This page covers the basics of order management in your Shipwire account. Before reading this section, you should know how to create an order in your Shipwire account.
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Order statuses
Each order goes through several stages between its creation and delivery to the customer.
1. Pending
When an order is created, it is in Pending status until it is sent to the warehouse (based on your ‘Submit orders to warehouse’ setting in the Shipping preferences of your Shipwire account). While an order is pending you will be able to modify the order:
- Hold order
- Edit order: change an order’s product, quantity, destination, and shipping method
- Cancel order
- Duplicate order
| Can edit | Can cancel |
|---|---|
| ✔ | ✔ |
2. Warehouse processing
After an order leaves Pending status, it is sent to the warehouse. You will see when the order has been submitted, and how long it has been in processing at the warehouse.
At this stage, order details such as destination or quantities are no longer editable. However, depending on its processing stage, it may be possible to cancel the order. If it has been received by the warehouse management system but has not been picked from inventory yet, it may be possible to cancel the order in urgent situations. If the order has been picked, packaged, and placed on the truck for shipping, it is not possible to cancel it.
If you need to modify the order (contents/quantities/addresses/etc.), you must contact the Shipwire Care team to cancel the order (if possible) and you will need to recreate the order with the correct information. It is not possible to edit an order that is in Warehouse processing.
| Can edit | Can cancel |
|---|---|
| ✖ | ✔ (best effort) |
3. Shipped
After processing, the order is shipped to its destination. The time when the order was shipped and a tracking number is provided where applicable.
Orders which have been shipped cannot be canceled, since they are already in transit.
| Can edit | Can cancel |
|---|---|
| ✖ | ✖ |
Held orders
An order can be held either automatically because of a trigger, or manually from your Shipwire account. Generally, held orders fall into the following categories:
- Backorder: there is insufficient inventory to fulfill an order.
- Unverified address: our address verification systems could not verify the destination address you provided for the order.
- Commercial invoice hold: on international orders, an HTS code is required to identify the goods being shipped. When missing, a hold is placed on the order until a valid HTS code is provided, please click here to read more about the commercial invoice requirements.
- EIN hold (U.S. only): an EIN is a tax ID for businesses operating in the US. An EIN is required when shipping into the U.S., or shipping internationally out of the U.S.
- Invalid phone number (Hong Kong only): When shipping from Hong Kong, carriers like DHL require a legitimate phone number and will refuse to ship if the phone number is invalid. The phone number may require a country code matching the destination country, and the order will be placed on hold if not provided.
- Manual hold: a user places a manual hold on the account in the Shipwire account.
- Shipping method not chosen: if you create an order but do not select a valid shipping method, it will be on hold until you choose one.
- Invalid product (SKU): if your product ID (SKU) is different in shopping cart than it is in your Shipwire account, the order will be placed on hold. Products must be described exactly the same in both your cart and Shipwire, or an alias must be created.
- System preference hold: you can set automatic holds based on flags. Ex: if shipping cost exceeds $20, or if you want orders held for a specific product.
Minimizing holds
To minimize holds, ensure none of the above hold triggers are set off. Because automated systems can trigger holds, you should check your account and dashboard on daily basis. If orders are held because of unforeseen circumstances, you will be able to fix them with minimal delays with regular monitoring.
Backorders
Backorders occur when there is not enough inventory to fulfill a specific order.
In some cases, backorders can be created even when it appears you have enough inventory. For example, if you have the following order:
| Order contents | LA warehouse inventory | PA warehouse inventory | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRODUCT A | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| PRODUCT B | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| PRODUCT C | 1 | 0 | 5 |
In this case, total quantities in your account will be shown as
PRODUCT A x 5
PRODUCT B x 5
PRODUCT C x 5
but the order will be placed on backorder because the inventory is not available in a single location.
To resolve, you should send more inventory to the location where the backorder has been placed. You can also split the order into 2 separate orders, one order containing PRODUCT A from LA and, and another order containing PRODUCT B and PRODUCT C from PA, sending the products to the customer separately rather than waiting for new inventory to arrive to a warehouse.
First in first out backorder resolutions
Backorders are resolved on a first-in-first-out criteria.
The oldest order in the system that’s on backorder will get shipped out first. The last order will get shipped out last. If you have backorders, and new inventory comes in with product and only satisfied 50% of the backorders, then the first 50% of the backorders will be fulfilled in their chronological order.