ChannelEngine: orders
About this article
This article describes the processing of orders on ChannelEngine.
Table of contents
Introduction
One of the most important features offered by ChannelEngine is the ability to manage and automate orders made on a marketplace. The way orders are handled depends on how your webstore or warehouse management system (WMS) is connected to ChannelEngine. If a webstore is automated, ChannelEngine hooks into its existing order process, and the whole process is fully automated. If you only have a product feed and use ChannelEngine as a standalone platform to handle orders, some manual actions are required.
To better understand how the order flow works, check out the Merchant API data flow: orders, shipments, and cancelations chart.
Note that orders visible on ChannelEngine are already paid on the marketplace, as ChannelEngine does not fetch unpaid or pending orders.
Order overview
The example below shows what your order overview might look like on ChannelEngine. You can see the ChannelEngine order ID, the name of the channel, the channel order number, the order date, the order status, the customer's invoice address, and the total order amount. Every order has been shipped in this example, but the order status can vary as explained in the Order status section of this guide.
The 'eye' icon on the right-hand side can be selected to show each order's details. If an order is still marked as In progress, you see a 'truck' icon to create a shipment for it.
At the top of the order overview, you can search for specific attributes such as the channel order number – or filter the overview based on order status, fulfillment, channel, or a date range. These filters can also be combined to get a specific order overview (e.g.: all shipped FBA orders from all five Amazon EU channels in March 2019). On the right-hand side of the filters, you can either export the current filter results as a CSV file or automatically generate invoices or packing slips.
Order details
When you open an order, either using the 'eye' button or selecting the order number, you see the complete order information – including billing and shipping addresses, and the order itself.
By default, VAT is not shown unless the Show VAT and commission option is selected. Note that most marketplaces do not include VAT in their order, and the calculation is done by using either your default VAT percentage or country-specific percentages based on your VAT settings.
If you make use of the stock locations feature, you can select the Show stock locations option to reveal the warehouse associated with a specific order.
Order status
The status of an order corresponds to how far it currently is in the process. Most orders have an In progress or Shipped status, the other statuses are less common and depend on which order handling methods are supported by the channel.
Note that the order status describes the general status of its order, and does not necessarily reflect the status of a subsequent part of it. Once a shipment is added to an order, the status of the order is Shipped. However, this does not guarantee that the shipment has already been exported to the channel.
The same goes for cancelations. The order status might change to Canceled or Closed, but the cancelation itself might still be on In progress/Not exported yet.
Order statuses
| Label (web app) | Status | API status | Description |
| New | NEW | It has not been picked up by the webstore/order management system yet. | |
| In progress | IN_PROGRESS | It has been acknowledged by the webstore/order management system, and has a merchant order number*. It remains in progress even if partially shipped or canceled, with one or more items still to be shipped. | |
| Shipped | SHIPPED | It has been shipped. | |
| In backorder | IN_BACKORDER | It is in backorder. | |
| Canceled | MANCO | It is canceled, either by the merchant or by the customer/ marketplace. | |
| Combined | IN_COMBI | It is partially shipped form the web app, with one or more items still to be shipped – this usually happens with partial merchant-fulfilled orders. | |
| Closed | CLOSED | It is partially shipped and partially canceled or returned. | |
| Returned | RETURNED | It has been completely returned by the customer. | |
| Requires correction | REQUIRES_CORRECTION | It has address lines that cannot be parsed automatically, and needs to be corrected manually. | |
| Awaiting payment | AWAITING_PAYMENT | The related stock has been reserved, but payment for the order has not been confirmed yet. |
Orders and stock
Once ChannelEngine receives an order for a specific product, the stock for that product is reserved. E.g.: if you have a stock of 17 vases and two of these are sold, ChannelEngine exports a stock of 15 to all connected channels. As long as the status is New or In progress, this reservation remains – until the status changes to Shipped or Canceled. At that point, the stock from your product feed or other stock connection becomes leading again.
Automated order handling
If a webstore is fully integrated via ChannelEngine's API, one of the webstore plugins, or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration, the order handling should be fully automated. The back-end of your webshop is where the entire order process is handled.
When an order is placed on a marketplace, ChannelEngine imports it with order status New. When the order is exported to the webstore and an acknowledgement is received, the order status changes to In progress. From this moment on, the usual process of the webstore is followed.
When an order is shipped by the webstore, ChannelEngine is notified with the carrier and track-and-trace information. This changes the order status to Shipped, and ChannelEngine exports this shipment information to the marketplace. At this point, the customer is usually notified by the marketplace that the order is on its way.
Manual order handling
If you do not have your own webstore and only use ChannelEngine to sell on marketplaces, ChannelEngine cannot send the order anywhere and you have to process it directly on ChannelEngine. You can use a product feed to upload product information that ChannelEngine can use for marketplaces. You can also create an adjustable feed to manage your stock information, but it is possible to manage this on ChannelEngine if you have no stock attribute in that feed.
You can select the option ChannelEngine manages stock at the bottom of the page in the Advanced settings section under Settings, Settings. The stock is automatically updated after a sale, but you can manually adjust the stock of your products in your product detail page on ChannelEngine. The orders (including shipments, cancelations, and returns) have to be managed on ChannelEngine.
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