POS status and order management
The latest FooSales release (version 1.33.0) includes a huge update to order management in FooSales and opens the door for improved omnichannel sales and fulfillment workflows. Moving forward, you can now update the order status of an order and edit existing orders. This not only applies to orders created in FooSales but also to other orders created online.
Here are a few examples of how you can use the new order management features to streamline your workflows:
Order online and pay in-person
When choosing the ‘Cash on delivery’ payment option, WooCommerce will automatically set the order status to ‘Processing’. The order will then immediately reflect in FooSales. Your customer can then arrive at your store and their order can be found using their name or order number. You can then continue the order in-store. Before making payment, your customer can even add additional items to the order or remove existing items that were originally ordered online.
Order in-person and pay online
Should your customer not be able to make payment in person (card services are down, no cash in the ATM, forgot their wallet etc.), you can simply create a customer profile and save the order. They can then login online and complete the order. The customer could even choose to have the order delivered or collect it in-person.
Order fulfilment
Use FooSales in your store or warehouse to manage and track the progress of an order. Here is an example workflow:
- Processing – Customer places an order online or in-store. The order requires delivery so it is set to processing once payment is confirmed.
- Packing – Using the FooSales app, the packing team sees a new order labeled as ‘Processing’. When ready to prepare the order, they set the order status to ‘Packing’.
- Ready for collection – Once the order is packed and ready, using the FooSales app, the order status is changed to ‘Ready for Collection’ and the courier is notified to collect the package.
- Shipped – When the courier collects the package, the staff member handing over the parcel marks the order as shipped.
- Complete – Finally, once delivery has been confirmed, the order can be marked as complete.
In addition, you can even use third-party plugins to generate automatic order status change alerts to let the warehouse team know to prepare a package and use a custom status to indicate that it is ready for collection by your fulfilment partner.
Order collaboration
Since orders are shared between your online store and multiple POS devices, sales, warehouse and factory staff can use FooSales to collaborate on order fulfillment. For example, if used in a large furniture, appliance, or specialist equipment store, each department representative could separately add items to an order on a customer’s behalf (using an iPad or Android Tablet). Once the customer has finished shopping, the front-desk can complete the payment process and the order status can be changed to a custom order status such as ‘Warehouse processing’. The warehouse team can see the order status and prepare the order for delivery or collection.
Custom order status management plugins
Here are a few examples of custom order status plugins that you can use to achieve some of the workflows and implementations mentioned in this post.
- Ni WooCommerce Custom Order Status (FREE)
- Custom Order Status
- WooCommerce Custom Order Status Manager
- AutomateWoo (order status change alerts)
New Navigation
In addition to the new POS order management features, we’ve also updated the FooSales interface to display a persistent menu. This should reduce the number of clicks needed to navigate FooSales and give you a birds-eye view of incomplete orders thanks to the order notification count.
Conclusion
These new features in combination with hundreds of WooCommerce order management plugins, open WooCommerce, and FooSales to loads of exciting new real-world use cases that will streamline your operations and help grow your business.
