A marketing calendar is an important tool which every business should use. Creating an outline of the holidays and promotions in advance will give you enough time to prepare your graphics, emails, social posts, and website billboards. Rushing through your marketing is a recipe for disaster. Instead, use our marketing calendar or create your own so that you’re fully prepared for the year ahead.
Once you have outlined your holidays and promotions, what should you do next? Follow these easy steps to get started.
Plan Your Holidays and Promotions
Decide which marketing channels you will use to share your message
Remember that different marketing tools need different content. What you would post on Instagram is probably different than what you’d post on Facebook.
Write your promotion outline 1 month in advance
Design your graphics 3 weeks in advance
Setup your email marketing and social media 2 weeks in advance
Proofread all of your content at least one more time 1 week before it runs
Schedule out your website billboards to be setup and taken down 3 days in advance
Remember to setup any coupon codes or discounts the day before your promotions go live
Marketing can be lots of fun if you plan it out and execute your plans well. If you need help, we’re here for you. Give us a call at 866-515-2057, chat with us online at www.venturawebdesign.com, or email us sales@venturawebdesign.com to schedule a free consultation today.
As the holiday season begins to wrap up, it’s still important to make sure your website experience is worth it to your consumers. Head into the New Year with the most optimized website out there!
eCommerce websites directly rely on website conversions. So, in order to drive those conversions, the right tests should be conducted to make sure you’re getting the most out of your website.
Before we get into the features you should always be testing on your website, let’s go over the different types of User Testing out there.
Moderated Testing
This may be the most preferred method of testing because of the type of feedback it provides. You’re able to communicate directly with users online or in person and you can even screen record through this method of testing. Moderated Testing may be a bit time consuming, but you’re able to ask targeted questions which is massively helpful when accessing which elements need to be fixed on your website.
Remote Moderated Testing
This type of testing allows you to test specific pages and actions on a website. This fast and effective method of testing allows users to provide feedback while working remotely.
Card Sorting
Card sorting is a method of testing that helps design or evaluate the information architecture of a website. Users can categorize topics based on their preferences. Card sorting can be done online with sorting tools or done with pieces of paper.
Preference Testing
Users are presented with up to 6 different UX design elements and are asked to choose. Examples of elements include: logos, color palettes, buttons, and videos. Users provide their feedback on the aesthetic appeal and how well they communicate a specific message or idea.
Five Second Test
This method of testing tracks a users impression within the first five seconds of viewing a design. Five Second Tests are usually used to test how effective a website’s design is communicating a specific message or idea.
Now that you know the types of tests that exist, let’s get to the features you need to be testing frequently.
Homepage
Your homepage is typically the first thing that website visitors will see. Your website’s homepage should give viewers an overview of what to expect from the business. A well-designed homepage can heavily impact how long a viewer spends on your website.
Product Details Page
Your website visitors made it past your homepage—great! You want your product details page to be optimized to reflect the factors that influences visitors decision-making the most. It’s a great idea to put all of these elements on your product details page.
Checkout
This needs to be a seamless endpoint for website visitors. Their experience could make or break your sale.
Call to Actions
CTA’s can directly influence conversions across your website. Ensure that all of your buttons work and are linked appropriately to their respective destinations.
Mobile Page Speed Test
Optimizing your website for mobile devices is critical when it comes to attracting and retaining customers, as more than half of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website takes anywhere longer than five seconds to load, the likeliness of potential customers leaving the page rising exponentially.
We run tests like these to ensure our clients’ eCommerce website is the best of the best. While we’ve shared 5 features to test on your website, there are countless other features to test like: landing page design, testimonial pages, contact pages, videos, forms, and more.
Your customers’ shopping experience is imperative to the success of your eCommerce business! Schedule your FREE Consultation with us now to get the support you need to run tests like these as well as get the on-going support you need to grow your eCommerce business.
Have you been thinking about transitioning your website to BigCommerce? At Ventura Web Design and Marketing, we support BigCommerce and recommend it to most of our clients, but don’t just take our word for it.
They received a 90 out of 100, the second-place e-commerce platform trailed by six points. One of the biggest perks of BigCommerce is its ease of use. There are no complicated apps to install that can potentially slow down your website or complicated formatting.
BigCommerce said while they’re delighted to have won the #1 spot, they will not stop improving the platform. They are set to release new features and speed improvements this year.
We Can Help You Transition
Switch your website over to BigCommerce today to start increasing your revenue. We are well-versed migrating from any platform to a BigCommerce website, as we have done it for countless satisfied clients. Contact us online or by phone at (813) 556-7990.
Adding products can be time-consuming but it doesn’t have to be. This how-to guide is designed to show you step by step how to add products, images, pricing, and other details so you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to efficiently complete the task of adding inventory to your store.
V2 vs V3 Product Creation
It’s recommended to use v3 to add products since its more efficient and can be used to add more detail to products. If you choose to upgrade to v3 and decide you want to switch back you can. Just contact the support team to make the change.
How To Add A New Product
Here are the steps to add a product using v2
1. Click on the Images & Videos tab next to details
2. Add product photos
Here are three ways to add an image:
Drag and drop the image from your computer to the blue box.
Click Upload Images and navigate to the image on your computer.
Use Add from URL to use an image (or YouTube video) already on the web.
3. Click the Thumbnail button and select the image you want to appear on the product pages
If you have uploaded multiple product photos the first one in the list will automatically be the default image. To change the order just drag and drop to reorder the photos.
4. Add image description
This will become the image alt tag for those who are visually impaired and cannot see the photo.
The supported files for images are:
JPEG/JPG
GIF
PNG
The optimal size for your product images is 1280 x 1280 pixels.
To delete an image click Delete Selected.
If you would like to add a video:
1. Locate the Add from URL button
2. Paste the video URL in the field
Inventory
The Inventory tab is where you choose how/if you want the inventory to be tracked.
Options & SKU’s
In this tab, you can set how you want your item to be displayed on the product page. You can also set rules and create SKUs here. Get a more in-depth view of the rules and options for the Options & SKU’s tab.
Custom Fields Custom Fields allow you to display extra details about a product. For example, if you sell books you can create a custom field to display the date the book was published. How to add a custom field:
1. Go to Products › View, then click on the name of a product to edit it.
2. Go to the Custom Fields tab.
3. Enter the following information for your custom field:
Custom field name (e.g. Material) – limit 250 characters
Custom field value (e.g. Cotton) – limit 250 characters
4. Save your changes when done.
To add or remove a custom field, click the + (plus sign) or the – (minus sign) to the right of the row.
Other Details
The Other Details tab allows you to set various product-related fields and settings, including related products, SEO, and Facebook Open Graph settings.
The Other Details tab is where you can place your product identifiers like UPC, brand, or Manufacturer Part Number.
This is also the section where you set related products. These will be displayed on the screen below the item someone clicked on.
When searching a product online there are usually tabs to click on that have necessary related information. The Other Details tab is where you will put such information for your products. Here are some examples of extra info to include when working in the Other Details tab:
Bin picking number
Warranty
Template layout file
Search keywords
Availability
Visible
Featured products
Gift wrapping
Sort order
Product condition
Minimum purchase quantity
Maximum purchase quantity
Bulk Pricing
Bulk pricing is a great option for merchants to set. It gives a discount if a customer buys a certain number of products that has been set by the merchant.
If bulk pricing is a good option for you, enable it by going to Store Setup then clicking Store Setting, click the Display tab. Check the Enable Bulk Discount setting.
You can have up to 50 rules for each product related to bulk pricing. Follow the steps below to set a rule:
Set your quantity ranges
Choose how you will discount it (percentage, dollar amount)
Set the percentage or dollar amount (ex- 5%, $1)
You can add additional lines for different bulk discount rules by clicking the blue plus button in the bottom right corner.
How To Add A New Product using V3
1.Log into BigCommerce. This is the screen that will appear.
2. Click Add a Product in the top right corner.
It will take you to the Basic Info screen.
1.Add the product name
2. Add the SKU
3. Add the price
4. Add the weight.
Once you are finished entering the basic info
1.Scroll down to the description or click on Description in the middle panel
2. Describe in two to three sentences what your product is and who/what it could be used for
Next you’ll fill in the information for the images and videos
1. Scroll down to or click on Images & Videos in the middle panel.
2. Add photos of the product
Multiple angles are recommended
Here are three ways to add an image:
Drag and drop the image from your computer to the blue box.
Click Upload Images and navigate to the image on your computer.
Use Add from URL to use an image (or YouTube video) already on the web
3. Click the Thumbnail button and select the image you want to appear on the product pages.
If you have uploaded multiple product photos the first one in the list will automatically be the default image. To change the order just drag and drop to reorder the photos.
Your image description will become the image alt tag for those who are visually impaired and cannot see the photo.
The supported files for images are:
JPEG/JPG
GIF
PNG
To delete an image click Delete Selected.
Product Variants & Options
Use Variations to generate Variants (each with a unique SKU) that can be used to track inventory. This is where you can assign attributes such as image, price, and weight on the variant level. When a shopper chooses one of the variants when on the product page the image will automatically be updated.
Variant options can be displayed as one of four multiple-choice types:
Swatch
Radio Buttons
Rectangle List
Dropdown
Customizations
Modifier options are available in this section. It’s great for products that need custom messages, dates, and checkboxes.
Additional Explanations For Each Section
Here’s a glossary of the BigCommerce sections and what they do.
Have you been thinking about transitioning your website to BigCommerce? At Ventura Web Design and Marketing we support BigCommerce and recommend it to most of our clients, but don’t just take our word for it.
EcommerceCEO, an eCommerce ratings and reviews site ranked BigCommerce as the best e-commerce platform for small businesses for the second year in a row. It beat out 20 other platforms for the top spot.
Rating Categories
BigCommerce was rated on:
Performance
Features
Scalability
Ease of use
BigCommerce Score
They received a 90 out of 100, the second-place e-commerce platform trailed by six points. One of the biggest perks of BigCommerce is its ease of use. There are no complicated apps to install that can potentially slow down your website or complicated formatting.
BigCommerce said while they’re elated to have won the #1 spot, they aren’t going to stop improving the platform. They are set to release new features and speed improvements this year.
We Can Help You Transition
Switch your website over to BigCommerce today to start increasing your revenue. We are well versed in how to transition to a BigCommerce website, as we have done it for countless satisfied clients. Contact us online or by phone at (813) 556-7990.
Importing and exporting files on Big Commerce can seem like a daunting task at first but with the steps and video listed below you should be able to import and export with ease.
Before Getting Started
To import and export on Big Commerce you will need access to a program like Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets that supports CSV and XML files. CSV is recommended due to the fact that it is needed if you plan to import exported data back into Big Commerce.
The CSV requires certain fields for import.
Creating new products requires:
Product name
Price fields.
Importing product images must have:
Only allowed characters
Case-sensitive text
Image files that are either JPEG/JPG, GIF or PNG.
When importing SKUs they must have the:
Product SKU
Stock level fields
For other common issues visit the Big Commerce troubleshooting page.
Choosing An Export Template
Big Commerce provides two export templates.
Bulk edit (recommended) – This template allows you to skip steps in the import process since it prefilled headers that are the same as the ones Big Commerce uses.
Default – this template only has basic fields like name, weight, description, and price.
You can make your own custom template and decide which export fields to include.
Export Your Products
Click on Bulk Edit
Choose Export to ____ (CSV)
Optional- Check Save export to the server for later download (this will save progress in case any interruptions happen while exporting
Click Continue button in the bottom right corner
Click the Download link in the pop-up window
Importing Products
Go to Products
Click Import
Steps to take if you used the Bulk Edit
Check the box next to Bulk Edit Re-Import
The fields will auto-populate
Upload your edited CSV file
Click Next
Edit the Link Import Fields to match the headers in your CSV spreadsheet (if you used the Bulk Edit option this isn’t necessary)
Click Next
Click Start Import
Options will come up click More Information to check for any warnings found during the import process
Click View Imported Products
Creating New Products Via Import
When adding a new product there are some things that are required.
Required fields for a new product:
Product Name
Category
Price
Weight (physical products only)
Track Inventory Value
Leave this field blank otherwise the product will not upload correctly
Product ID
To ensure import runs smoothly do not import more than a couple hundred items and use the Bulk Edit CSV if possible.
Importing Product Options
To create product variants tied to product options, you will need to add sub-product SKUs or Rules with those attributes. The easiest process is to create the base product first, export it, then add the SKUs or Rules.
Importing Product Images
As mentioned above images have requirements they are:
Image file names are restricted to a-z, 0-9, – and _.
Image file names cannot contain any spaces or special characters.
Image file types must be JPEG/JPG, GIF or PNG. They cannot be TIFF, BMP, or PDF file formats.
The optimal size for your product images is 1280 x 1280 pixels. Other product images (like thumbnails) will be created from the original image you upload.
There are two ways to import an image:
If the image is already on the Internet you can use the URL to import them using the image path in the CSV file
If you’re uploading photos from your computer it’s recommended to upload them using WebDAV
How to import using the image path:
Find the column in your CSV for product images. If you’re using the Bulk Edit template, this column will be called Product Image File
If you are importing new products, be sure to leave the Product Image ID column blank.
Enter the full path (URL) http must be included
To upload multiple images for a single product, create a new column with a heading of Product Image File – # (increasing the number each time you make a new column)
To include any of the other information for that image (such as descriptions), make a new column with the appropriate heading and the same number as the corresponding image.
Ex:
Product Image ID – 2
Product Image File – 2
Product Image Description – 2
Once these steps have been completed import your items. If you are using a template other than Bulk Edit, match the Product Image field to the correct column on the Link Import Fields step of the import.
Uploading through WebDAV:
Connect to your store through WebDAV
Open the product_images folder followed by the import folder. Then drag and drop the images from your computer into the import folder.
In your product CSV, locate the column for product images. If you are using the Bulk Edit template, this column is called Product Image File – (#). Enter the file name (such as image.png) of the image file.
To upload multiple images for a single product, create a new column with a heading of Product Image File – # (increasing the number each time you make a new column)
To include any of the other information for that image (such as descriptions), make a new column with the appropriate heading and the same number as the corresponding image.
If you are using a template other than Bulk Edit, match the Product Image field to the correct column on the Link Import Fields step of the import.
Exporting Specific Products
There are three ways to export specific products. They are selecting individual products, export products based on search or view, export products belonging to a certain category.
Here are the steps to export select individual products:
Go to Products
Click on View
Click the checkbox to the left of the product or products you want to export
Order notifications and order messages are a great way to keep you, the merchant, updated about new orders and customer concerns. Order notifications are sent via email to you when an order is placed and has helpful info like order details and a link to your store to view the order. Like order notifications, order messages are also sent to your email and will have info like the customer’s name, order ID, message, and a link to view the message within your store.
Here’s an example of an order notification:
Here’s an example of an order message:
Enabling Notifications
How to set up email notifications:
Go to Advanced Settings
Click on Order Notifications
Check Email Message
Click Save
When the page refreshes, click the Email Message tab to the right of General Settings. In the Email Address field, enter the email address(es) you would like to receive notifications. If entering multiple addresses, separate them with a comma, and Save your changes.
If you would like to receive a sample to the email(s) you provided use the Test Notification Method.
Forwarding Invoices
You can forward customer invoices to an email or emails. Here’s how:
Go to Store Setup
Click on Store Settings
Click on the Miscellaneous tab
Check the Forward Order Invoices setting
Enter the email(s) you want the invoices to be forwarded to (separate them by commas)
Save your changes
Text Via Email
Most major cellular providers give you the ability to send a text message via email using a unique email address. You can use this to receive notifications on your phone by entering your phone number’s email address in the email address field as described above.
For example, if your number is 555-123-6789, and AT&T is your cellular provider, then your email address would be 5551236789@txt.att.net.
If your provider is not listed here, inquire with your cellular company if you can send text messages via email.
Alltel: number@message.alltel.com
AT&T: number@txt.att.net
Boost Mobile: number@myboostmobile.com
Cricket: number@sms.mycricket.com
Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com
Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com
Ptel: number@ptel.com
Qwest: number@qwestmp.com
Sprint: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com or number@pm.sprint.com
Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com
T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net
Tracfone: number@mmst5.tracfone.com
U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net
Verizon: number@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com
Contact Us
Set up a free consultation and allow us to review your e-commerce website and assess your needs. Contact us online or by phone. The number for the Tampa location is 813-556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is 702-515-2057.
There are times you may have to go into a placed order to change some details. The most likely occurrence is when a customer reaches out to change an aspect of their order, whether it be a simple typo or a different shipping address these can all be easily adjusted in the control panel by the store owner or those with the right credentials to access that information.
Order Details
When editing an order, the following details can be changed:
customer account
email address
billing address
product price *
product quantity *
product options *
shipping address
shipping method *
discount amount
coupon code
order comments
staff notes
Once payment is approved you cannot go back and add things. If a customer would like to add more items you’ll have to create a new purchase order and if they would like to remove items a refund will need to be issued.
Order Editing Process
To edit an order that has already been charged:
Go to Orders
Click on View
Click on the action icon
Click Edit Order
The Edit an Order screen is broken down into four parts:
Customer Info — the customers billing information including their email address
Finalize — the order summary and the area where a discount or coupon can be entered
Contact Us
Now that you know how to edit your orders you can leave the marketing-related e-commerce factors to us. Contact us online or by phone. The number for the Tampa location is 813-556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is 702-515-2057.
Customer Info
The Customer Info section is where you will make corrections to an order’s email address or billing information. When editing a guest order, the Order for selection will be set to New Customer. If you are editing an order created by someone with an existing customer account, the Order for selection will be set to Keep existing customer details. When editing an existing customer’s order, keep the default setting to ensure the changes are saved to the correct account.
Editing a guest order
Editing an order from an existing customer
When making changes to the Billing Information section, you can choose to save the new changes to the customer’s address book via the Save to customer’s address book checkbox located at the bottom of the page.
Guest Orders From Existing Customers
A returning customer may accidentally check out as a guest. They will not be able to view that order in their history.
To resolve this, edit the guest order and change the Order for selection to Existing Customer. Enter the customer’s name, email address, or company name in the new Search field and select them from the list of customers that appear.
If the rest of the order is correct, click Next until you reach the Finalize step and click Save to save the changes. The order will now be linked to the returning customer account.
Items
The items section is where you will go to adjust items that have been purchased, as long as you’re not adding additional items after payment has been authorized. The items section could be utilized for example if a customer ordered the wrong shirt size or color. You would manually go in and adjust this so their order gets fulfilled correctly.
Shipping
The shipping section is where you will make adjustments to shipping details should a customer need that. A situation in which this will be required is if a customer put in the wrong shipping address or needs to split an order into two separate delivery destinations.
When viewing the shipping method, the original choice will be labeled as Use Existing Quote.
If you need to add a shipping charge, change the shipping method, or split the order to send it to multiple addresses (which will adjust shipping costs), a new order will have to be created. You will not be able to capture funds or authorize a new capture using the same order.
If you select None, this will remove any previously selected shipping and not assign any new shipping method. This is useful when updating an order from a paid shipping method to a customer pick-up method, where you won’t be charging for any shipping costs. When downgrading the shipping method, as in the above example, use the Refund action to provide a partial refund or provide a store credit to the customer’s account.
Finalize
This section is where you can view any changes and information associated with the order such as Customer Billing, Cart, or Shipping Details. If you are editing an order that has already been charged, you will see the payment option that was used, the transaction ID, and the payment status.
Further down the page, there will be a summary section. This is where you will apply any coupons or discounts.
*Note- Even though you can apply a discount or coupon to an order that has been charged, it will not automatically return the difference to the customer. If the amount charged is incorrect, we recommend canceling and refunding the order, and then either you or the customer would create a new order for the proper amount. You cannot edit gift certificates once they are applied to an order.
Near the bottom of the page, you will see boxes for Order Comments or leave a Staff Note. Comments are visible on invoices, while Staff Notes are only visible in the control panel and are not seen by customers.
Being able to manage orders and respond to messages is an important part of running a Big Commerce store. The steps below will help you understand and use the actions and different types of correspondence on your Big Commerce site.
Order Actions
To view order actions go to the View Orders page and on the far right side of the menu, there will be an Action button. Click that to view all actions such as editing the details of the order, shipping the products, and refunding a payment, just to name a few.
Performing actions on an order will change the status of the order, but manually changing the order status will not perform an action. For example, if you want to refund a customer’s order, you will need to use the refund action in this menu. Just changing the order status in the drop-down menu will not refund the order.
This video will give you a rundown of order management. At 2:28 it talks about the order actions menu.
Here is a list of all actions you can see in the Order Actions menu:
Edit Order — Edit the billing address, cart contents, shipping address, shipping method, payment method and discount charges on an existing order.
Print Invoice — Print a paper or PDF invoice containing pertinent order information. See Printing an Order Invoice.
Print Packing Slip — Print a paper or PDF packing slip containing pertinent shipment information. See Printing Packing Slips.
Resend Invoice — Send a copy of the invoice to the email address associated with the customer.
Send Message* — Send an order message to a customer.
View Notes* — Add and see any Order Comments and Staff Notes about the order. Order Comments are visible on invoices; Staff Notes are only viewable in the control panel and are not seen by customers.
Refund — Allows you to partially or fully refund an order. This action will only appear if the order was placed using a compatible payment gateway.
Void Transaction — Will cancel the order and release any funds that may have been authorized. This action will only appear if the order was placed using an authorize only compatible payment gateway.
Ship Items — Create a shipment which specifies a carrier, service, tracking number, and shipping notes.
View Shipments* — View details, update tracking numbers, and print packing slips for order shipments. This action will only appear if the Ship Items action has been used.
View Order Timeline* — View timeline events pertaining to the order such as when the payment was authorized, the amount that was captured, or past refunds.
Detailed Explanation Of Common Actions
Some actions you’ll likely see more than others. It’s important to know as much as possible about these actions as possible. These actions are the Send Message, View Notes, View Shipments, and View Order Timeline.
Send Message
Customers can send you messages from their Account page if they have signed up. These messages will be sent to the email of your choice. This email can be reviewed or changed in the Order Notifications. When you receive a message they will be displayed in the View Orders page.
Clicking the message notification will take you to the View Messages page where you can reply by using the Send a Message button. In the control panel, the sender of the order message is the user’s email address, unless it’s the Store Owner user, in which case it appears as admin.
View Order Timeline
The View Order Timeline provides details about an order’s transactional history. Here you will find tax calculations and notifications of when payment authorization or capture took place, as well as the specifics of past refunds.
Orders will display this icon to indicate a timeline is available:
View Notes
The View Notes option allows you to add order comments or staff notes to an order without having to go through the edit an order workflow. Comments are visible on invoices while Staff Notes are only visible in the control panel and are not seen by customers.
Orders will display these icons to indicate a staff note or comment has been added:
Order Comments Icon:
Staff Notes Icon:
View Shipments
The View Shipments option will only appear if the Ship Items action has been used. View Shipments allows you to see the details of the shipment, update the tracking number, and print a packing slip — all without the need to visit the View Shipments page.
Skip to the 4:07 timestamp to learn more about the Ship Items action.
Order Actions In Bulk
Three actions can be performed in bulk:
Print Invoice
Print Packing Slip
Resend Invoice
To perform a bulk action, check the box to the left of each desired order, then select the action from the Choose an action drop-down menu and click Confirm.
This how-to guide is to help you understand the order process on Big Commerce. It will explain order statuses, changing an order status, and how they can be used during the fulfillment process.
How To View Your Orders
To view your orders and order statuses go to Orders and click on View.
Order Status
Order statuses are generally automatically updated when a customer or store user does an action. These statuses can be manually changed if needed. Below is a list of order statuses.
New orders that have been paid for will have a status of “Awaiting Fulfillment” (physical products) or “Completed” (downloadable products)
Pre-orders or backorder will have a status saying pending, awaiting payment, or awaiting fulfillment.
Here’s a list of all order statuses and their definitions:
Pending — Customer started the checkout process but did not complete it. Incomplete orders are assigned a “Pending” status and can be found under the More tab in the View Orders screen.
Awaiting Payment — Customer has completed the checkout process, but payment has yet to be confirmed. Authorize only transactions that are not yet captured have this status.
Awaiting Fulfillment — Customer has completed the checkout process and payment has been confirmed.
Awaiting Shipment — Order has been pulled and packaged and is awaiting collection from a shipping provider.
Awaiting Pickup — Order has been packaged and is awaiting customer pickup from a seller-specified location.
Partially Shipped — Only some items in the order have been shipped, due to some products being pre-order only or other reasons.
Completed — Order has been shipped/picked up, and receipt is confirmed; client has paid for their digital product, and their file(s) are available for download.
Shipped — Order has been shipped, but receipt has not been confirmed; seller has used the Ship Items action. A listing of all orders with a “Shipped” status can be found under the More tab of the View Orders screen.
Cancelled — Seller has cancelled an order, due to a stock inconsistency or other reasons. Stock levels will automatically update depending on your Inventory Settings. Cancelling an order will not refund the order. This status is triggered automatically when an order using an authorize-only payment gateway is voided in the control panel before capturing payment.
Declined — Seller has marked the order as declined for lack of manual payment, or other reasons
Refunded — Seller has used the Refund action. A listing of all orders with a “Refunded” status can be found under the More tab of the View Orders screen.
Disputed — Customer has initiated a dispute for the method of payment used for the order.
Manual Verification Required — Order on hold while some aspect (e.g. tax-exempt documentation) needs to be manually confirmed. Orders with this status must be updated manually. Capturing funds or other order actions will not automatically update the status of an order marked Manual Verification Required.
Partially Refunded — Seller has partially refunded the order.
Changing An Order Status
As mentioned earlier most order statuses will automatically be changed when a customer does an action on the store, but there are a few instances where items will have to be changed manually. For example, shipping items will change an order’s status to Shipped, whereas a Cancelled or Declined order status has to be manually applied.
To manually change a status:
Go to Orders
Click on View
Change the status in the order status drop-down menu
When a status is changed the customer will receive an email notification. You can select which statuses trigger these emails in your checkout settings.
Order Status Workflow
While every business is different and you may find a different process that works for you here is an efficient way to handle incoming orders step by step.
You receive a new order
2. On your orders screen, you will see there is a new order with the status Awaiting Fulfillment
3. You package the order and purchase the appropriate shipping label. You take the package to a shipping provider or schedule a pickup. In either case, you manually update the status to Awaiting Shipment, which indicates the order is ready to leave your business
4. Once the shipping company has possession of the item you go into Orders and click on View then click on the Ship Items button which changes the status to Shipped
5. Optionally, you could confirm receipt by the customer by emailing them the tracking number or other methods — then manually update the order status to Complete.
Status Change Notifications
You can select which order statuses trigger an email notification to your customers by editing your order notification settings. This is in addition to the Order Confirmation email (also known as the Invoice email), which is sent automatically. You can customize the email templates for both the Order Confirmation and Status update messages by going to Storefront and clicking on Email Templates in the control panel.
Order status notifications are universal and apply to all customers. For example, you can’t specify that a particular customer group doesn’t get a particular status notification.
Customizing An Order Status Label
You can customize the order status labels to something more specific to your business. For example, you could update the Awaiting Shipment status (which represents that an order has been pulled and packaged, and is awaiting collection from a shipping provider) to Package ready to be picked up by FedEx. This will not give it any additional functionality but can be used to provide more specifics for your customers or fulfillment team.
Here are the steps to rename an order status:
Go to Orders
Click on Order Status
Click Edit, and the fields will become editable text fields. You’re able to customize your Order Status labels up to 200 characters in length.
Once you’re satisfied with the changes click Save
If you’d like to change a status back to the original status click the ellipses and select Restore to Default.
*Note- If your label is longer than 30 characters, it will be trimmed in the control panel but will show as full length to your customers.
