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Managing Orders

As a shop manager, you will have to deal with heaps of orders and their accompanying invoices and customer support requests – at least, that's what we wish for you. The daily task of handling numerous orders can be daunting. Fortunately PrestaShop does its best to help you wade through them all and successfully handle your customers' purchases, along with credit slips and the unavoidable merchandise returns.

Orders

The "Orders" page under the "Orders" tab enables you to see all of the information about all the purchases from your shop. All of your shop's transactions are available there, organized by date (by default, it is set to sort from newest to oldest).

You can filter the results and easily find the orders you're looking for by using the fields above. For instance, to identify Mr. Doe's orders, type Doe into the "Customer" field and then click "Filter".

Viewing Order Details

In order to process the orders you receive, you have to view the information they contain.
Click on the line containing the order, or click on the button to the right of the order.

The order detail sheet fills a full page.

This summary of the order gives you access to:

  • The status and history of the order.
  • The carrier information: total weight of order and carrier chosen by the customer.
  • The method of payment that was used, the cost of the products, and the shipping costs.
  • Various details on the ordered products.

In the "Shipping address" section of the page, you can see a "G" icon: the enables you to use Google Maps to locate the address on a map.

Changing the order

Orders are not unalterable. There are many reasons why you would need to change an order before its products are gathered, packed and sent to their new owner: one of the product is out of stock, the customer changed his or her mind, etc.

At the top of the page are the "Add a product" and "Cancel products", which trigger two actions upon clicking:

  1. scroll down the page to the "Products" section.
  2. add fields to the product sheet.

Adding a product

When adding a product, the products table gets a row added with a handful of fields. The first text field is actually a small search engine: type the first letters of a product to see a list of corresponding products. Select the one you want to add, and the grayed-out field of the row become available.
If the product has combinations, you can select it in a drop-down list that appears below the name: the unit price update accordingly.
Set the quantity of products, then click the "Add product" button: the product is added

Note that the "Add a product" button from the "Products" section triggers the same action the button of the same name in the top bat.

You cannot add more product quantity than there is of available product.

Removing products

Clicking the "Cancel product" button in the top bar adds a column in the product list, titled "Cancel". This column feature a check-box and a text field: check the box to indicate that you want to remove quantities from this product, and type a number in the text-field indicating how much of the product should be removed. Finally, click on the "Cancel product" button at the bottom of the "Products" section in order to validate your choice.

You can edit the quantity of many product at the same time.
If a product's quantity reaches 0, it is removed from the order altogether.
You cannot remove more than the quantity of product.

Editing the order details

Many sections of the order sheet can be edited, enabling you to update or correct some of the data provided by the customer.

Order Status

The first drop-down list in the order page enables you to change its status. You can choose between the following status:

  • Awaiting bank wire payment
  • Awaiting cheque payment
  • Awaiting PayPal payment
  • Canceled
  • Delivered
  • On backorder
  • Payment accepted
  • Payment error
  • Payment remotely accepted
  • Preparation in progress
  • Refund
  • Shipped

In order to get a better view of the order's activity, every status change is recorded, and the log appears right below the status change drop-down list. Therefore, you should only change a status if it has been clearly confirmed: do not mark an order as "Delivered" when you have sent the package, use "Shipped", do not use "Preparation in progress" when in fact you have only taken a quick glance at the order, etc.

Actions Buttons

The action buttons in the top bar change depending on the order's status. For instance, once the order is in the "Delivered" state, the "Add a product" and "Remove products" turn into two new buttons: "Return products" and "Partial refund".

Return products is to be used when the customer returns products: once the returned product has been received, you can mark it as returned directly in the order form. Click the "Return products" and a new column will appear, title "Return". Check the box the the involved products, set the number of items that were return, and click the "Return products" at the bottom of the table.
Three options are available when set a product as returned, below the table:

  • Re-stock products. When checked, PrestaShop will consider that the returned product as available for sale again, and will therefore increase the stock for this product.
  • Generate a credit slip.
  • Generate a voucher.
    Note that this will only work if you have enabled merchandise return for your shop! To enable merchandise return, go to the "Merchandise Returns" page under the "Orders" tab, and in the "Merchandise return (RMA) options" section, choose "Yes" for the "Enable returns" option, and save. This will apply to all products and all orders.

Partial refund is to be used when you need to refund only part of the order and not the whole order, either because the customer return of the ordered product, or simply as a sign of goodwill for a damaged product that the customer chose to keep anyway.

Documents

You can get many PDF documents from an order.

By default, you can download the order itself as a PDF, by clicking on the "Print order" button on right.

You can get an invoice for the order by clicking on the "Generate invoice" button from the "Documents" section.

When you put the order in the "Delivered" state, a delivery slip PDF is generated, which you can download from the "Documents" section.

Shipping

Shipping Address

Invoice Address

Discount

Sending a message to your customer

In the "New Message" section, at the bottom of the page, you can send a message to the customer, in order to give him or her information concerning the order, a delay, a surprise, or keep him informed on offers and specials. This is key to good business.

There are two links available:

  • Click here to add a comment or send a message to the customer.
    • You can send a message by writing it in the message box.
    • Pre-written message can be saved and used multiple times, saving you the hassle of writing them over and over again. If you would like to send one of these messages, select it from the drop-down menu. You can add further details to the pre-written message if needed
  • Click here to see all messages. Rather than opening a message form, this link will take you to the "Customer service" page of the "Customers" tab.

In both of these cases, once your message is ready, click "Send". Your customer will receive your message in their inbox (the one indicated in their account).

Invoices

Each time an order from your store is validated, an invoice is sent out to the customer. If there are no problems, the order status will read "OK" or "Payment accepted." You can download it directly from the order summary by clicking the "Invoice" section in the top right-hand corner of the page.

The customer will be able to access the invoice by going to his account.

Printing Invoices

If you want to print several invoices at the same time, head to the sub-tab "Invoices" under the "Orders" tab. The invoice interface will appear.

In order to print several invoices, fill in the date range in the "From" and "To" fields in the "Print PDF invoices" section and create PDFs by clicking on "Generate PDF file."

In the second section "Invoice Options", you can choose whether or not invoices should be printed as soon as the order is made, as well as the Invoice Prefix and the invoice number you want listed on the printed version of the invoice. This feature can help you simplify the management of your account.

When your customers ask for their invoices, you can redirect them to the Order History section of their user accounts, which keeps all of their invoices available for them.

Delivery Slips

Printing a delivery slip is exactly like printing an invoice. Select the dates, as well as the options you would like, and then confirm them to create your documents.

Merchandise Returns

Under the "Merchandise Returns" tab, you have the possibility of allowing customers to send products back to you.

Click on the tab and a form will appear. Select your choice, the time of validity, and save.

Once you have activated this option in your Back Office, the customer can choose to return an item. In order to do this, he must do the following:

  1. Access the Orders History section of his account.
  2. Select the order from which he wants to return an item.
  3. Select the product(s) that he wishes to return by checking the box next to its name(s).
  4. (optional) Add an explanation, in order for the store to understand why the item is being returned.

Once the form is complete, the customer clicks on "Make an RMA slip", and the request is sent to you.

A list of returns will appear in your Back Office.

  • Click on the name of the return to see more details.
  • Change the status to continue with the return process.

Create a Credit Slip

Once a package has been returned, you must create a credit slip.

In your list of orders, click on the order for which the customer is returning the item for more details.

Below the "Products" table, do the following:

  • Check the item(s) returned.
  • Check the box "Re-stock Products" if you wish to put the product back in your stock.
  • Check the box "Generate a Credit Slip."
  • To make a customer happy after committing an error in their order, consider giving him a voucher by checking the box next to "Generate a Voucher."
  • You can also reimburse his shipping costs by clicking next to "Include Shipping."

Once you have selected all the options you want, confirm by clicking on "Refund Products."

The credit slip is now created and will be available in the Order Details well as in the "Credit Slips" tab.

You can click the link to download the PDF.

Your customer will see the slip in his "My Account" section.

If you have created a voucher, they will see it in the "My vouchers" section of their account. If they click on it, it should look something like this:

The amount of the returned item(s) is added to the voucher. The customer can use the discount code (listed in the far left of the column) next time he places an order.

Messaging Customers

Your PrestaShop online store gives you the ability to interact with your customers thanks to an integrated messaging system.

Basically, your customers can send you messages about their orders through the "My Orders" section of their user accounts. They select the order they want to write about, and then fill out the following.

Once the message has been sent by the customer, it will appear directly under the "Customer Messages" sub-tab, in the "Orders" tab.

Clicking on the message's row takes you to the order that it concerns. You can see the message from this point in the bottom left of the page: it is highlighted in yellow.

Click on the green checkmark to signal that you have read and understood the message.

Take a moment to send a message back to your customer! You can do this by clicking on the "New message" section, which can be found right above, and which has already been discussed.

Statuses

Having different order statuses lets you easily manage your customers. These different statuses are visible and editable in the "Order Statuses" tab.

You can of course create a new status with the "Add New" button. Fill out the form, and save it.

The color will be used to underline order statuses and will be written, like the previously seen color attributes, in HTML code.

Pre-written messages

When you have to send a message to your customers using the PrestaShop administrative interface, you can choose to save this message in order to send it out again to other customers with similar questions, comments, or concerns.

To do this, go to the "Order Messages" sub-tab under the "Orders" tab. One default message is already saved: "Delay". To add others, click on the "Add New" button. You can also edit the default message.

  • In the "Name" field, give your message a descriptive name so that you can easily find it again later.
  • In the "Message" field, write out the content that you wish to send to your customers.

Once done, click on "Save".

You can create as many messages as you want.

You can send these messages by going directly into a customer's order:

  • Select the pre-written message.
  • Edit it if needed.
  • Click "Send."

Your customer will receive the message on the email address associated with this account.

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