Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Virtual Order Management Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

The Virtual Order Management Specialist owns the day-to-day execution and continuous improvement of order-to-cash and sales order workflows in a remote environment. This role manages order intake, validation, fulfillment coordination, exception resolution, and reporting across OMS/ERP, CRM and logistics systems. The specialist acts as the operational bridge between sales, customer success, warehouse/3PL partners, finance, and IT to ensure on-time, accurate order delivery and excellent buyer experiences.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Customer Service Representative (e‑commerce or B2B)
Fulfillment / Warehouse Coordinator
Sales Operations or Order Processing Associate

Advancement To:

Senior Order Management Specialist
Order Management Team Lead / Supervisor
Order-to-Cash Analyst / Coordinator
E-commerce Operations Manager

Lateral Moves:

Supply Chain / Inventory Analyst
Customer Success Manager (operations-focused)
Billing & Collections Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Manage end-to-end order lifecycle across multiple channels (website, marketplaces, EDI, sales reps), ensuring accurate order capture, validation, and timely handoff to fulfillment partners or warehouses.
Validate incoming orders for pricing, product availability, billing and shipping information; correct discrepancies proactively and engage stakeholders for approvals.
Enter, update and monitor sales orders in the Order Management System (OMS) and ERP (NetSuite, SAP or equivalent), maintaining accurate order status and audit trails.
Monitor inventory allocations and available-to-promise (ATP) quantities; coordinate with inventory planning and 3PL partners to resolve stockouts, backorders and replenishment timing.
Investigate and resolve order exceptions (pricing errors, address issues, authorization failures, invalid SKUs) and drive root-cause analysis to reduce recurrence.
Coordinate order fulfillment with internal warehouse teams and external 3PLs, providing pick/pack instructions, special handling notes, and shipment prioritization during peak periods.
Process cancellations, returns (RMA), credits and exchanges in systems, ensuring timely financial and logistical follow-through with finance and reverse logistics teams.
Partner with Sales and Customer Success to prioritize rush orders, special projects and contract orders while ensuring compliance with negotiated terms and service-level agreements (SLAs).
Manage communication with customers and internal stakeholders on order confirmations, status updates, delays, and shipment notifications with a customer-centric tone and clear escalation paths.
Execute pricing, promotions and discount coding on orders, verify promotional eligibility, and resolve pricing disputes with sales or pricing teams.
Reconcile order and shipment data with billing and accounts receivable teams; flag billing discrepancies and support invoice documentation.
Facilitate EDI, API, and manual order imports — verify mapping, troubleshoot transmission errors, and coordinate with IT/technical teams to maintain integrations.
Maintain and document SOPs for order processing workflows, system usage, exception handling and escalation protocols to ensure consistent remote operations.
Track and report on core order management KPIs (order accuracy, cycle time, on-time fulfillment, exceptions per 1,000 orders, OTIF) and produce weekly/monthly operational dashboards for leadership.
Support seasonal and promotional peaks by executing capacity plans, coordinating temporary process changes, and training contingency staff or contractors.
Execute credit card and payment validation steps, collaborate with fraud prevention teams, and resolve payment declines, chargebacks, and disputed transactions.
Run periodic audit checks on order history, ship-to/bill-to changes, and pricing overrides to ensure compliance with internal controls and SOX-like requirements.
Contribute to continuous improvement projects to automate manual steps (macros, scripts, OMS configuration) and reduce order cycle time and error rates.
Test and validate order workflows during new product launches, system upgrades, or integration projects; document test cases and report defects.
Mentor and onboard new order management team members, providing coaching on systems, escalation protocols and customer communication best practices.
Liaise with logistics carriers on shipment exceptions (delays, lost/damaged freight), create claims documentation, and update customers on resolution timelines.
Prepare ad-hoc order data extracts and perform analyses to identify trends, capacity constraints, SKU-level issues, or recurring partner-related exceptions.

Secondary Functions

Contribute to process mapping, RACI matrices and business requirement documents for OMS, ERP or integration projects.
Support cross-functional initiatives such as SKU rationalization, product onboarding, pricing updates and channel expansion logistics.
Provide subject matter expertise for vendor selection and configuration of order management, warehouse management or customer support tools.
Maintain clean documentation of system configurations, change logs, and known issues to support remote troubleshooting and continuity.
Participate in quarterly business reviews with sales, finance and operations to align on order performance and corrective actions.
Assist in creating training materials and knowledge base content for internal teams and external partners (3PLs, resellers).

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Order Management Systems (OMS) administration and day-to-day processing (experience with NetSuite, Oracle, Shopify Plus, Magento/Adobe Commerce or similar).
ERP order-to-cash experience (NetSuite, SAP, Oracle Cloud) including sales order entry, fulfillment integration, and invoicing handoffs.
Strong Excel skills (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, PivotTables, INDEX/MATCH, data cleansing) and comfortable with Google Sheets for collaborative reports.
Familiarity with EDI transactions (850/855/856/810), API-based order integrations, and mapping/messaging troubleshooting.
CRM and customer support tools (Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk or Freshdesk) to reconcile customer conversations with order status.
Basic SQL or query-writing capability to extract and analyze order-level data from databases or reporting layers.
Experience with analytics and dashboard tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to create operational KPIs and trend visualizations.
Knowledge of logistics and shipping workflows (labels, manifests, carrier exceptions, freight claims).
Understanding of returns management, RMA processing and reverse logistics workflows.
Exposure to payment processing, chargebacks, refunds and basic fraud prevention procedures.
Familiarity with ticketing tools (JIRA, ServiceNow) and basic incident management for tracking order issues.

Soft Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication for clear customer updates and cross-functional collaboration in a remote setting.
Strong attention to detail and accuracy when entering orders, pricing, and shipment instructions.
Analytical mindset with problem-solving orientation — able to investigate root causes and propose durable fixes.
Time management and prioritization skills to balance high-volume order queues with urgent escalations.
Customer-centric attitude and empathy when resolving buyer issues, escalations and service recovery.
Ability to work independently, take ownership, and escalate appropriately in a distributed team.
Adaptability to changing processes, seasonal variability, and fast-paced e‑commerce environments.
Collaborative team player comfortable working with cross-functional stakeholders and external vendors.
Process improvement orientation — comfortable documenting workflows and driving incremental automation.
Professionalism and discretion when handling sensitive customer or financial data.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Logistics, Finance, or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Supply Chain / Logistics
Business Administration / Operations
Information Systems / Data Analytics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of professional experience in order management, e-commerce operations, logistics coordination, or sales operations.

Preferred:

3+ years managing orders in an OMS/ERP environment with direct experience in B2C or B2B e-commerce companies.
Demonstrated track record of improving order accuracy and cycle time, and familiarity with integrations (EDI/API) and 3PL coordination.