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:

1. Go to Orders
2. Click on View
3. 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.

1. 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:

1. Go to Orders
2. Click on Order Status 
3. 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.
4. 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.