The 7 Truths You Must Know Before Choosing Your OMS in 2025

European Order Management System (OMS) Benchmark – The Battle of Solutions for Sovereign and Omnichannel Retail

By Charlotte Journo-Baur, founder of WISHIBAM and retail expert

This benchmark, the result of 8 months of in-depth analysis of the main European solutions, gives you an unfiltered look at the strengths, weaknesses, and concrete use cases of the OMS systems shaping tomorrow’s retail. My goal? To give you the keys to making an informed choice, aligned with your actual business challenges, not with the marketing promises of software vendors.

So, ready to discover why 62% of European retailers regret their OMS choice within 18 months of implementation? And more importantly, how to avoid becoming part of this statistic?

Why the OMS Has Become the Nerve Center of European Retail in 2025

The Omnichannel Explosion: Between Customer Demands and Logistical Complexity

The equation is simple: your customers want everything, everywhere, all the time. According to Forrester (2024), 73% of European consumers now expect a completely unified shopping experience. They don’t understand – and don’t want to understand – why a product available online cannot be reserved in-store, or why an item purchased on your website cannot be returned to your physical store.

• Click & collect
• Ship-from-store
• Omnichannel returns

These services are now fundamental expectations. Without a robust OMS to synchronize everything, it’s like trying to conduct an orchestra where each musician plays their own score.

I’ve seen retailers multiply their digital revenue by 2.5 in just 6 months after deploying a suitable OMS. Why? Because they finally managed to monetize their entire inventory, regardless of its physical location.

Digital Sovereignty and Regulatory Challenges: A Strategic Shift for Retailers

Let’s be frank: dependence on American solutions has become a major business risk for European retailers. This isn’t about economic patriotism, but pure pragmatism.

GDPR has changed the game, and the record fines imposed on several big retail names (€18 million for a French retailer I won’t name) have served as a brutal wake-up call. Your customer and inventory data are now considered strategic assets that deserve protection adapted to European standards.

A digital director of a major fashion chain recently confided to me: “We realized that with our former American OMS, we had no idea where our data was stored, or who had access to it. It was like handing over the keys to our business to a stranger.”

The rise of European solutions like Wishibam, OneStock, or Orisha is therefore no coincidence. These OMS systems were designed from the start with European regulatory and commercial specificities in mind, offering a credible alternative to the transatlantic giants.

Digital sovereignty is no longer a luxury; it’s a strategic necessity. And your OMS is on the front line of this battle.

The 2025 European OMS Benchmark: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Concrete Use Cases

Overview of Leading Solutions: Wishibam, OneStock, Orisha, Manhattan Active, etc.

The European OMS ecosystem has become considerably more structured in recent years. Gone are the days when retailers had to choose between oversized American solutions or costly and fragile custom developments.

The distinctive feature of European solutions lies in their native understanding of local specificities. Multi-warehouse stock management with varying regulatory constraints, local taxation (VAT differences), or SEPA payments: all are integrated by default, whereas American solutions often lag in adaptation.

A striking example: a large French retailer using an American OMS discovered that its system was incorrectly calculating VAT on cross-border orders, resulting in a tax adjustment of €1.2 million. This type of situation is much less frequent with solutions designed for the European market.

Retailers Succeeding Thanks to Their OMS: Testimonials and Results

• Galeries Lafayette: 27% increase in inventory turnover and 31% reduction in perceived stockouts after deploying a modern OMS. By unlocking their in-store stock for online sales, each store becomes a logistics mini-hub.
• Intersport: 22% reduction in logistics costs through optimized order routing, with positive environmental impact due to reduced “distance shipped.”

What’s fascinating is that these successes aren’t limited to large budgets. Medium-sized retailers often achieve ROIs exceeding 300% in the first year by choosing the right solution for their needs.

Choosing Your OMS in 2025: The 3 Decisive Criteria for Agile and Profitable Retail

Technological Agility in Service of Customer Experience

Let’s be clear: in 2025, an OMS not built on API-first architecture is already outdated. The retail ecosystem moves fast, and your ability to add new features or integrations is a critical competitive advantage.

The most performant solutions share three technical characteristics:

• API-first approach — enables rapid integration with existing and future tools
• Sovereign cloud hosting — ensures compliance, security, and performance
• Embedded AI — automatically optimizes order orchestration and fulfillment decisions

Be wary of pretty screens in demos. The real differentiator is under the hood. Ask potential vendors about their roadmap and how it aligns with retail market evolutions, not just current features.

At Wishibam, client feedback shapes our product quarterly, so we developed features like voice order management and automated collection points before they became a trend.

Human and Strategic Support: The Often Neglected X Factor

An excellent OMS alone won’t transform your business. Too many retailers invest heavily but then only use 30% of their OMS capabilities.

The differentiator is human support:

• Does the vendor understand your real business issues?
• Do they provide a proven methodology for managing change internally?
• Do consultants have field retail experience, or is it all theory?

This is where Wishibam’s consulting + tech approach excels. All our consultants have retail backgrounds and speak operational language, not just technical jargon.

A store manager recently told me: “For the first time, I had consultants in front of me who understood my daily constraints, who spoke my language.”

This human approach explains why some European retailers transform their business model with OMS, while others see OMS as an added cost center.

Conclusion: Beyond Technology, a Vision for Tomorrow’s Retail

Choosing an OMS in 2025 is more than a tech decision. It’s about defining your vision for your brand’s future.

At Wishibam, we believe technology must serve people. Our mission: empower European retailers with digital independence, while preserving what makes physical retail unique — human touch, product expertise, local roots.

In the face of e-commerce giants, your OMS decision could be your most strategic move this year. Choose wisely, with the future of retail in mind.

FAQ: European Order Management System Benchmark