[intro] When you have completed this Guide, you will know how to process any orders that come into your EKM online shop. [/intro]

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Where to find the Orders page

1. From the Dashboard, click Orders on the left-hand menu:

2. This will take you to the Orders page, where you’ll be able to see all of the Orders that your EKM online shop has received so far:

3. Below the search bar at the top of the page, you’ll notice tick boxes. These allow you to search for Orders that have a specific status assigned to them. You’ll also see the headers ‘Order No’, ‘Name’, ‘Order Total’ and Order Date’ - each of these are clickable which helps you search through orders made on a specific date, or by a specific person, or with a specific value. There are lots of other ways to search through your orders too, and you’ll learn about these within this Guide.

Searching for Orders

You can use the search bar at the top of the Orders page to search for customers by using their first name, last name or email address, and then by clicking the green Go button:

The Anatomy of an Order

If you click on an order, you will be able to see all of the details of that single order:

a) This is the order number.

b) The Order Type is what Payment Method the customer used to purchase their goods.

c) This is the date and time the Order was completed.

d) This is the current Order Status.

e) These are your customer's Billing Details.

f) These are your customer's Delivery Details.

g) This is the Traffic Light displaying the payment status of the Order.

h) This field is populated because I have a custom field set up on the Order Summary page of the Checkout Flow. You can read about how to do this by clicking here.

i) The Internal Notes field is populated automatically because I have a Discount set up which requires the use of a Coupon Code. You can read more about setting up Discounts by clicking here.

j) The Order Notes tab is empty but can be used to leave specific delivery details for the customer which are visible on their Invoices.

k) This is the Product that the customer has ordered. 

The Traffic Light System

1. You’ll notice every order has a traffic light on it, which is our ‘at a glance’ system to allow you to quickly ascertain the status of an order. You can see the traffic lights as you look at all of the orders on the Orders page:

2. On individual orders, the traffic lights are more obvious:

3. The colour of the traffic light changes when the status of an order changes. When a customer fills their cart and completes the Checkout Flow, dependent on the Payment Gateways you have set up on your EKM online shop, customers can either pay using an Offline Payment Gateway (such as Bank Transfer or by Telephone for example) or they can pay using one of the many external Payment Methods (like Paypal Checkout). In the case of an Offline Payment Method, it’s down to the Shop Owner to update the Order when the customer has paid. You can do that by clicking the Edit button and amending the ‘traffic light’ colour:

4. However if the customer paid for their order using an external Payment Gateway, then the process is automatic. At the end of the Checkout Process, the customer is directed to the website of the Payment Gateway, where the secure payment process takes place. When that is complete, the customer is then redirected back to the Order Complete page of your EKM online shop and it’s that action - completing the transaction and being redirected to that page - which gives an order a green traffic light.

5. You can manually give orders the status of ‘red traffic light’ by clicking the Edit button to the right of the traffic light on the order and amending the drop-down menu:

You’ll need to do this in the case of orders where the customer opted for an Offline Payment Method but did not pay, or in the case of external Payment Methods, where the customer did pay for their order, but closed down their browser or went elsewhere before being redirected to the Order Complete page, which is the action that makes the traffic light green.

[remember] Check all orders with an amber traffic light if the customer paid using a Payment Gateway where they’re directed to another site, such as Paypal or EKMPay. In some cases, the customer will have paid for their order but closed their browser down before they are redirected to the Order Complete page. Ensure that you have received the money before processing the order any further. [/remember]

Additional Checkout Information

In this example, I have set up an Additional Information Field on the Order Complete page of the Checkout Flow. It allows the customer to answer the question ‘How did you find out about us?’ and gives them a drop-down menu of potential answers to choose from.

You can read about how to set up Additional Information fields on the Order Complete page in this Guide.

Order Notes & Internal Notes

The Order Notes and Internal Notes tabs can be edited on the Orders page, simply by clicking in the area and beginning to type. Clicking elsewhere on the page will save the text you’ve added:

Order Notes can be visible to this customer if you have opted for them to be visible on the Invoice. Internal Notes are only visible to you and your staff and can be used to record information specific to that Order.

Abandoned Carts

On some orders, you may see this element:

The order may have been abandoned, but during their visit to your shop, the customer has added items to the cart and entered their email address on the Checkout Flow, which is how the system has been able to retain their information and as a result can send them Abandoned Cart email notifications.

Processing Orders

When a customer adds products to their cart and then adds a minimum of their email address to the Checkout Flow, this will create an Order on the Orders page. If the Order could be abandoned and you have the Abandoned Cart functionality turned on, then wait for the system to try and save the order by emailing the customer. However, if the cart has not been abandoned, how you process that single order depends on what Payment Gateways you have installed on your EKM online shop and how the customer has paid you. Firstly, you need to ensure that you have been paid for the order:

Offline Payment Gateways

In the case of an Offline Payment Method, it’s down to the Shop Owner to update the Order when the customer has paid. You can do that by clicking the Edit button and amending the ‘traffic light’ colour:

Third-Party Payment Gateways

In the case of third-party Payment Gateways, the majority of the time orders paid for these methods will get a green traffic light when the customer has completed the transaction and been redirected to the Order Complete page of your EKM online shop.

On occasion, however, you will get the odd customer who closes their browser or navigates elsewhere before they are redirected to the Order Complete page of your EKM online shop. When this happens, you will have been paid, however, the traffic light on the Order will remain amber. Log into your account with the relevant payment gateway and ensure that you have received payment from the customer before you process their order any further.

Amending the Order Status

15. When you’re certain that you have received payment for the order, the next step is to amend the status. You can do this by clicking the Order Status drop-down at the top of the order, and amending it accordingly:

Each time you amend the status of an order, you can choose whether to email the customer to notify them of the fact in the window that opens up, which is useful for letting the customer know how their order is processing. You can read more about these emails and edit them to suit your brand in the Outgoing Emails Guide.

Adding a Tracking Number to a single Order

1. You can add a Tracking Number to an order by changing the Order Status to Dispatched:

2. Then you need to click Send Email:

3. This will open a second window. Click the green button:

4. This will open the Add Tracking Details window, where you can complete the fields provided and select the relevant Delivery Method from the Delivery company drop-down menu, before clicking the green button:

Manually adding a Tracking Number

1. You can also manually add a Tracking Number to an order, by clicking the Edit button in the top right-hand corner of the Order itself:

2. Depending on the status of the Order, you may see this window. Click to continue:

3. This will reveal editable fields on the Order. Scroll down to the Tracking area to complete the relevant fields:

4. When you have finished adding in the relevant Tracking information, scroll to the top of the Order and click the green Save button on the top right-hand side:

Processing Multiple Orders at Once

1. If you have manually added Tracking Numbers to lots of Orders at once by following the instructions above, you can then amend the Orders Statuses of several Orders in bulk. You can do this by ticking the boxes for those orders and then clicking the ‘Change Order Status’ button at the bottom left-hand side of the page:

2. In the window that appears, you can then use the drop-down menu to select the Order Status you would like these Orders to be changed to. Select Save & Email to send each of the customers an email notification, or Save to simply keep the new Order Status. 

Troubleshooting

Why do my orders not have consecutive numbers?

When a customer adds a Product to the cart, this triggers the creation of an order number. If the customer then abandons the cart, the order number will have been created but with no information for the system to attempt to retain the customer via the Abandoned Cart functionality, the order will not be displayed on the Orders page.

However, if the customer adds their email address during the Checkout Flow and then abandons the order, there is enough information for the system to attempt to save that customer by sending out Abandoned Cart Emails (if you have the functionality turned on). This order will be visible on the Orders Page, with an Abandoned Order notification so you can easily see that the system is attempting to save it.

With all of this in mind, the system does create consecutively, but if not enough information is added during the customer’s visit and the order is abandoned, the order will not be displayed on the Orders page as a matter of good housekeeping.

Why does the Product link in the order not work any more?

When an order is created, it takes a ‘snapshot’ of the Products at that point, so when you view the order, you can click the Product links to be taken to the appropriate Product Page. However, if you edit that Product after the order has taken place, the link on the order is removed, because that Product has been amended in some way and it is different to the way it was the moment the order was originally completed.

Why is the traffic light still orange even though they've paid?

To get a green traffic light on an order, the customer must have been redirected to the Order Complete page. However if the customer closed down their browser or navigated elsewhere, they will not have been redirected to the Order Complete page, which is why the order has an orange/amber light. Before you process the order, log into your Payment Gateway account provider and ensure that payment was received. You will then be able to manually amend the status of the order and process it as normal.

I like to edit every order but this seems to cause issues - why?

If orders are uncompleted and then edited, this can potentially prevent the order from working correctly. With that in mind, the only time you should need to edit an order should be if your customer contacts you to change their address after they’ve placed the order.

The customer has paid - but we can't see the order?

If the customer has paid for their order but it’s not visible on the Orders page, it has been manually deleted. If you contact our Customer Support Team, they should be able to retrieve the order for you.

How do I reorder the orders? It's showing the oldest orders first!

You can do this by clicking the Order Date header towards the top right of the screen, below the search bar. This will reorder your orders for you.

I can't see my orders when I search?

You need to make sure you’ve ticked the boxes beneath the search bar. These are the filters for the orders, and ticking some or all of these means that when you search, you’ll see results.

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]