7 Steps to Understanding the Order Journey

Of the projected $5.42–$5.48 trillion in annual retail sales, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects that online and other non-store sales will increase between 7-9% year-over-year (YoY) in 2025 to reach $1.5–$1.6 trillion. This astounding financial outlay by online shoppers represents an enormous volume of orders moving through the supply chain every day.

Generation Z and younger Millennials are helping to propel this growth, with 43% of under-35s increasing their online spending YoY in 2025, compared to 32% of over-65s, according to a 2025 survey. Peak holiday season is also a significant driver of the ongoing expansion of the e-commerce market: U.S. online sales are forecasted to hit $253.4 billion this holiday season (Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025), representing 5.3% YoY growth.

Cyber Week, the five-day period, including Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is expected to drive 17.2% of overall spend this season, increasing 6.3% YoY to $43.7 billion. On average, consumers plan to spend $890.49 per person this year on holiday gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items, which is the second-highest amount on record.

Are retailers ready for the holiday crush?

With the 2025 holiday season shaping up to be even busier than previous years, ecommerce businesses and omnichannel retailers must be prepared to manage the avalanche of online orders. And given that every customer click triggers a complex network of processes—from order verification, inventory allocation and warehouse fulfillment to labeling, last mile delivery, returns management and more—that must be tightly orchestrated to work together so orders reach consumers seamlessly, the stakes are high.  

For retailers already under the gun from unpredictable tariffs, rising costs and potential supply chain disruptions, mastering order management is critical to protecting profits and building customer loyalty. At the most basic level, if a retailer is unable to ship orders promptly, without issues, the business will not survive.

Indeed, an e-commerce business that pumps out orders like a well-oiled machine and is responsive to challenges and disruptions will outperform and outlast one that hasn’t prioritized order management and lacks a standardized process for dealing with order flow. And it’s never more visible and keenly felt by both warehouse staff and customers than during the holiday rush.

Order management chaos

While every retailer wants to leverage spiking holiday demand into a bottom-line boost, order management challenges can be a significant hurdle, especially for those businesses still relying on manual processes. Managing peak season volumes without automating the order lifecycle is enormously labor-intensive and time-consuming. It’s also rife with costly and reputation-damaging issues, including orders not fulfilled on time, lost orders and shipment of incorrect orders. Additionally, retailers are unable to track orders across multiple channels, prioritize orders based on urgency or choose the best shipping rates based on criteria such as price, delivery time and insurance.

Plus, inventory control goes out the window, communicating real-time status updates to customers is next to impossible, and workflows for return merchandise authorizations (RMA), refunds and cancellations break down. Cumulatively, these order management challenges translate to a poor customer experience, eroding brand loyalty and customer lifetime value.

Behind the scenes of an order

The lifecycle of an order begins with a customer clicking “buy now” and concludes with a successful delivery. In between these two points lay a series of integrated steps and processes that propel the order from creation to customer hand-off. Optimizing the many order management workflows for maximum efficiency, accuracy and ease-of-use is the foundation of a successful peak season.  

Once the retailer receives, verifies and confirms the order and payment is received, the fulfillment journey begins:

1.      Inventory allocation. When an order is confirmed, retailers need an efficient way to check stock levels, reserve the purchased items, and deduct them from the total inventory—across all sales channels in real-time—to prevent overselling. Not only does overselling frustrate customers and damage brand reputation, but it also increases order cancellations, potentially damaging a retailer’s marketplace rating and prompting bans. 

2.      Warehouse fulfillment. Once an order is confirmed and inventory is allocated, warehouse staff pick the items and prepare them for packing; orders can contain multiple items and pickers must travel around the warehouse to collect each item. Picking the correct items quickly with the least amount of effort is the goal.

3.      Shipping label creation. Once the order is packed, it moves to the shipping station. Workers evaluate shipping rates, choose the best carrier for the order based on weight, size, destination and promised delivery time, and generate shipping labels and tracking information.

4.      Customer notification and communication. Notifications about order status (e.g., processing updates, delays) keep customers engaged and informed. Similarly, proactive communication about shipping and delivery windows, including tracking links, can significantly improve the customer experience.

5.      Carrier handoff. The warehouse team hands the package to carriers like FedEx, UPS or local delivery services. On arrival, the carrier scans the shipping label and takes the order to its final destination. 

6.      Last mile delivery. 79% of under-35 consumers experienced delivery issues within the three-month period surveyed and a mere 11% were “always satisfied” with online delivery, according to a 2025 survey. Given that under-35s offer the greatest customer lifetime value for retailers, businesses need to prioritize the last mile to ensure the delivery promise is met.

7.      Returns management. Returns are a fact of life for e-commerce businesses, with an estimated 19.3% of online sales expected to be returned in 2025. Retailers should offer an easy-to-understand returns policy, ideally with automated return labels. Efficient handling of returns enhances customer satisfaction and reduces operational costs in the long run. 

The OMS foundation

Effectively managing the complex journey between the customer clicking “buy now” and the order arriving (plus returns management and post-sale support and analytics) is largely dependent on standardized processes and automated workflows powered by purpose-built technology, such as an order management system (OMS), warehouse management system (WMS) and/or shipping software.

A robust OMS is the backbone of a retailer’s fulfillment strategy, managing the order cycle from creation to last-mile delivery, plus any after-sales services. With an OMS driving the order journey, retailers can consolidate orders from various sales channels into one central location, synchronize inventory across platforms to prevent overselling and route orders to optimal fulfillment locations for faster delivery.

In addition to efficiency and productivity gains, an OMS-driven fulfillment workflow is a retailer’s opportunity to optimize the customer experience, tracking order status (e.g., pending, shipped, delivered) and notifying customers of status updates, prioritizing orders to pick/pack/ship depending on specific criteria (e.g., VIP customers) and seamlessly managing returns and exchanges across sales channels to reduce friction.

Despite today’s volatile trade landscape, cost constraints and labor shortage, a successful peak season is possible with the right technology driving fulfillment: an OMS serving as the foundation, potentially complemented by a WMS to streamline picking and shipping software for rate shopping. By automating the order lifecycle, retailers can take control of the peak season order avalanche, reducing time spent fulfilling orders, decreasing manual overhead, improving inventory forecasting and efficiently managing returns to keep customers coming back long after the holidays are over.