Status flow
Where an order sits lives in one field, and the stages come from your operation. Being picked, dispatched and delivered each produce a record of their own.
Order Management
Once a shop is live the orders start arriving, and the first few months are handled over email. As the volume grows that approach collapses, because nobody can say which order is being prepared and which is still waiting.
Order management is about the life of an order after it arrives. Building the shop itself is separate work. What matters here is the path an order takes until it is closed.
Talk to us about thisWhat the System Covers
Picking and preparation
How the picking list is ordered shortens the work directly. A list sorted by product walks the warehouse end to end several times, while one sorted by location walks it once.
The link to stock
Stock moves when the order is confirmed, and the deduction happens in a single operation. Checking first and deducting afterwards sells an item you do not have when two orders arrive together.
Cancellations and returns
A return is not an order in reverse, it is a process with its own flow. Whether the goods came back, whether they went into stock and whether the money was refunded are tracked separately.
Keeping the customer informed
When the status changes the customer hears about it. These messages cut support load noticeably, because most of where is my order is answered before it is asked.
History and disputes
Every status change carries who made it and when. When a disagreement surfaces later, this is the place to look.
How We Work
- The amount is calculated on the server, a price sent by the browser is never trusted.
- Stock deduction is one atomic update, so two orders cannot race each other.
- Status changes happen only in an authorised role and are recorded.
- Payment is confirmed with the provider, a success page is not treated as proof.
Frequently Asked Questions
E-commerce is about building the shop itself, meaning the storefront, the basket and the checkout. This is about the journey of the order after it arrives. On most projects both are built together, but the need can be separate, for example where the shop runs on a ready-made platform and the back office is custom.
If the carrier exposes a connection, yes, tracking numbers can be pulled automatically. If not, the number is entered by hand and the customer is still notified. We need to know which carriers you work with from the start.
They can. The real difficulty is that orders from different sources share the same stock. If stock is not held in one place you end up selling something the marketplace no longer has, and that carries penalties.
If the shop exposes its order data, yes. On a closed platform that may not be possible, so the first job is measuring how much of the shop we can actually reach.
What We Have Written About This
- Shopify or a Custom Build? How to Decide One gets you selling in weeks with fees attached. The other costs more up front and answers to nobody. The right choice depends on things people rarely check first.
- What You Legally Need Before Launching an Online Store in the UK Most of it is admin rather than law school, and almost all of it is cheaper to do before launch than after the first complaint.
Which Service This Belongs To
This page covers one topic. The full scope and pricing live on the related service page.
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