Learn how to process various types of orders depending upon the number of shipments, and dealing with missing products and complaints with no exchanges.
When a new order arrives in your online store you must process it.
Careful order processing is important, as the store's sales and bookkeeping reports are compiled based on the status of orders. Also, when the number of orders goes up and you fail to keep their statuses up to date, you will find it difficult to keep track of all shipments, payments, and stock balances.
- verifying payments made by the customer
- marking the order's shipments as shipped
- printing order documents
- creating gift cards if the order contains gift card products.
There are multiple ways in which orders can be processed depending on the number of shipments. You can learn here about the most common tasks related to order processing.
Delivering in a single shipment
Orders delivered in a single shipment can either be processed step-by-step or in one go by running quick processing. Both methods are discussed below.
Order quick processing
Order quick processing means that all the basic tasks related to order processing can be performed with a single click. This allows you to save time and avoid repetitive work.
Don't use quick processing with backorders and partial shipments. Mark individual shipments one by one as delivered.
To run quick processing:
By default, orders that have been processed are no longer displayed on the order search and set the value of the Status field to Delivered.
page. To view them, you can use theProcessing orders step-by-step
If an order cannot be processed by running quick processing, you can process it step-by-step.
You can see below on a step-by-step basis how to process an order with a single shipment.
Once all shipments in the order have been marked as delivered, the entire order's status changes to Delivered.
By default, orders that have been processed are no longer displayed on the Orders page. To view them, you can use the order search and set the value of the Status field to Delivered.
Processing partial shipments and backorders
If any of the order's products have run out of stock or the order should for some reason be delivered in multiple shipments, divide the order into multiple shipments and process them one-by-one.
You have just delivered the order's first batch. Later you can deliver the rest of the products as a separate shipment or, when necessary, add products to the order and divide the order into multiple shipments. For each shipment, perform the actions described above.
If order archiving is enabled in your online store, archive the order to bookkeeping once you're sure that you will no longer have to edit it.
Missing products and complaints with no exchanges
You can add a new shipment to the order if you need to resend any of the order products without exchanging them.
You can add new shipments to the order only if all shipment orders have been delivered.
To add shipments to an order that is still in process see how to create partial shipments.
Don't create unnecessary shipments for the order
Creating a new shipment is a good idea if:
- One of the order's shipments has been lost in transport, and you'd like to reship the same products.
- The customer complained about a product, but the customer doesn't have to send the faulty product back to your online store.
Don't create a new shipment for an order that has already been delivered if the customer would like to add products or make any changes to it. In such a case, create a new order for the customer or process a product return.
To add a new shipment to the order:
Processing gift card orders
If the order contains gift card products, the processing of it must take into account certain aspects, which will be discussed below.
If the customer pays the entire order when placing it (e.g., by using an online payment service), the gift card is created automatically, and its code and the link to download the gift card in PDF are added to the order confirmation email. In this way, the customer receives the gift card immediately after purchase without you having to do anything. Also, the gift card product is marked as shipped automatically.
If the customer doesn't pay the entire order when placing it (or the customer pays with Klarna Payments), the gift card will only be created when the shipment containing the gift card product is marked as shipped.
When an order is paid with Klarna, the payment needs to be activated before the gift card can be delivered.
- the gift card code can be seen
- in product details on the order page
- in the order confirmation email
- on the receipt
- in gift card details
- the customer receives a link to download a PDF gift card
- in the order confirmation email
- in the shipping confirmation email.
If an order contains multiple gift card products, each one of them will become a separate gift card.
- edit the gift card validity period (1 year by default)
- edit the gift card balance.
Here you can also print the gift card in PDF yourself and send it to the customer e.g. by post or email.
Order statuses
- In process: the default status of all orders.
You can restore an order to this status even after the delivery by canceling at least one of its shipments or using the Correct shipment information option in the shipment tool menu.
- Delivered: all of the order's shipments have been delivered.
- Cancelled: the order or all of its shipments have been canceled. From here, you can restore the order to the processing stage by using the button in the upper right corner of the order page.
- Returned: if you return all of the order's shipments or use the option, the order will be moved to this stage.