Aroma- Unified Commerce Suite - Omnichannel Order/Returnmanagement and Inventory Management

Aroma- a Unified Commerce Suite- which includes powerful order and return management modules with realtime inventory management.

For order management, it allows customers to place orders through any channel (web, mobile app, physical stores, call center), and the system automatically routes them for fulfillment form the most appropriate location based on factors such as stock availalbility, customer proximity, delivery times, packaging costs, split-rules, etc. It supports flexible fulfillment options, including in-store pickup, home delivery, or ship-from-store and comes with an In-Store App to support the store staff.

Furthermore during the order processing, it generates relevant customer emails and documents, such as order confirmation or deliver delays, as well as invoice and refund documents.

It does not only orchestrate the order process but also handles the payment process and integrates with risk check systems and FI systems.

Return management is equally streamlined, enabling customers to return items through the channel they purchased from or any other, such as returning online orders in-store. The system automates the return process by verifying eligibility, processing refunds or exchanges, and updating inventory in real time to reflect the returned items.

Integrated inventory management ensures full visbility into stock across all sales channels and warehouses, helping retailers optimize inventory distribution and reduce overstock and stockouts. The system can use AI to predict returns and adjusting inventory level accordingly,

Overall, this omnichannel systems enables a smooth, customer-friendly experience while also improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.-------------------------------------------------------

Business process wise: It does not only orchestrate the order process but also handles the payment process and integrates with risk check systems, FI systems and provides fiscalization features, that are required in some EU countries. Furthermore it processes carrier scan events for better delivery and return management and optimal refund handling. Outstanding are its order soucring features, where it is just a click to add a store for ship-from- store functionality for example. Rules for the order sourcing can be changed on the fly to leverage pick-pack personell in the warehouse. Another unique feature is its possibilty to reserve inventory in real-time where the inventory information can be stored internally, or used from external inventory mangement systems or a mixture of both. The system provides a streamlined UI for dropshippers, which allows to process orders assigned to them without the need to connect internal IT. The supported process not only include shipments, but also return processing. With this feature the assortment can be easily enhanced.

From a technical point of view: the system is very flexible, highly configurable, very easy to integrate into other systems, and can be setup for small environments, but also in cloud environments to scale for high throughput, for example to process 100k orders per hour at low latency (less than 5 sec. from order intake to export to logistics).

The system is normally accessed via REST endpoints, but also supports bulk transfers. Due to its open architecture it can be easily integrated into existing landscapes.

*Advanced Order Sourcing Rules: the sourcing engine has been enhanced to take into account the real-time backload of various warehouses as input to the decision engine, in order to optimize load balancing across those warehouses. In addition, carrier selection will use estimated shipping time per zip code area to select fast carriers for a certain target area. The base data can be continuously updated via the scan events processing of the new orders, post processed by AI models.

• Enhanced Replenishment Advise with prediction of return probability of orders.

• Enhanced Return Experience: Digital return slips combined with In-Store features.

• Natural Language Interaction: Agent based GenAI for queries and data retrieval.

*Seamless Payment Integration Across Channels: Customers can purchase online and get the refund in-store or vice versa.

Aroma with its order/return management modules with its inventory management were launched for a large fashion retailer in 20 countries to substitute their existing solution and to solve the existing performance and sellout isssues. Client feedback: "From now on, ALL our customers can benefit from the immediate advantages of the new Aroma OMS and receive their order confirmation by e-mail within a few minutes. Aroma OMS will be the foundation for more important benefits ranging from more flexibility in stock and warehousing to enablement of the return fee coming down the line, besides being the foundation for our future omnichannel efforts.

At the same time, in all remaining Click&Collect countries the new Click&Collect App was launched in our stores and is directly connected to the OMS."

https://www.arvato-systems.de/loesungen-technologien/loesungen/e-commerce-omnichannel/order-management-aroma