Dealing with Retail Orders on the Admin Section of the Website

 

There are some important distinctions between B2B orders and retail, or B2C orders.

On the user-facing website

Of course, retail users can only place orders on the website if retail pricing is allowed and if retail checkout is allowed. Once both of those settings are enabled, retail users can go through the checkout system and submit an order through the website. They are restricted, though:

  • Retail users must manually enter a shipping address for each order.
  • Retail users must pay via credit card for each order.
  • Retail users must enter their email address during the checkout process for each order. This email address is where the cart receipt will be sent.

NOTE: Your website's shipping options can be restricted as it relates to retail users. If, for example, you want to offer a Delivery option to B2B users but not to retail users please contact Aldrich Web Solutions for configuration help.

After the user submits the order

  • Both the retail user and your pre-configured Admin will receive copies of the order's cart receipt email. A unique aspect of retail orders is that the "Placed By:" section of the cart receipt will not have a username. Rather, a string of letters and numbers representing the unique website browsing session will show up.
  • The manually entered shipping address will appear on the User Entered Addresses report, after the order has imported to your ERP system.
  • The credit card transaction will appear in the CC Transaction Log. No credit card data is stored on the site, but this log shows the non-confidential information provided by your credit card processor.

The Order Detail page

The Order Detail page of a retail order is almost exactly the same as an Order Detail page for a B2B order, with 2 notable exceptions:

  • The Username will be a string of letters and numbers representing the unique website browsing session. This always indicates a non-logged-in user.
  • The Ship To ID will be 0. This is the case anytime a user (B2B or B2C) enters a manual shipping address. After import, the Order Detail page does not update, but the ERP order will have the Customer Code's default Ship To ID. The manually entered address remains attached to that single order, but the Ship To ID will be updated. This can affect your internal reporting. The manually entered address does not save in your ERP system as a repeatable Ship To for the Customer Code.

Importing retail carts

WebAlliance offers 2 paths here:

 

1) The cart imports to your ERP system in the same way as any B2B order

Retail orders are assigned your website's default Customer Code, Default Location ID, Default Contact ID (where applicable), and Default Order Taker (where applicable). In the standard website configuration, those values will import with any retail order.

2) The website holds carts with the Default Customer Code as PENDING until an Admin updates the cart.

Aldrich Web Solutions can help configure your site so that when a cart is placed by a user with the site's Default Customer Code, the cart is held in PENDING status until an Admin updates the cart information.

This setting affects all carts placed using the Default Customer Code. So, while this would encompass all retail (non-logged-in) carts, it will also affect carts placed by logged-in users who have been assigned the site's Default Customer Code.


When the cart is placed, the user and an Admin will receive a cart receipt email. That should trigger the Admin user to review the cart online. Also, using the Automated Email Jobs wizard called HungOrderWizard, you can configure your website to alert you when an order is stuck in PENDING. This would be a good backup solution, in case a PENDING cart falls through the cracks.


Remember, when a user submits a cart, they receive the cart receipt. At that point, the user's interaction with the cart is finished. If the cart's status is PENDING, it won't import to your ERP system. It's important to keep up with the status of all carts submitted through the website.


So, a cart is submitted with the site's Default Customer Code and is held in PENDING status. An Admin can now visit the Order Detail page, update the Contact ID, Customer Code, and Ship To ID to real and relevant values that exist in your ERP system. Once this is done, the cart shifts to the PROCESSING status, and your ERP system will attempt to import it. 

Note that, using this method, the Ship To ID will change on the Order Detail page, and it will import to your ERP system along with the order. However, the address entered by the user will remain attached to the order.

Notes after import

In the standard configuration, all retail orders import with the site's Default Customer Code. By default, they'll also import as that Customer Code's Default Ship To ID. Both of these can affect your internal reporting. Be sure to consider all the implications of this dynamic before enabling the retail module on your website.