Glossary

Explore essential terms in Omnichannel Order Management. Clarify your understanding with our comprehensive glossary.

Quantity on Hand (QOH)

Physical quantity of a product in stock at a specific location, crucial for real-time inventory management.

Reserved Quantity

On-hand inventory earmarked for online sales, excluded from "available to promise" calculations to prevent overselling.

Order Brokering

Process in omnichannel systems analyzing order priority and optimizing fulfillment location based on proximity and inventory.

Brokering Queue

Queue holding orders for the order brokering process, ensuring timely and optimized fulfillment.

Unfillable Orders

Orders unable to be fulfilled due to insufficient inventory, highlighting inaccuracies until the next brokering session.

Safety Stock

Predetermined inventory quantity reserved for walk-in customers, ensuring availability despite online order commitments.

Threshold

Predefined value managing inventory inaccuracies, allowing adjustment of reported inventory for online channels.

Maximum Order Limit

A set limit by a store determining the maximum number of orders it can fulfill in a day. Orders beyond this limit are fulfilled the next day, allowing the store to continue selling online.

Excluded Facilities

Facilities temporarily unable to participate in online order fulfillment due to reasons like insufficient labor, natural disasters, or holidays. Inventory becomes available again when these scenarios change.

Available to Promise (ATP)

The quantity of inventory available to a customer, derived by deducting unsellable inventories (reserved quantities, safety stock, threshold, brokering queue orders, excluded facilities' ATP) from Quantity on Hand (QOH).

Rejected Orders

Orders brokered for fulfillment but rejected by warehouse or store due to physical inventory unavailability, often caused by damaged, lost, or stolen items. Rejected orders return to the brokering queue for reassignment.

Split Shipment

Breaking an order with multiple items into separate shipments for fulfillment across multiple locations when all items are not available at a single facility.

Order Merging

Combining multiple orders of the same customer with the same address into one shipment to save logistics costs. Configurable in an omnichannel order management system.

Pre-Orders

Advance orders for future inventory not yet released in the market, often taken during planning or production stages.

Backorders

Orders for temporarily out-of-stock products, named "backorders" as these items were previously in stock and will be available again soon.

Pre-Order Parking

A separate queue ("pre-order parking") where pre-orders are placed until the shipment of the corresponding purchase order arrives, marking them as unfulfilled until that time.

Backorder Parking

Similar to pre-order parking, a queue where backorders are held until the dedicated purchase order arrives in the fulfillment center, making them eligible for brokering.

Inventory Reconciliation

It involves cross-referencing the actual counts of items in stock with the recorded quantities to pinpoint any disparities and guarantee precision.

Expedited Shipping

Shipping method that prioritizes the delivery of products by reducing delivery time through efficient shipping methods.

Appeasement

A gesture or action taken by a company to reconcile with a dissatisfied customer, often involving concessions or compensation to resolve an issue or complaint.

CSR (Customer Service Representative)

An individual or team responsible for interacting with customers to address inquiries, assist, resolve complaints, and ensure customer satisfaction.

ASN (Advanced Shipping Notice)

A notification sent by a supplier to a recipient detailing the contents and expected arrival of a shipment, often sent in advance of the physical delivery.

Item Fulfillment Status

The current stage or status of an item within the fulfillment process, including options such as Reserved, Picking, Packed, Shipped or Delivered

Order Fulfillment Status

The status of an order throughout the fulfillment process, including stages such as Created, Approved, Completed, or Cancelled.

Facility

A physical location such as a warehouse, distribution center, or store where inventory is stored, managed, and processed.

Facility Type

The categorization of a facility based on its primary function or purpose, such as warehouse & retail store.

Facility Group

A collection or category of facilities that share common characteristics, such as location, function, or ownership.

Proximity

The nearness or closeness of one entity to another, often used in logistics to refer to the distance between facilities or customers.