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eStar Chief Strategy Officer, Matt Neale, discusses scalability and what it means for retail success.

It’s that time of year again, and it seems to roll around faster every year, but one thing remains – the ever-present question of scale…

We hear it all the time, from our partners and prospects looking to improve their systems, meet customer demand or address bottlenecks in their businesses – “can it scale?”.

For most retailers, this actually means “can we keep up with demand on Black Friday?” - although in recent years, it must be mentioned - Cyber Monday has taken the crown as the biggest trading day of the year.

For many, talking about scale has meant talking about order volumes, and to be fair, it is a simple, clear, and objective measure, but whilst a key part of the story, it simply cannot tell us how every element in the modern software stack truly scales.

The real test of scale comes not from how many orders you can take, from however many customers, it comes from all the connected systems working together to support your business in fulfilling those orders for your customers.

The modern multi-channel retail environment is composed of a wide variety of systems, locations, and activities.

All these elements, from eCommerce, to marketplaces, stores, distribution centres, 3PL’s and dropship suppliers play a role in delivering the supply and demand we, and our customers depend on.

When it comes to order management, retailers need systems that can manage all these elements, and contend not only with the volume of orders, but all the related data and stock movements, user actions, customer enquiries and API calls that are needed to orchestrate these.

These days, this coordination comes from an order management system, and with the dependence on the smooth operation of all the connected element, it is key to choose a system that can truly scale to meet the needs of a modern retail business.

To put this in numbers, consider a retailer with 150 stores, a couple of distribution centres, and a product range of 500,000 SKU’s. Consider they might be taking 4,000 orders per hour through peak, and up to 45K orders/day over this incredibly intense 7-to-10-day period!

Now consider a substantial portion of these orders will be click and collect with some priority, on-demand and same-day delivery. This something an off-the-shelf eCommerce, ERP or WMS will struggle with.

A modern, scalable OMS must be able to accurately keep track of not only the orders, but the stock movements between stores, distribution centres, and all sales channels. It must allow multiple operators across all these sites to be working in parallel, and without disruption, for extended periods of time.

It must provide accurate, up to date reporting and visibility of operations across a distributed fulfilment network.

It must do all this, without degrading your customers experience and expectations, and it must do it seamlessly, without interruption.

This is scale.

As we head into peak trade, take note of all the areas in which your business operations interact, and take note of the areas where all the elements discussed above, get caught up. Identify the areas where your visibility is limited, where your systems become unwieldy and slow you down.

It is no good taking thousands of orders, if your systems are only capable of moving hundreds, your staff and customer suffer the delays, disappointment (and stress!) of trying to keep up.

A scalable OMS can make all this yesterday’s problem. Systems that support your staff working quickly, and on the move, with up to the second accuracy of inventory across all locations, immediate and accessible information for every order, and clear visibility on bottlenecks or areas of concern, as they happen, at any level of trade.

Again, this is scalability.

So, when enquiring about order management systems, ask questions beyond the obvious “scalability” numbers, ask how your staff will work, ask how you can coordinate operations and visibility across every location, for every order, every day – reliably & quickly.

More than a number, scale is a capability.