An order management system is usually described as a product. For most of the companies in these interviews it is a job first: something their commerce platform, their ERP or their own code already does, imperfectly. Buyers name the system that runs it and then, often in the same sentence, say it is not really an OMS. The case for the dedicated kind grows when orders start coming from, or going to, more than one place and the existing systems can no longer keep up.
What is an order management system?
An order management system takes in orders from every channel, decides where each one should be fulfilled from, tracks it through fulfillment, and handles changes, cancellations and returns. It sits between the storefront and the warehouses, stores and finance systems behind it.
Dedicated OMS platforms manage the order lifecycle outside the storefront or ERP. More advanced systems add distributed order management: routing orders across warehouses, stores, third-party logistics providers and drop-ship partners, supported by inventory visibility across fulfillment locations. One distributor's buyer describes it as the system that “coordinates orders across channels, stock locations, fulfillment options, cancellations.”
What the interviews add is where that job is actually done:
In these interviews order management is a job before it is a product. Most of the companies that say where it runs name something other than a dedicated OMS: their commerce platform, their ERP, their own code, or their logistics provider's system.
The case for a dedicated OMS grows when orders come from multiple channels or can be fulfilled from several locations — stores, warehouses, logistics partners or drop-ship suppliers — and the existing platform or ERP can no longer coordinate those flows reliably. That helps explain why dedicated systems concentrate at larger companies, and why replacing one can become the most time-consuming project in a broader commerce replatform.
What is the difference between an OMS, an ecommerce platform and an ERP?
The platform takes the order, the ERP books it, and the OMS coordinates it. In practice the lines blur, and buyers are candid about it: they name the system that runs their order management and then say it is not really one.
A luxury retailer: “Right now we're using Magento as our OMS, but it's really not an OMS.” An apparel and gear retailer, on its ERP: “It's not a true OMS like Sterling or Manhattan DOM, but it is our sourcing engine.”
Among companies in these interviews that say where order management runs, about a third use a dedicated OMS, and roughly one in five each run it in their commerce platform, their ERP or their own code; a handful rely on their logistics provider's system. Those discussing order management lean toward the companies that have a dedicated system, so the true share running it elsewhere is likely higher.
The term also means different things to different buyers. A footwear retailer argues that “not everybody needs order management and order management means such a different thing than what that product does” — for its team, the daily work is order servicing. Outside retail, media companies use “order management system” for advertising-campaign orders, and restaurants use “order management” for online ordering through delivery apps and point-of-sale systems.
Ecommerce platform
Takes the order on the website or app. Many include basic order management, which smaller companies often rely on.
ERP
Books the order in finance and inventory. Some companies route orders from it; buyers value the financial reconciliation that brings.
Order management system
Coordinates the order across channels, stock locations and fulfillment options — the job a dedicated OMS is built for.
Who uses a dedicated order management system?
Mostly large companies — but no more so than other enterprise systems. Among interviewed companies running a dedicated OMS, about seven in ten have more than a billion dollars in revenue, against about two in five of all companies interviewed. That is slightly more concentrated than product information management and customer data platforms, both at about two in three, and far more than commerce platforms, at about three in ten.
The buyers themselves are spread across ecommerce, omnichannel, operations and technology roles, with no single job title standing out against the rest of the companies interviewed. Smaller companies more often run order management inside their commerce platform: among those that say so, about half are under a hundred million dollars in revenue.
When do companies need a dedicated OMS?
When orders stop having one origin and one destination, and the existing systems can no longer keep up. Five triggers appear in the interviews with buyers moving to a dedicated system, in this order:
- Stores become fulfillment points
- More warehouses, or a new logistics provider
- Selling across countries from one system
- Outgrowing what the platform or ERP can route
- Adding marketplaces, wholesale or drop-ship
A single-channel brand shipping from one warehouse rarely describes needing one.
Stores become fulfillment points
Ship-from-store, buy-online-pick-up-in-store and endless aisle turn every store into a node an order can be routed to, which a platform or ERP built around one warehouse struggles to do.
A specialty fashion retailer puts it plainly: “basically every single store is becoming a mini distribution center.”
More warehouses, or a new logistics provider
A second distribution center, a change of third-party logistics provider, or drop-ship partners add routing decisions the existing system was never set up to make.
Changing logistics providers is a recurring moment for revisiting where order management runs.
Selling across countries from one system
Companies consolidating regional order flows onto one global system describe it as a point when their existing order-management capabilities may no longer be sufficient, making a dedicated OMS increasingly attractive.
Buyers describe these as multi-year efforts — a beauty manufacturer calls putting distributed order management in place “easily two to four year, you know, journey.”
Outgrowing the platform or ERP
Splitting orders across locations, editing orders after they are placed, or keeping inventory accurate across channels hits the limits of order management built into another system.
The ERP case has its defenders too: one buyer notes “There are definite benefits of having ERP tied in with the Order Management so that financial reconciliation is not a problem.”
Marketplaces, wholesale and drop-ship
Orders arriving from marketplaces and wholesale partners, or going out through drop-ship, add order flows that have to be coordinated alongside direct sales. End-of-life legacy systems force the question at a similar rate.
Not every capability an OMS enables is worth switching on. A specialty fashion retailer that runs ship-from-store on its OMS deliberately does not offer buy-online-pick-up-in-store: its stock is broad but shallow, one or two units per size, so it cannot promise an item will be on the shelf. Others say their ship-from-store volume does not justify the store labor. In these interviews, omnichannel services follow inventory depth and volume, not ambition.
Which order management systems do companies use?
Dedicated systems named in these interviews include Manhattan, IBM Sterling, Fluent Commerce and Salesforce Order Management, among others; many companies instead run order management in their commerce platform or ERP. Too few buyers rate most dedicated systems to publish scores, and the moves between them are spread across many vendors, so this page groups them rather than ranking them.
Dedicated order management systems
Manhattan · IBM Sterling · Fluent Commerce · Salesforce Order Management · Deck Commerce · NewStore · Kibo · Radial
Platforms and ERPs used for order management
Shopify · Salesforce Commerce Cloud · Adobe Commerce · SAP · NetSuite · Oracle · Microsoft Dynamics
Long-established systems draw a mixed picture: buyers describe them as heavy to change and expensive to customize, and the same buyers often credit what they can do. A footwear and accessories retailer that moved one brand off its long-standing OMS to a newer, headless one chose to go live like-for-like first, matching what the old system did before building anything new — “OMS is kind of the heart of your digital platforms.”
What does an OMS cost, and why is replacing one so slow?
The cost buyers describe is mostly integration and change, not the licence. No prices are published here.
Integration with the ERP, warehouse, point of sale and commerce platform is the pain buyers name most often, ahead of customization and technical debt, legacy systems that are hard to leave, vendor support, inventory accuracy and the length of implementation. Some weigh a vendor's licence cost against the cost of every change request; others compare a dedicated system's change cost with the slower, dearer change requests of an ERP.
That is why order management can become the long pole in a replatform. Buyers describe multi-year projects, product-data and other work waiting on the OMS, and freezes on anything tied to orders while it moves: “Anything that's tied to sales or related to OMS is on hold because that's the most important thing; it drives sales.” One menswear retailer moving to a new commerce platform switched off ship-from-store and in-store pickup to make its launch date and is rebuilding them since. Buyers judge success by stock and order accuracy, fulfillment time, split shipments and shipping cost, cancellations and out-of-stocks.
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Book mine →Should you buy a dedicated order management system?
Start by counting where your orders come from and go to. If you sell through one channel from one warehouse, your commerce platform or ERP is probably doing the job. If stores fulfill online orders, you run several warehouses or logistics providers, or you sell through marketplaces and wholesale, a dedicated OMS is what buyers in these interviews reach for.
Three things follow from the interviews; the recommendations are ours, not practices buyers describe. First, map the integrations before the vendors: integration is where buyers say these projects hurt, so list every system an order touches and price the connections first. Second, plan the OMS as its own project, not a line in the replatform — buyers who bundled it describe it setting the timeline for everything else, so consider going live like-for-like and adding new capabilities afterwards. Third, check your inventory before promising omnichannel services: pickup and ship-from-store pay only when the stock and the labor are there to support them.
For the platforms order management sits behind, see what is headless commerce and what buyers wish they knew before replatforming; for the returns side of the same flows, what returns and post-purchase buyers wish they'd known.
Common questions
What is an order management system (OMS)?
An order management system takes in orders from every channel, decides where each one should be fulfilled from, tracks it through fulfillment, and handles changes, cancellations and returns. It sits between the storefront and the warehouses, stores and finance systems. Dedicated OMS platforms manage the order lifecycle outside the storefront or ERP, and more advanced systems add distributed order management: routing orders across warehouses, stores, third-party logistics providers and drop-ship partners, supported by inventory visibility across locations.
What is the difference between an OMS, an ecommerce platform and an ERP?
The ecommerce platform takes the order, the ERP books the finances and inventory, and the OMS coordinates the order across channels, stock locations and fulfillment options. In practice the lines blur: many companies run order management inside their commerce platform or ERP, and buyers often describe those as doing the job without being a true OMS. A dedicated OMS becomes attractive when orders come from several channels or are fulfilled from several locations and the existing platform or ERP can no longer coordinate them reliably.
When do you need a dedicated order management system?
In these interviews the trigger is complexity in where orders come from and go to: stores becoming fulfillment points for ship-from-store or pickup, adding warehouses or a new third-party logistics provider, selling across countries, adding marketplaces and wholesale, or outgrowing what the platform or ERP can route. A single-channel brand shipping from one warehouse rarely describes needing one.
Who uses a dedicated OMS?
Mostly large companies. Among interviewed companies running a dedicated OMS, about seven in ten have more than a billion dollars in revenue, against about two in five of all companies interviewed. That puts it alongside other enterprise purchases such as product information management and customer data platforms. Smaller companies more often run order management inside their commerce platform.
Which order management systems do companies use?
Dedicated systems named in these interviews include Manhattan, IBM Sterling, Fluent Commerce, Salesforce Order Management, Deck Commerce, NewStore, Kibo and Radial. Many companies instead run order management in Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud or Adobe Commerce, or in an ERP such as SAP, NetSuite, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics, and some build their own.
Why is replacing an order management system so hard?
Because the OMS is connected to everything an order touches: the storefront, ERP, warehouse, point of sale and payment systems. Buyers describe OMS replacements that became the slowest part of a replatform, taking years, freezing other changes tied to sales, and sometimes forcing omnichannel services such as ship-from-store to be switched off at launch and rebuilt afterwards. Integration is the pain buyers name most.
Does every retailer need buy online, pick up in store?
No. Buyers in these interviews tie omnichannel services to their inventory and volume rather than ambition. One specialty retailer deliberately does not offer it because its stock is broad but shallow, so it cannot promise an item will be on the shelf; others say their ship-from-store volume does not justify the labor. An OMS makes these services possible, but whether they pay depends on the stock behind them.
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