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E-commerce

Order Management System

OMS

Portrait of Lukas Horvath, co-founder of Roelu Studio
Lukas HorvathCo-founder

What is Order Management System?

An Order Management System, or OMS, is the platform that orchestrates orders across an e-commerce business — from order capture to fulfilment to returns. It tracks inventory across warehouses and stores, routes each order to the optimal fulfilment location, syncs status updates back to the customer, and gives customer service teams a single view of every order. The OMS sits between the storefront and the warehouse.

Why it matters

When a brand has one warehouse and one channel, the commerce platform can handle orders fine. Add a second warehouse, a retail store, a marketplace, and a 3PL — and the cracks open. Orders ship from the wrong location. Inventory shows in stock on the site after it sold out in store. Customer service can't see why a parcel is late. An order management system solves the routing and visibility problem. It is invisible plumbing when it works and a disaster when it doesn't. Brands that skip it hit a ceiling around the time they open their second fulfilment location.

How it works

The OMS — Brightpearl, Linnworks, ShipStation, or a custom build on top of Medusa.js — ingests orders from every channel: the website, marketplaces, in-store POS systems, and B2B portals. It checks inventory across all locations, applies routing rules (closest to customer, lowest cost, fastest delivery), and assigns the order to a warehouse, store, or drop-shipper. Fulfilment systems receive the order, pick and pack, and send tracking numbers back to the OMS. The OMS updates the customer, the storefront, and the accounting system in real time. Returns flow back through the same pipes, updating inventory levels at each location and triggering refunds automatically.

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