Magento Order Fulfillment Process: Do It Effectively

Placing orders online significantly differs from the experience customers get when shopping offline. There are a lot of risks included and steps eCommerce customers are afraid to take.

So, the Magento order fulfillment process means making sure customers receive the best shopping experience while you cover the seamless order processing. 

In this guide, you'll learn everything you need about order fulfillment in Magento 2. We'll walk you through all of the steps — from receiving orders, creating invoices and shipments to covering refunds, changing order statuses and deleting orders. 

We've got a lot to cover, so let's start.

General

Once a customer places an order, it is automatically created in the Magento 2 system. It gets the Pending status which signifies the pending payment. This marks the beginning of the Magento 2 order processing workflow.

Until customers pay, they can change some order information in their account. You as well can also hold or cancel the order from the backend. Once the transaction is authorized, you can create an invoice and shipment correspondingly. 

While both of these are in action, the order has the Processing status, until you finish creating a shipment and it switches to Complete. We talk more about the order workflow in the article about the Magento 2 order status essentials.

Well, it is not what customers see on the front end at all, right?

Now let's dive into more details.

Magento 2 Order Grid Overview

It all starts from the Order Grid Dashboard where you can find all orders regardless of the order status they've been assigned.

It consists of columns — order attributes which you can extend or remove if you like. 

However, there is more to cover.

1. Search — allows you to find relevant orders based on available filters.
2. Actions — allows you to hold, cancel or unhold the order and print order-related materials.
3. Columns — list of order attributes you can exceed the order grid with.
4. Filters — correspond to order attributes/order grid columns and serves to help you search for the corresponding orders.
5. Default View — determines the layout of the order grid. You can add different columns and save the grid under different views.
6. Export — a feature that allows you to export orders in CVS and Excel XML files.

One more option available for you in the order grid is Create New Order since Magento allows admin users to create orders in admin panel if needed.

Order View Page Overview

Once you press the View button in the order grid you will land on the order view page where you have Information, Invoices, Credit Memos, Shipments, and Comments History sections. 

We'll start with the Order Information. 

It's also important to note that at this stage you can cancel and hold an order before the Magento order fulfillment starts.

Order & account information

Here you can see the order number and the note about the order confirmation email being sent or not. Under the order, you see the Order Date, Order Status, what store or store view the order is Purchased From, and the IP.

The Account Information section covers:

• Customer Name. If you enable guest checkout in Magento you won't see the customer name.
• Customer Email.
• Customer Group. You can create different customer groups and change them for the customer if you like.

Address information

In the address section, you can see the Billing and Shipping Addresses. Both include the name, address, number, and VAT if applicable.

Billing Address specifies a person who placed the order while Shipping — a person to whom the order will be shipped. Often it is the same person, but don't be surprised if these addresses differ.

Customer order comment

If you enable Magento 2 order comments on checkout and allow customers to leave notes related to their orders, you'll see this section on the order view page.

Payment & shipping method

This section covers the payment method, shipping information, and more.

Payment Information — includes the order number, Magento 2 payment method, and currency the order was placed in, if you use multi-currency.

Shipping and Handling Information — specifies the shipping method and the handling fee for the Magento order fulfillment.

Items Ordered

In the items ordered section, you see the summary of the price and products ordered, together with the tax infor. Although some fields might be confusing, we'll explain them in more detail.

• Product — it displays the name, SKU, size, color, and other applicable attributes.
• Item Status — identifies the status of the product.
• Original Price — is the price on the product listing without any discount or rules applied.
• Price — the price of the product with applied discounts and rules if any.
• Qty — summarises quantity of ordered, invoiced, shipped, and refunded items. Item status defines which of these four quantities you will see.
• Subtotal — is the sum of multiplied items if several were purchased.
• Tax Amount — specifies the amount of tax Magento system calculates based on the tax rules you created. 
• Tax Percent — the tax amount in percent.
• Discount Amount — displays the amount subtracted from the item price based on the discount.
• Row Total — is the line item total with taxes on a product level, but without discounts.

Order Total

This is the final stage of the order information section you have to review. You can leave Notes for this Order like Status and Comment. 

If you want to notify customers about the comments tick Notify Customer by Email checkbox. Then tick Visible on Storefront if you want your comment to be available for customers in their account and press Submit Comment.

Then on the Order Totals, you see the information about the total/ tax and shipping.

Create Invoices

The invoice is created automatically after customers authorize or transfer the money. However, this doesn't work with all payment methods and may also depend on the payment system. If you select bank transfer or check/money payment method you need to create an invoice manually.

You can do this by pressing the Invoice button at the top panel and submitting it once reviewed. The invoice contains almost all the same information as the order view page.

Once you create an invoice you can send it to a customer or print it.

Manage Shipments

The last step in the Magento order fulfillment process is shipping, which you also need to create manually. Just go to the order information page and click Ship.

The shipment page also contains the same information about addresses, payment methods, account details, and shipping information. However, you can also choose the Carrier and assign the tracking Number to the shipment.

Besides, you can edit Quantity to Ship and leave a comment before you submit the shipment.

Make Refunds

Sometimes, it happens that customers want to file a refund and it is not necessarily your fault. In Magento 2 refunds are called credit memos and are inevitable in the Magento order fulfillment.

Once again, the credit memo page contains the same information we've discussed multiple times already.

However, be careful since there are 2 types of credit memos: offline and online which may confuse you. Better check the article on how to create credit memos in Magento 2 where we cover this in more detail.

Delete Orders

What do you do if you've got a bunch of cancelled or closed orders, and don't need them anymore?

You delete them. However, unfortunately, Magento doesn't have this functionality by default. So, you can do this only programmatically. 

It's a hard task for non-techies. However, there's a guide on how to delete orders in Magento admin in one click. So check that out if you need.

Save Time on Order Management

In the Magento order fulfilment process, you have to be fully aware of all the stages an order goes through before it is complete. This helps you to intervene on any step to help, fix issues and edit orders. 

However, you may also need some help to make orders fulfillment in Magento 2 way faster and more convenient. The answer is Better Order Grid Extension that allows you to set order status colors, add product information to the order grid, change order statuses from the grid, and much more.