In today’s marketplace, customers expect consistent, real-time updates on their orders across every channel. Whether they’re buying online, in-store, or through a distributor, they want to track their order from the moment it’s placed to the second it arrives. But delivering that kind of seamless experience is harder than it looks, and for many companies, multi-channel order management is a daily struggle.

Why Order Management is Getting Harder

Managing orders from multiple sources—websites, physical locations, distributors, and sales teams—has introduced an array of complexities that traditional systems weren’t built to handle. Here are some common issues we’re seeing across industries:

• Fragmented Data Across Systems
  Orders come from various sources, and each one often uses its own system. This fragmentation creates data silos, leading to inaccurate information and missed updates. When data isn’t centralized, teams are left scrambling to piece together order details from multiple sources, increasing the risk of errors and delays.
• The Cost of Delayed Visibility
  Delays in order updates don’t just frustrate customers—they disrupt entire workflows. Without real-time data, fulfillment teams are often blind to the latest information, causing bottlenecks that can cascade across the business. The end result? Slower delivery times, increased customer inquiries, and higher operational costs.
• Manual Processes That Drain Resources
  For many companies, a significant portion of orders still come in through manual channels like email, PDF, and EDI. Processing these orders by hand is time-consuming and introduces errors. It also means that service teams are stuck responding to “where’s my order?” calls instead of focusing on value-driven tasks.

The Real-World Impact

According to research, 69% of customers expect a consistent experience across all channels, but only 29% feel they’re getting it. Without a unified order management system, companies are missing the mark on a core aspect of customer satisfaction.

At Saltbox, we’ve seen these issues play out across sectors, from B2B to D2C. In fact, it’s these very challenges that drove us to develop our accelerator solutions. You can read more about our approach to accelerators in our WTF is an Accelerator? blog.

Stay tuned for our next post in this series, where we’ll look at the foundation of a strong order management system and introduce one of our key solutions, Spark, that helps streamline and centralize order ingestion.