Order fulfillment is without a doubt one of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of running a WooCommerce store. Incorrectly packed orders, late delivery or poor communication can leave your customers with a bad experience. The problem is that WooCommerce orders for local pickups and local deliveries are typically managed via email or by logging in to the backend of your WordPress website. These methods are cumbersome and can lead to errors, inefficiencies and potential security risks, especially in public-facing real-world environments. This is where FooSales comes in.
Using FooSales to Manage Order Fulfillment
The FooSales apps offer a secure, distraction-free interface to manage order fulfillment that is always readily available at your store, storage facility or on the go (e.g. in-house delivery driver). When an order is placed online, it can be viewed in the FooSales iPad, Android tablet and web POS apps. In the apps, you can view order information such as the product packing list (i.e. ‘Items’), shipping information, billing details and order notes. You can also use WooCommerce order statuses to manage the workflow of your order fulfillment process.
Managing Local Deliveries
So let’s say a local customer makes a purchase online and chooses free shipping. An order will be generated in WooCommerce and sent to FooSales. Because the order was made online which requires shipping, the status of the order will be displayed as ‘Processing’ and the shipping method will be displayed as a label making it easy to spot in the order section within the FooSales apps.
You can then review the order and start preparing it for your customer. Using custom order statuses, you can even create statuses that reflect the relevant phases of the fulfillment workflow. This will allow you to keep track of your orders and the tasks needed to complement the fulfillment of your order backlog.
For example:
- When an order is being prepared, you can change the order status to a custom status such as Packing.
- Once the order is packed, you can then change the order status to Ready for delivery before it is collected by your driver, at which point the status is changed to Out for delivery.
- Using a free custom order status management plugin or the AutomateWoo plugin, you also set WooCommerce to send the customer an email notifying them that the order is out for delivery. Some third-party plugins such as the AutomateWoo plugin, even make it possible to send SMS or text notifications to your customers based on when an order status is updated in FooSales.
- Once the order is delivered to your customer, the driver simply changes the status of the order to Complete.
Managing Local Pickups
WooCommerce has a built-in Local Pickup shipping method which can be enabled in the WooCommerce shipping settings.
This is ideal for stores and services that allow their customers to order items online and collect in-person at a physical location. This is typically done to save on shipping fees and ensure quicker fulfillment of the order. It is very important to manage the fulfillment of local pickups very carefully. You will need to communicate every step with your customer and implement a fulfillment workflow that is efficient and well-managed.
Using FooSales, custom order statuses and order status notifications, you can ensure the various steps taken in the fulfillment of an order are well managed and communications are automated.
For example:
- When a local pickup order is placed, it will be sent to the FooSales apps and set to Processing and Local Pickup. At this point, your customer would have received the standard WooCommerce order notification emails.
- When you are ready to prepare the order, you can change the order status to a custom status such as Packing.
- Once the order is ready for collection, you can set it to a custom order status such as Ready for collection.
- Using a free custom order status management plugin or the AutomateWoo plugin, you can set WooCommerce to automatically send the customer an email or SMS notification which lets them know that the order is ready to be collected.
- Once collected, simply set the order status to Completed.
Conclusion
Relying on emails and logging in to your website backend to work through orders are not efficient methods to manage challenging logistical workflows. Using a fully integrated WooCommerce POS like FooSales will not only help organize your processes and save you a significant amount of time, it will also leave your customers with a better overall experience.
If you would like to see for yourself how FooSales can be used to manage your order fulfillment, Sign-up for a 7-day free trial to get instant access. It only takes a few minutes to create an account and requires no credit card or billing details.
