Central order processing with omnichannel

What is multi- and omnichannel?

In today’s world, every smart business owner wants to be present across multiple touchpoints. You can reach your customers through a physical shop, a webshop, marketplaces, social media, phone orders … That’s what we call multichannel selling.

But multichannel alone isn’t enough. What really moves your business forward is omnichannel: an experience where all channels work together, where the customer switches seamlessly between channels without barriers.
The goal? One unified customer experience, and a smooth back office to build on. Do you want your stock to be automatically accurate, your orders managed centrally, and your admin (e.g. accounting, VAT) to run smoothly?

Then you need a system that embraces multichannel and omnichannel, without having to commission custom-built work every time. In this article, we explain why traditional software often falls short, what obstacles you’ll encounter, and how Deskflow offers an integrated solution. Including OSS / VAT compliance across the EU.

More than one sales channel is often the breaking point

Many software platforms (traditional ERP, accounting systems, standalone modules) are typically built to support one sales channel: they cope fine with manually entered orders and/or a till system. As soon as you add an external channel, such as a B2B/B2C webshop, most systems grind to a halt.

Businesses then often choose between two scenarios:

• They have expensive custom integrations built for each channel (costs time, is error-prone, and heavy to maintain).
• They keep processing systems separately, which leads to duplicate work, synchronisation issues and errors.

That’s the point where processes break under the complexity. After all, every additional sales channel introduces order flows, stock updates, customer management and returns processes, all of which need to keep working together coherently.

Put simply: if you have more than one sales channel, most standard software platforms are lost, unless you choose a genuine multichannel / omnichannel solution from the outset.

Stock synchronisation is crucial for physical shops + webshop

Say you have a shop and a webshop. You make a sale in the shop, so your stock goes down. If your webshop doesn’t know that immediately, you can end up double-selling online: selling a product that’s no longer available.

Conversely: an order from your webshop needs to adjust your in-store stock. And as your shop keeps selling, the webshop also needs to show the correct stock, through direct synchronisation.

A robust multichannel solution provides direct stock synchronisation across all channels — whether that’s your till system, shop, warehouse or webshop. This prevents overselling and disappointed customers.

Without that kind of synchronisation, you end up in risky situations:

• A customer orders something that’s no longer available → you have to cancel the order or disappoint them.
• You keep extra safety stock on hand (inefficient and costly).
• You have no reliable overview of your current stock positions.

So: if you have a physical shop or point of sale alongside your webshop, stock always has to stay in sync everywhere.

Webshop + in-store sales + manual orders: the complexity grows

Usually the challenge isn’t limited to just shop and webshop. Sales often come in through other channels too:

• by phone or email
• via social media
• via marketplaces
• via returns or exchanges.

If you process these channels separately, you end up with a tangle of silos, resulting in:

• You have to manually re-enter orders.
• You have a higher chance of errors (duplicate orders, incorrect customer details).
• You lose insight into the status of each order.
• You struggle with consistency in your admin.

What you ideally want is one platform where all orders come together, regardless of the channel. From there, you manage processing, stock and shipping, with a direct link to your accounting.

That’s why you need a multichannel order manager: a system that centralises all orders and processes them as a single flow.

The benefits of a central multichannel order manager

The benefits are clear by now:

One central overview & control

All orders from webshop, shop, marketplace and phone arrive in one central place: no switching between systems, no delays, no errors.

Automation & workflows

You can set rules: which channel gets priority, order splitting, automatic confirmations, shipping, returns processing. This minimises manual work.

Real-time stock updates

Stock is automatically adjusted across all channels whenever an order is created, edited or returned.

Preventing overselling

One of the biggest pitfalls in multichannel is overselling: customers buying something that’s actually sold out. Modern multichannel systems prevent this through direct synchronisation and buffer rules.

Better and more efficient fulfilment

An advanced order manager can decide which location (warehouse, shop, dropship) an order is shipped from, based on distance, availability or cost.

Reporting & insight

You get insight per channel into revenue, margins, sales trends and return rates. This lets you make strategic adjustments.

Integration with accounting

Ultimately, you want your sales data to flow quickly into your accounting system, without manual imports or actions.

Compliance & tax rules (such as OSS)

If you sell in multiple countries, you need to comply with tax rules. A good multichannel solution takes taxes, VAT rules and reporting in different countries into account.

OSS / VAT rules within the EU

If you sell products to consumers within the EU from your webshop, the OSS scheme (One Stop Shop) comes into play. This scheme was introduced to make handling VAT simpler.

What is OSS?

• OSS is the one-stop-shop system that lets you declare foreign VAT on distance sales in one go, through your own country.
• This means you don’t have to register separately and file VAT returns in every EU country.
• In Belgium, for example, you file your OSS return through Intervat.
• Note: as soon as your sales to private individuals (excl. VAT) in other EU countries exceed €10,000, the OSS obligation applies.

Why is OSS relevant to your multichannel strategy?

• You sell via webshop(s) to customers in multiple EU countries → you need to calculate VAT correctly per country.
• You want to simplify your admin: no separate VAT numbers and returns for every country.
• You need one central source of truth for your sales data, per country, per channel.

How Deskflow solves this in practice

Integrations and capabilities

Below, we explain what Deskflow offers to solve all the challenges described above, and what that looks like in practice.

Integrations with popular webshops

At Deskflow, we connect seamlessly with, among others:

• Mijnwebwinkel
• Lightspeed
• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• PrestaShop
• …

This means you don’t need to build separate middleware or apply custom work: the integrations are built in. You can even combine multiple webshops within a single account.

Central order processing

All orders, regardless of where they come in (webshop, shop, phone), are collected in Deskflow’s central environment. There you manage:

• order status (in progress, shipped, cancelled, returned)
• order splits or bundling
• shipping & logistics
• returns & exchanges.

Because everything is centralised, you don’t need to switch between different systems.

Real-time stock synchronisation

With every order update, whether in the shop or the webshop, Deskflow automatically adjusts stock across all connected channels. Stock changes (e.g. goods received, returns) are also carried through to all your channels, so you always have an accurate stock position.

Rules and automations

Within Deskflow, you can set up automations to drastically reduce manual work:

• priority assignment based on which channel can deliver
• splitting order lines (if one item needs to come from stock A, and another from stock B)
• automatic email communication to your customer (on confirmation or shipping)
• low-stock notifications.

Integration with accounting & OSS processing

Sales data (invoices, VAT amounts, customer addresses) can be automatically forwarded to your accounting system. This gives you a continuously up-to-date financial administration.

In addition, Deskflow can help with:

• correct VAT allocation per country
• data export per country for OSS
• a central source of truth for your processes.

If you already have more than one sales channel today, or expect to in the near future, taking the step to a powerful multichannel / omnichannel solution is crucial. Without a central system, you’ll run into plenty of problems: custom work, synchronisation issues, errors, inefficiencies and tax risks.

With Deskflow, you can count on:

• a multichannel order manager where every sales channel comes together
• real-time stock synchronisation
• integration with your webshop(s): Mijnwebwinkel, Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Lightspeed, …
• central order processing for all channels (including phone orders)
• automatic integration with accounting & support for OSS / VAT across the EU.