How to Handle BigCommerce Order Management Easily
Running an online store is exciting, but keeping up with orders can be a real challenge. As your business grows, managing orders on BigCommerce can quickly become overwhelming. However, there are simple tips and tricks to streamline your BigCommerce order management process. In this post, we will share easy-to-follow practices to help you stay on top of orders and provide a stellar customer experience without all the stress and headaches. Essential to Know about BigCommerce Order Management You should look at every step from when a customer pays for an order until you deliver their products. Look for ways to make this whole process better for your customers because improving the order experience can help you make more money. Receiving and Processing Orders It is best to have a central place to view all orders and inventory levels, especially if you sell on multiple platforms. BigCommerce consolidates your orders automatically and updates inventory if tracking is enabled. Payment processing is built into the platform with PCI-compliant gateways. Many allow automatic payment capture when an order is placed or a manual authorization letter. Choose the method that fits your business – automatic capture works well if you don’t produce products in-house. Most gateways include basic fraud prevention like Address Verification and Card Verification Value checking. Some, like PayPal by Braintree, also support 3D Secure for extra verification at checkout. You should check their Fraud Prevention Guide to learn more about eCommerce fraud. How you process paid orders depends on where you store products. For in-house fulfillment from your own warehouse, you’ll need to manually update each order stage. You need to train staff on using the BigCommerce control panel properly and document processes to stay consistent. Alternatively, use a third-party logistics (3PL) service integrated with BigCommerce, like Skubana, Brightpearl or ShipBob. They can automate most order processing by syncing data across your warehouses for flexible routing and fulfillment. Fulfilling Orders Order fulfillment involves three main steps – Picking, Packing, and Shipping. This is where implementing automation or streamlined processes can greatly improve speed and accuracy. When just starting out with a low order volume, it’s fairly straightforward to avoid mistakes. However, as you grow and process orders from multiple channels routing to various fulfillment locations, it can quickly become overwhelming. Picking: Technology like tablets, voice-picking, and time-tracking software can further boost productivity, but smart warehouse design is essential. Improving picking efficiency starts with an organized warehouse layout: Packing: The packing stage is more than just boxing items – it’s an opportunity to demonstrate care for each order through efficient and accurate fulfillment: Automation becomes crucial for efficiently handling large order quantities without sacrificing precision. Evaluate your fulfillment workflow and identify opportunities to reduce manual tasks through integration and outsourcing. Practicing Post-Sale Experience The experience after someone buys from you is very important. It can help you get more customers and make more sales. For new businesses, a good post-sale experience helps people learn about your brand. Happy customers are more likely to tell friends and family, getting you new buyers. For businesses with existing customers, the post-sale experience keeps those customers coming back. It’s easier to get someone who already bought from you to buy again than to find a completely new customer. Customers who keep buying from you are very valuable. After making a purchase, follow up with customers, offer support, give tips on using the product, and ask for feedback. A great post-sale experience leads to positive reviews, referrals, and repeat sales. Don’t overlook it! Keeping customers happy after buying pays off in the long run. How to Handle BigCommerce Order Management Easily with Atom8’s Quotation Feature With Atom8’s Quotation Feature, handling BigCommerce order management becomes easy, especially for B2B businesses. This powerful tool allows you to take control of the entire quoting and ordering process, streamlining operations for both merchants and customers. Sales representatives can set custom quote prices and send them directly to merchants, offering flexibility in pricing that may be lower than the listed rates. Store admins don’t need to worry about monitoring these types of orders, as the system handles them seamlessly. Merchants and sales staff can receive notifications when quote prices reach predefined thresholds, ensuring proper oversight. This feature is particularly useful for scenarios where company users order items with limited quantities or when total order amounts don’t meet minimum requirements. Unlike BigCommerce’s native functionality, which applies minimum order quantities universally, Atom8’s Quotation Feature allows you to set specific minimums for B2B quotes only. This level of customization ensures a tailored experience for your B2B customers without impacting B2C operations. Moreover, store merchants gain additional control by having the ability to delete quotes or send email reminders to B2B buyers to update their quotes as needed. This level of flexibility and communication helps streamline the quoting process, leading to a smoother overall experience for both parties. By leveraging Atom8’s Quotation Feature, BigCommerce merchants can effortlessly manage their B2B order flow, providing a personalized and efficient experience for their valued customers. In Conclusion, Streamlining your BigCommerce order management processes is crucial for providing an exceptional customer experience and driving business growth. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you’ll be able to centralize orders, automate fulfillment, and deliver a seamless purchase journey. If you need further assistance in optimizing your BigCommerce store for simplified and automated order handling, our experts are here to help. Contact us today to learn how we can customize BigCommerce order management solutions to elevate your eCommerce operations!
Keep Shoppers Informed: Improve BigCommerce Out-of-Stock Notification
When customers want to buy something from your online store, it might be frustrating if the item is out of stock. They may leave without making a purchase. But what if you could let shoppers know when that product will be available again? Keeping customers informed can help you keep their interest and improve their shopping experience. In this blog post, we will discuss how to enhance the BigCommerce out-of-stock notification feature in your store. By making a few simple changes, you can provide better updates to customers and increase the chances of making a sale when items are back in stock. Tips for Dealing with Out-of-Stock Items Without Hurting Sales Sometimes, items run out and cannot be sold for a short time. But there are things you can do to fix this problem for your website. Let’s look at five great tips for when products on your site are no longer available. Tell customers if the product is gone forever or just for now There are two kinds of out-of-stock products: ones that cannot be sold right now, and ones that have been permanently discontinued. You should let customers know which category the product falls into. This way, they’ll understand if the product will come back or not. If a product is just temporarily out of stock, instead of removing the page, you can allow customers to add it to their wish list. Then you can let them know once it’s available again. Keeping the product page up helps your website’s search rankings, which can lead to more sales in the future. Suggest a different but similar product When a product is out of stock, you can suggest other similar products to customers based on what they usually like and buy. Since you know what kinds of things your customers want, showing them relevant product options will help you make more sales. It’s usually not a good idea to just redirect customers from the out-of-stock page back to your homepage. That might cause them to leave your website altogether, and it makes it harder for them to find and purchase something else. The better approach is to guide customers to keep browsing and exploring other products you offer. Update customers on when the product will be available again If a product is temporarily out of stock, take that opportunity to get customers’ email addresses. Instead of redirecting them elsewhere on your website, ask them to provide their email so you can notify them when the product is available again. Collecting customer emails for out-of-stock items allows you to grow your email list and make future sales. By sending emails to promote when that product returns, you can bring those interested customers back to your site to purchase it. Without email updates, over half of potential sales from out-of-stock products may be lost as customers buy elsewhere instead. Email marketing gives those interested buyers a way to easily return to your site once you have the product back in stock. Make out-of-stock items harder to be visible Besides sending BigCommerce out of stock notification, one strategy for handling out-of-stock products is to move those listings to the bottom of search results or product pages. By reducing their visibility, fewer customers will click on the unavailable items. This “out of sight, out of mind” approach helps maintain your website’s search rankings while pushing customers toward products you have in stock. Manually adjusting product visibility every day based on inventory levels can be difficult. Using specialized software, like Back Order, that automatically updates your inventory helps you stay ahead of stock issues. The software alerts you right away when something is out of stock, giving you a chance to adjust that product’s visibility before customers get frustrated. Allow a pre-order strategy for your store You can allow customers to pre-order products that will be back in stock soon. This pre-order strategy captures customer interest and encourages them to return to your website when the item is available again. Providing a pre-order option keeps customers engaged with your site as they wait for the product to come back. You can give them a “Notify Me” button, so they get updates on when it will be in stock. Clear communication about availability helps build customer loyalty. Letting customers pre-order out-of-stock items creates excitement and commitment to purchasing once you have them back. They’ve already decided they want that product from your store. Improve BigCommerce Out of Stock Notification with Back Order by GritGlobal About the App The BackOrder App allows you to keep selling even when your products go out of stock. Instead of losing those sales, customers can backorder items until you restock. Just choose which products to enable backorders for, and the app does the rest automatically when inventory hits zero. You can apply backorders to full products or just specific variants like sizes and colors. Customize the messaging customers see. Set thresholds for maximum backorder quantities and provide estimates on when items will be back in stock. BackOrder of GritGlobal can work seamlessly with your existing inventory management system, reflecting any updates in real time. Our support team is available 7 days a week to assist you with any questions about using the BackOrder App effectively. App Features The BackOrder app allows customers to order products that are currently out of stock. Instead of missing out on those sales entirely, you can take backorders and deliver the items once you have them back in stock. Just install the app, choose which products to enable backorders for, and BackOrder takes care of the rest automatically when inventory is depleted. Customize the notifications and messaging to let shoppers know an item is backordered and when it’s expected back in stock. You can also design the BigCommerce out of stock notifications to match your branding. Set limits on how many backorders to accept and provide estimated restock dates to customers. This helps you manage incoming inventory levels. Get real-time reports on your backorder
