logic rules) already helps brands and retailers to tackle many of these challenges, AI takes this even further. 

According to a recent McKinsey study, AI can dramatically boost the efficiency of B2B order processing by automating routine tasks, improving data accuracy, and enhancing decision-making processes.  

Here’s how AI can solve the common pains in order management and fulfillment:  

1. Automating Order Processing: AI-powered systems can automate order entry and processing, reducing the likelihood of human errors. These systems can handle large volumes of orders efficiently, ensuring that data is accurate and up-to-date. For instance, AI can capture order details from various channels and input them into the system without manual intervention, significantly speeding up the process.  

2. Real-Time Inventory Management: AI tools can provide real-time visibility into inventory levels, predict future demand with remarkable accuracy, and automate replenishment processes. This ensures that inventory is always optimized, reducing the risks of overstocking and stockouts. For example, machine learning algorithms can analyze historical data to forecast demand and adjust inventory levels accordingly.

3. Streamlined Fulfillment Workflows: AI can optimize fulfillment workflows by identifying bottlenecks, optimizing storage, and making data-driven decisions. Warehouse managers can use AI to streamline picking, packing, and shipping processes, ensuring that orders are fulfilled quickly and accurately. Robotics and automation can further enhance these processes, reducing human error and increasing efficiency.  

4. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: By improving order accuracy and reducing fulfillment times, AI can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. Customers receive their orders on time and without errors, leading to higher satisfaction rates and increased loyalty.  

5. Cost Savings: Automating routine tasks and optimizing workflows can lead to significant cost savings. Businesses can reduce their reliance on manual labor, lower operational costs, and improve overall efficiency. According to a recent survey by APQC, automation saves businesses between $5 to $15 per sales order and reduces sales order cycle times by over 46%.

Get Started with Actindo  

As the only MACH-certified solution for combining unified sales, order management and process orchestration, Actindo is already helping brands and retailers to accelerate their AI adoption strategies with its Commerce Operations Platform. 

It provides powerful order management capabilities, together with a process & data orchestration layer that serves plugins and AI co-pilots with real-time information via API, such as order tracking and stock levels. Plus Actindo’s headless approach means that AI can be leveraged into any customer engagement channel for quick, accurate answers. 

With a fast and flexible implementation approach that can be done in short phases, Actindo integrates with any legacy system and gives operations and e-commerce teams the power to sell more, and deliver outstanding customer experiences faster than ever before.