Processing Orders

Processing orders can be one of the more enjoyable duties of an online business. After all, this is the part of the business where you begin the process of receiving money in your bank account.

Receiving Orders via Email or Fax

Merchant Solutions allows you to receive new order confirmation via email, fax, or both (fax only available with Standard and Professional packages). You can even set it to send notifications to multiple email addresses or fax numbers. This is convenient if you have more than one person who needs to be informed of the new order.

Once you receive the order, you will want to review and process the credit card before shipping the product. Although the credit card was approved and you have an approval code, the transaction can still be declined when you try to process the credit card. For example, from the time the order was placed and the time you attempt to process the credit card, the card may be cancelled, go over its limit, or even expire.

To process orders

1.	In Store Manager, click on the Orders link under the Process column.
2.	If you haven't already entered your security key, a login window will appear. Enter your security key in the form box. This will take you to the Order Manager.
3.	Locate the order you would like to process. If you have new orders pending, the first new order number will appear in the specific order box (see Figure 14.1). Click the View button. This will take you to that specific order. Figure 14.1. The first order number from the series of new orders will appear in the specific order form box. Click the View button to start processing the first new order.
4.	Before you process the order, you will want to review it. If the order looks okay, scroll down until you see the Sale button (see Figure 14.2). Click on the Sale button. Another window will appear confirming whether it was processed properly or whether the process failed. Figure 14.2. To process orders, click on the Sale button. The Sale button is located at the bottom of each order.
5.	Click the OK button. This will take you back to the order. If you have other orders that need to be processed, click on the Next button above the order information. This will take you to the next order.

Note:

Clicking on the Sale button adds your transaction to a batch along with all other orders that you processed. This will also include refunds and credits, if any. Once a day between 6 and 11 p.m. (PST), your batch of transactions is processed automatically by Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. You can also submit the batch immediately if you click on the Submit Batch link in the Manual Transaction Control Panel.

Taking Orders over the Phone

Not all orders will originate via your website. Depending on how your business is set up, you may receive orders via fax, in person, by mail, or by phone. Also, although your website order form is secure, some customers will not feel comfortable placing an order online. They fear that their credit card information will be stolen during the process. And who can blame them? Once in awhile you'll hear news of hackers stealing thousand of credit card numbers from websites and even large banks. The hacker may or may not do anything with the stolen credit card information, but the fear is still there.

When taking an order via the phone, you will need to obtain all the necessary information from the customers to process the order later, or you can go through the order process online while the customer is on the phone. If you decide not to process the order online immediately, it is recommended that you create a form to gather the information from the customer. If you are planning on creating a form, you should go through the order process and write down all the questions asked on the online order form. This will ensure that you get all the necessary information for processing. One of the benefits of processing the order immediately online is that you will know whether the credit card is approved. This will not only reduce fraud, but will prevent you from having to call the customer back if the card was declined for some reason.

Caution:

It is strongly recommended that merchants place orders online in their store while the customer is on the phone. Recording credit card info on paper or a spreadsheet (neither of which are secure methods) is a violation of CISP/PCI security protocols, which govern how, when, and where credit card info can be stored by merchants. This could result in large fines from card associations, or merchants could lose their merchant account if this information is stolen.

Processing Manual Orders

Once you receive an order offline, you will need to manually process the credit card. There are two ways to do this: You can use the Manual Transaction Manager or you can go through the order process as if you were the customer placing an order online. The benefit of going through the process is that you will be able to capture all the customer and product data for reporting purposes in the future. Using the Manual Transaction Manager as seen in Figure 14.3 will only require you to enter the card number, expiration date, amount, CVS, and billing address. There is no place to input product information, shipping address, and customer information such as name, phone number, and email address.

Although it is a little bit more work to go through the order process for the customer and fill out all the information, this will allow you to capture the necessary data for future use.

Figure 14.3. You can process offline orders by using the Manual Transaction Manager.

To process manual orders

1.	In Store Manager, click on the Manual Transactions link under the Process column.
2.	Fill-out the required information as seen in Figure 14.3 and click on the Sale button.

Retrieving Orders

To respond to existing customer inquires such as "I ordered x, but you sent me b," "you charged me twice," or "where is my shipment?," you will need to pull up their order information. There are three ways to retrieve an order, as seen in Figure 14.4. You can retrieve the order using the exact order number; view a range of orders to find the order you are searching for; or search for the order using the customer's name, phone number, email address, street address, city, ZIP Code, last four digits of the credit card, or order date.

Figure 14.4. You can retrieve orders by keyword search, order number, or range of orders.

To retrieve an order

1.	In Store Manager, click on the Orders link under the Process column.
2.	If you are searching by order number, type the order number in the first field box and then click on the View button. If you are searching by order range, type in the beginning order number and ending order number in the Range of Orders field box and then click on the View button. If you are searching by keyword, scroll down to the Order Lookup search box, type in the keyword, and click the Search button.

Crediting an Order

If you need to refund an order or give credit for a returned product, you can credit the customer for the whole amount or even give a partial credit amount. Giving partial credit is common, especially if your return policy does not include the shipping cost or you have a restocking fee for returned product. Let's take a look at how to credit the customer's credit card:

1.	In Store Manger, click on the Orders link under the Process column.
2.	Search for the order you would like to give credit to.
3.	Scroll down to the bottom of the order and type in the amount you would like to credit, and then click on the Credit button (see Figure 14.5Figure 14.5). Figure 14.5. You will need to credit an order if the order has already been batch submitted and the credit card of the customer has been debited.

Voiding an Order

If the order was processed and you clicked on the Sale button, the order can still be voided if it has not been batch submitted. Batches are submitted between 6 and 11 p.m. (PST) unless you manually submitted the batch. If an order has been batch submitted and the credit card has been debited, you will need to issue a credit. Once you void an order, it will not be included in the sales statistics. Voiding orders is common when you receive duplicate orders. Some customers will accidentally click on the Submit order button twice. You might also receive a cancellation request from a customer after the order has been placed. Note: If you receive an error message that no transaction is pending when trying to void an order, that means that the batch was submitted and you will need to issue a credit.

To void an order

1.	In Store Manager, click on the Orders link under the Process column.
2.	Retrieve the order you would like to void.
3.	Scroll down until you see the Void Sale button (see Figure 14.6Figure 14.6) next to the Sale button. Click on the Void Sale button. Figure 14.6. To void orders, click on the Void Sale button. This will void the order and remove the order from the sales statistics.

Cancelling an Order

If the order has not been processed and you have not clicked on the Sale button, you can cancel the order by clicking the Cancelled radio button and clicking the Modify button. Like voiding orders, canceling an order will also remove the order from the sales statistics.

To cancel an order

1.	In Store Manager, click on the Orders link under the Process column.
2.	Retrieve the order you would like to Cancel.
3.	Click on the Cancelled radio button (see Figure 14.7Figure 14.7) in the Mark Order box and also click on the Modify button above the Mark Order box.

Figure 14.7. You may cancel an order if the order has not been processed. Cancelling an order will remove the order from the sales statistics.

Marking an Order

In addition to marking an order Cancelled to void an order, there are five more options for marking orders: OK, Fraudulent, Returned, On Hold, and Pending Review. The default setting is OK. This is very useful, especially if an order is on hold or pending review. The order number will appear on the home page of the Order Manager, as seen in Figure 14.8. If you receive a lot of orders, this will help you remember that the particular order(s) has not been resolved.

Figure 14.8. If an order is marked, the results will appear on the home page of the Order Manager. This will help you remember to review the order.

For additional information on ordering processing, download the Merchant Solutions Payment Processing Guide at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/store/order/order-23.html.