From the user/consumer perspective, from shopping to completion, the main process is as follows:

Select product → Add to shopping cart → Confirm purchase (order settlement) → Payment → etc. Deliver the goods → Wait for logistics delivery → Sign for receipt when the goods arrive.

But for e-commerce systems, the processing process is complicated.

For example, at any processing node, consumers may initiate order cancellation, so we need to set up order interception somewhere to avoid shipping when the order is canceled and protect costs.

After analysis, the following business flow chart was made. But it does not yet involve returns (the reverse process of orders), ODS-order distribution, VIS-supply chain, and EBS-financial system.

It should be noted that:

When an order is generated, the inventory needs to be occupied and deducted in advance. This prevents the total number of goods in the final order from being inconsistent with the inventory when other consumers place orders at the same time.

The order is generated and payment needs to be made before proceeding to the next step. If payment is not made within the time limit, the inventory occupied by the order needs to be restored.

Order placement involves the following systems:

OMS: Order Management System.

WMS: Warehouse Management System.

TMS: Transportation (logistics) management system.

Tentatively, an order interceptor will be set up before downstream TMS logistics distribution. Orders canceled before that can go through the order cancellation process. Once this happens, shipment is deemed to have started. If consumers want to cancel the order, they can only wait for the goods to be received and go through the return process. This is for the sake of platform/merchant shipping costs, especially if it is free shipping.

Of course, there are also some other platforms that can intercept at the logistics layer. This requires merchants and consumers to coordinate shipping costs.