Every order you place moves through seven systems before it reaches your door — and a retention loop that keeps it coming back month after month. Here's the full pipeline: OMS, Ordergroove, PIM, Middleware, Vet Portal, Iterable, and Salesforce Service Cloud.
Orders move through five stages: Order Placed, Pharmacy Review, Packed, Shipped, and Delivered. Each stage is owned by a different system, and every state change fires an event to the systems that need to know. Click any stage to see the data flow behind it.
Click any stage to see what happens behind the scenes — which system owns it, what data moves, and what the customer sees.
The customer selects a product, chooses quantity, and checks out. The cart posts to the OMS with a unique order ID. Inventory is soft-reserved, the payment method is authorized, and a confirmation event is fired to the retention layer.
AutoShip orders skip this stage entirely — they're generated on schedule by Ordergroove, which fires an event to the OMS that creates the order automatically.
Every prescription is verified by a licensed PharmD before it moves forward. The pharmacist checks the prescription against the order, coordinates with the prescribing vet if anything is unclear, and approves or holds the order.
No prescription = no shipment. This is the compliance layer where licensing and HIPAA requirements are enforced — the customer never sees it, but it's the most critical stage in the pipeline.
Once approved, the order routes to fulfillment. The warehouse picks the items, verifies them against the order, packs them in tamper-evident inner packaging, and labels the shipment.
Product details — description, dosage, warnings, images — flow in from the PIM at this stage so the packing slip and box labeling are always accurate. Middleware handles the routing between OMS, fulfillment, and PIM.
The carrier picks up the package and the tracking number goes live. This is where the retention layer starts its work — the customer gets a shipping confirmation email, the tracking link activates, and the Salesforce Service Cloud case is updated.
If the package is delayed, the system triggers a proactive notification before the customer has to ask. Iterable orchestrates every customer-facing message at this stage.
The package arrives. But the order lifecycle doesn't end here — it feeds the retention layer. If the order was on AutoShip, the next one is already scheduled by Ordergroove.
If it wasn't, the customer gets a follow-up asking if they want to subscribe. A post-delivery review request goes out. And the OMS quietly prepares the next cycle.
Seven systems power every PetMeds order. The OMS is the hub every order routes through. Ordergroove manages AutoShip subscriptions. PIM supplies product data. Middleware routes events between systems. The Vet Portal verifies every prescription. Iterable fires retention messages. Salesforce Service Cloud handles customer service interactions.
The central system. Every order passes through it, every event gets logged there, and every downstream system reads from it. Single source of truth for the entire pipeline.
Subscription engine. Owns every AutoShip loop — cadence, skip/delay logic, cancel-save offers, and subscription state. When a ship date arrives, it fires an event to the OMS.
Product Information Management. Owns every product detail — descriptions, images, dosage charts, warnings, allergen info, and variant mapping. Feeds the site, packing slips, and every customer view.
The plumbing between systems. Translates API calls, batches events, handles retries, and routes data between the OMS, PIM, fulfillment, and carriers. Nothing gets lost in transit.
Prescription verification. Licensed PharmDs review every Rx before it ships, coordinate with prescribing vets when needed, and enforce HIPAA and pharmacy regulations.
Retention messaging engine. Fires every transactional email, shipment confirmation, AutoShip reminder, review request, and lifecycle campaign — triggered by OMS events.
Every customer interaction, order inquiry, and support case lives here. When a customer calls or chats, the agent has full order history and status at a glance — instantly.
Every stage of the order lifecycle pushes specific data downstream. Cart posts orders to the OMS. The OMS routes prescriptions to the Vet Portal. Middleware pushes orders to fulfillment and pulls PIM data. Carriers return tracking numbers. SFSC and Iterable receive every event for service and messaging.
The storefront posts the order to the OMS with the customer's cart contents. The OMS generates a unique order ID, soft-reserves inventory, and authorizes payment.
POST /orders{ customer_id, line_items[], total, autoShip }
If the order contains a prescription, the OMS routes it to the Vet Portal for pharmacist review. The pharmacist verifies the Rx against the order and either approves or holds it.
GET /prescriptions/{id}POST /prescriptions/{id}/approve
The OMS hands the approved order to middleware, which routes it to the fulfillment center. Product data is pulled from the PIM at this stage to guarantee packing slip accuracy.
POST /fulfillment/pick GET /pim/products/{sku}Once packed, the fulfillment center requests a shipping label from the carrier API. The tracking number comes back through middleware and gets written to the OMS.
POST /carriers/labelPATCH /orders/{id}/tracking
Every order event fires to Salesforce Service Cloud (so agents have the full picture) and to Iterable (so the customer gets the right message at the right time).
POST /sfsc/cases/update POST /iterable/eventsFor AutoShip orders, Ordergroove runs the loop. On the ship date, it fires an event to the OMS, which creates a new order automatically and routes it back to Stage 01 of the pipeline.
POST /oms/orders{ subscription_id, cadence, items[] }
Every state change fires an event to every system that needs to know. The OMS event log captures each transition in real time — from order placement through pharmacy review, packing, shipment, and delivery. This is what real-time visibility into the pipeline looks like.
The customer sees the OMS through four surfaces: the Cart (where the order enters the pipeline), Track Order (where the state machine becomes visible), Account (where order history lives), and Returns (where exceptions re-enter the pipeline). Every surface is a window into the same OMS.
Where the order enters the pipeline. Item selection, quantity, AutoShip toggle, totals, and the checkout trigger.
View Cart Stages 02–05 · Live StatusWhere the customer sees the state machine. Five stages, event log, and real-time status as the order moves through the pipeline.
Track an Order Order HistoryWhere past orders live. Full history, status badges, reorder buttons, invoice links, AutoShip management, and pet profiles.
View Account ExceptionsWhere orders that need to be reversed re-enter the pipeline. Return eligibility checker, refund flow, and order state validation.
View ReturnsThe customer-facing views already assume a schema that mirrors any standard OMS. Cart handles order creation. Track Order renders the state machine. Account displays order history. Returns evaluates eligibility. Every view is already built — the only change to go live is swapping the data source from localStorage to real API endpoints.
The Cart page handles order creation. Track Order renders the full state machine. Account displays order history. Returns evaluates eligibility per order status. All four pages assume the same schema:
orders · order_items · order_events · status · tracking_number · auto_ship_schedule
That schema is the schema. Any OMS uses the same fundamental structure. The views are already correct.
Cart posts to POST /orders instead of localStorage. Track Order reads from GET /orders/:id instead of a static object. Account lists from GET /orders?customer_id=X. Returns evaluates against POST /returns/check.
Every view is already built. The only change is swapping the data source. Give us the schema and the credentials — the customer-facing layer is done.
Yes. The PetMeds OMS is the same pipeline that powers every white-label partner deployment. Rural King is the first sub-node running on the same trunk. Every future partner plugs into the same architecture — same seven systems, same five stages, same retention loop, different brand skin. The OMS scales horizontally without adding headcount.
The first live white-label partner. Same seven systems. Same five stages. Different brand — Powered by PetMeds.
Adding a partner does not mean adding a pipeline. The same OMS that runs PetMeds runs Rural King — and every white-label partner next. New partner, new brand skin, same trunk.
The questions customers ask most about the OMS are: what is an OMS, how does an order flow through the pipeline, where does pharmacy review fit, how do AutoShip orders re-enter the pipeline, and what systems connect to it. Each is answered below.