Top 5 Things to Consider When Choosing an OMS for an Omnichannel Brand

Shoppers today expect fluidity as they curate their own retail journey. They browse brands on Instagram, compare prices on websites, buy via a marketplace, and even return the item at a physical store.  According to PwC, over 80% of consumers engage with brands across at least three channels.

For brands operating in this omnichannel reality, the challenge goes beyond marketing. Managing orders that span marketplaces, mobile apps, physical stores, and warehouses introduces real operational complexity. Think of brands like Nike, which integrates its mobile app with in-store inventory and click-&-collect pickup, or Sephora, where customers browse online, collect in their local stores, or return from any channel. Even Indian omnichannel names like Pepperfry, which combines its online catalogue with offline studios, show how fragmented inventory, multiple fulfilment touchpoints, and rising expectations for speed and transparency can stretch legacy systems to the breaking point.

Choosing the right Order Management System (OMS) is therefore a strategic decision. A robust OMS becomes the backbone of your omnichannel brand, orchestrating orders, inventory, fulfilment, and customer experience.  

Here are five critical considerations every brand should evaluate before selecting their OMS.

1. Real-Time Visibility Embedded into Every Stage

In omnichannel commerce, real-time visibility is everything. Customers don’t just want their orders delivered quickly; they want to know their order status at any given moment.  

A robust OMS should deliver:

• End-to-end order tracking
  • Shows every status, ordered → processed → shipped → delivered, and optionally returned/exchanged.
  • Pushes automated customer alerts like SMS, app notifications, and email at each milestone.
  • Provides operations dashboards so your team can monitor orders in real time.
• Unified inventory visibility across all touchpoints
  • Syncs stock levels instantly across e-commerce, marketplaces, stores, warehouses, and 3PLs.  
  • Provides a single available-to-promise number, so you avoid overselling or hidden stockouts.
  • Includes details like stock in transit, reserved inventory, store-display stock, etc.
• Transparent customer experience
  • Ensures fewer “Where is my order?” Inquiries, fewer cancellations due to unclear fulfilment.
  • Enables visibility into returns and exchanges so that customer experience is smooth post-purchase as well.
• Elimination of manual errors and fulfilment failures
  • Legacy systems create discrepancies, overselling, and slow fulfilment.  
  • With real-time data, operations teams can spot problems and act quickly.
  • The right OMS ensures that your fulfilment process is scalable and resilient as you add channels. 

Stop firefighting order management and focus on delivering customer promises on time. Build predictable operations with Ginesys.

2. Multi-Channel Connectivity and Smart Order Routing

In an omnichannel environment, success depends on more than just presence across channels. It requires seamless connectivity and intelligent fulfilment decisions.  

Your OMS must act as the central hub, ingesting orders from your website, mobile app, marketplaces and retail outlets, and then routing them to the fulfilment node that delivers the best balance of speed, cost and service.

Essential capabilities to evaluate:

• Unified channel integration
  • Connects all online (e-commerce) sales channels into a single OMS dashboard.
  • Eliminates data siloes, so operations teams have a consolidated view of orders, inventory, and fulfilment from a single panel.
  • Enables store-locations to act as fulfilment nodes (e.g., stores fulfilling online orders) for better flexibility.
• Smart order routing
  • Uses rules or AI-driven logic to auto-assign orders based on stock availability, delivery proximity, cost and service level.  
  • Supports advanced fulfilment models like ship-from-store, click-&-collect and endless aisle to maximize channel leverage.  
  • Has fallback logic and order splitting when a single location cannot fulfil the full order.  
• Dynamic fulfilment optimization
  • Adjusts routing decisions in real time as inventory, capacity, or delivery constraints change, ensuring operational resilience even during peak load.
• Operational and cost benefits
  • Smart routing and unified fulfilment reduce shipping distances, minimize logistics costs, and improve delivery speed.
  • Consolidated fulfilment data helps teams identify issues, optimize routing strategies, and keep customer promises consistent. 

Integrate your ERP and POS with your OMS for real-time data flow across everything you do.

3. Returns, Refunds, Automation and Analytics

Studies show that 92% of customers will buy again if the return process is easy. An OMS must seamlessly manage returns, refunds, and reverse logistics within the same workflow as order fulfilment.

Key capabilities to evaluate:

• Integrated returns and refunds management
  • Returned items should be tracked, validated, stock updated, and refunds initiated, all within the same OMS workflow.
  • Eliminates delays and misrouting that happen when returns are handled in disconnected systems.
• Workflow automation across order lifecycles
  • Automates order routing/allocation, exception handling (split shipments, backorders) and communications (shipping updates, return confirmations).
  • Reduces manual errors, speeds operations, and free teams to focus on exceptions rather than routine tasks.
  • Supports omnichannel complexity without ballooning the headcount.
• Analytics and performance insights
  • Tracks fulfilment metrics, such as order turnaround, channel performance, inventory turnover, return and cancellation trends.
  • This data is used to identify high-return SKUs, under-performing channels, ageing inventory, and refine operations accordingly.
  • Insight-driven decision-making transforms returns from cost burden into competitive insight.

4. Future-Ready Architecture and Integration with ERP & POS

Omnichannel retail is shifting fast. New marketplaces, delivery models, and consumer expectations emerge every year. To stay ahead, your OMS must be built on an architecture that supports scalability, integration, and intelligence.

Critical capabilities to check for:

• Scalable, adaptable architecture
  • Handles seasonal surges, additional fulfilment models (dark stores, same-day dispatch) and expanding geography without slowdowns.
  • Modular or API-first system design to add new channels, nodes or fulfilment methods with minimal overhaul.  
  • Support for emerging technologies like AI/ML to optimize demand forecasting and routing.
• Seamless ERP & POS integration
  • Real-time, bi-directional data flows: store sales update online inventory, orders feed directly into financials, and central teams get unified dashboards.  
  • A unified system prevents duplicate data entry, eliminates delays and provides one source of truth.
  • Enables full omnichannel flexibility: store inventory available for online orders, back-office acknowledging real-time order data.
• Deep enterprise synchronization
  • Supports enterprise-level workflows such as procurement planning, replenishment cycles, credit notes, taxation and compliance, ensuring that OMS decisions always align with financial and operational systems.
• Future-proof channel and fulfilment readiness
  • The architecture must support new commerce models such as social commerce, marketplace plug-ins, gig-fulfilment, and micro-fulfilment centers.
  • Systems designed with data standardization and rapid connector onboarding make it easier to adopt upcoming channels without heavy engineering work.
  • An OMS decoupled from legacy ERP constraints allows faster rollout of new business models and reduces dependency on long IT cycles.

5. Security, Compliance & Vendor Support

When you operate across multiple channels with high customer expectations, the OMS becomes mission-critical and so does its security, compliance and support capabilities.

• Security & Data Protection

Your OMS handles sensitive orders, customer and payment information. If it lacks strong controls such as role-based access, encryption, audit trails and multi-factor authentication, it risks breaches, fraud, and operational disruption.  

• Regulatory Compliance & Auditability

Failing to meet regulatory or certification standards (PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO 27001) is more than a technical risk; it’s a brand risk. A strong OMS will include built-in logging, simplified audit reporting and vendor declarations of compliance.  

• Vendor Support & Business Continuity

Even best-in-class systems need good vendor practices. Look for a partner with strong support SLAs, documented upgrade & recovery processes, and demonstrated reliability under peak conditions. Without this, a system failure can mean severe damage to reputation and revenue.

Take full control of your omnichannel order flow. Centralize orders, sync inventory, and optimize fulfilment with Ginesys OMS.

How Ginesys Can Enable Your Omnichannel Order Management Success

Ginesys is one of India’s leading unified retail technology platforms, trusted by D2C and multi-channel brands for end-to-end retail operations. Its cloud-native suite brings ERP, POS, OMS, and WMS into one connected ecosystem, giving brands the visibility, automation, and scalability needed to manage omnichannel fulfilment without fragmentation.

1. Centralized Orders & Inventory Across Channels

Ginesys OMS consolidates orders from marketplaces, webstores, and offline retail into a single dashboard while keeping inventory synced in real time across warehouses and stores. This ensures that every channel draws from one accurate inventory source.

2. Smart Order Routing & Flexible Fulfilment

The system automatically routes each order to the most efficient fulfilment node (store, warehouse, or 3PL) based on business rules, stock availability, and delivery proximity. It supports ship-from-store, click & collect, endless aisle, and multi-warehouse fulfilment.

3. Deep Integration with ERP & Core Retail Systems

As part of the larger Ginesys ecosystem, the OMS integrates natively with Ginesys ERP and POS. It can also connect with leading third-party ERPs and logistics partners, ensuring seamless flow of order, payment, and inventory data across the business.

4. Shipping, Marketplace & Reconciliation Automation

Ginesys offers direct integrations with major marketplaces and courier partners, enabling label generation, manifest creation, and automated sync of order statuses. It also manages payment reconciliation for marketplace orders, matching payouts, deductions, and fees to each transaction.

5. Returns, Cancellations & Operational Workflows

The OMS simplifies reverse logistics by tracking returns, updating inventory, and triggering refunds within the same workflow. Automated exception handling and workflow rules reduce manual intervention and speed up fulfilment operations.

Connect your webstore, marketplaces and physical stores into one order-flow system.

As the boundaries between online and offline retail fade, a powerful OMS becomes the heartbeat of your operations.  

We’ve explored five critical dimensions to evaluate before you choose your OMS:

1. Real-time visibility for accurate, transparent operations.
2. Multi-channel connectivity and smart routing for efficient fulfilment.
3. Integrated returns, automation, and analytics to enhance customer experience.
4. An architecture with ERP and POS integration to support scale.
5. Strong security, compliance, and vendor support to safeguard data, ensure regulatory readiness, and maintain business continuity.

For modern brands, the OMS is the core engine that powers every promise you make to end-customer. Before finalizing your choice, test systems against real-world scenarios: high-volume sales events, return spikes, or new channel launches. The right OMS should perform flawlessly, no matter the complexity.

See how Ginesys OMS strengthens every link in your omnichannel supply chain, from promise to delivery, so your brand can operate with customer-first precision.

FAQs

1. How does an OMS differ from an ERP when it comes to handling multi-channel orders?

An ERP manages overall business operations while an OMS focuses specifically on order orchestration. The OMS consolidates orders from multiple channels, manages fulfilment, and syncs with the ERP for accounting and stock updates.

2. What is smart order routing, and how does it impact fulfilment speed and cost efficiency?

Smart order routing uses algorithms to determine the best fulfilment point based on inventory, distance, and cost. It helps reduce shipping times and optimize logistics, leading to faster deliveries and lower costs.

3. How does an OMS decide whether to fulfil an order from a warehouse, store, or 3PL partner?

The OMS analyses real-time data such as stock levels, proximity, and service SLAs, to select the optimal node automatically, balancing speed, efficiency, and availability.

4. What KPIs or metrics should brand track to measure OMS performance and ROI?

Key metrics include order fulfilment rate, inventory accuracy, cancellation rate, average delivery time, and return rate. Tracking these helps identify bottlenecks and measure customer experience impact.

5. What features in Ginesys OMS simplify returns management and reverse logistics?

Ginesys OMS automates return authorizations, tracks returned items across locations, updates inventory in real time and accelerates refund processing, creating a smooth and transparent experience for both customers and staff.