Virtumart Shopping Cart

Processing Orders

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Hopefully you have orders to process on your shopping cart. You need to view the orders, print shipping labels, change the status and send update notices to your customers. This tutorial will show you how it's all done.

Finding the orders.

First order of business, locating where your orders are stored.

1. Log in to the admin side of things.
2. Under "Components" click "Virtuemart."
3. You'll probably see something similar to what's below. You can click the order button, or over on the left hand side, click "Orders." This will open up the sub-menu items.
4. Click "List Orders." 

On the next screen you will see all your orders. You will only want to process the orders that are "confirmed." If everything is setup correctly PayPal will automatically update these orders from "Pending" to "Confirmed" when real money has exchanged hands over at PayPal. If your order is still "Pending," it means either PayPal has not processed it, or more likely, the customer abandoned the order before really paying for it.

Click the blue order number to open the order.

The next screen will tell you everything you need to know to process the order. Here's how this screen is laid out.

1. Overview information. About the only thing you may want to do here is to resent the Confirmation mail, but typically, you'll just move on to number 2.
2. This is the shipping address. It may, or may not be the same as the billing address. Make sure you ship it to the correct address. This will cut down on angry customers.
3. The all-important "what-they-ordered" area. 
4. Shipping Information. Some carts are setup to ship by total, some use UPS, USPS, or flat fees. If you're using USPS, or UPS, be sure to check HOW they shipped. If they selected "Media Mail," you would not want to ship first class.
5. Custom Comments. Sometimes, customers will write special instructions or comments. It's always a good idea to check this area for any specialized instructions.
6. Once you've processed this order, including printing a shipping label, boxed it and shipped it, you'll want to let your customer know that the order has been shipped. The final step is to change the "Order Status" from "Confirmed" to "Shipped." At this time, you can write a thank you note, special instructions, or anything you want in the comment field. As long as the "Notify Customer" and "Include this comment" check boxes are checked, when you change the order status and click "Update" the customer will receive an email telling them their order has been shipped.