The order process, from a reseller's perspective, is composed of various steps. The following diagram outlines the flow of an order from placing an order to shipping it to the customer.
Following the diagram, here are the steps to complete the order flow process from end to end. Where applicable, tasks that can be completed using the graphical user interface provided with in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, are indicated in the detailed steps below. In addition, to accomplish the same tasks as using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, you can optionally write an application that calls corresponding WebSphere MQ messages.
- Place an order. A customer or an administrator who has the authority to act on behalf of the customer (such as a Customer Service Provider or reseller administrator) places an order with the store. Placing an order involves browsing the online catalog, selecting one or more products for the order, and providing billing, shipping, and offline payment information. Once the customer or administrator completes the order checkout sequence (for example, by clicking Submit on the store's checkout page), the order moves from P state (pending with products in the shopping cart) to M state (pending payment approval).
- Approve payment for the order. Once the order has been placed, the
next step is to approve payment for the order, using WebSphere Commerce
Payments. Offline payments are automatically approved and the order moves from
M state (pending payment approval) to C state (approved and ready to be
released to fulfillment). In the case of manual approval, using the WebSphere
Commerce Accelerator, do the following:
- Select Operations > Approve Payment.
- Select the check box next to the order you want to work with and click Approve Payment. WebSphere Commerce Payments launches.
Note that if the order contains products that are to be back-ordered, then the order moves to B state (back-ordered). A reauthorization for the full amount will be done when all back-ordered products are allocated.
- Release the order to fulfillment. Using the WebSphere Commerce
Accelerator, do the following:
- Select Operations > Process Orders.
- Select the check box next to the product you want to work with and from the
Release to list, select one of the following:
- To add the product to a shopping cart on the channel store site, select Commerce Plaza from the list to continue to the Select Shopping Cart Option dialog.
- To use a fulfillment center not associated with the channel store, select the fulfillment center's name from this list.
- Click Release.
Optionally, you can also view the shopping cart by selecting Operations > Find Shopping Carts. Search results will contain a list of shopping carts and the products released to each shopping cart.
- Complete purchase only for orders released to the channel store for
fulfillment. If you selected to add the product to a shopping cart on the
channel store site in the step before, do the following:
- Under Shopping Carts, select Pending (if there are multiple shopping carts) or Current (if there is a single shopping cart).
- Select the shopping cart you want to work with.
- Complete the checkout process for the contents within the shopping cart.
- Create a pick batch for all orders released to the specified fulfillment
center. Pick batches must be created for all fulfillment centers, including
the channel store. Once you receive the products from the channel store, you
can then pick and pack them for delivery to customers. All releases for the
selected fulfillment center are placed in one batch; pick slips (which list all
products to be picked based on the fulfillment center) are created for each
pick batch and packing slips (which list all products in each release) are
generated for the releases. To create a pick batch, using the WebSphere
Commerce Accelerator, select Operations > Pick Batches >
Create Next to create the pick batch.
The pick batch is created for all currently released orders in that fulfillment center. If you receive more than 100 orders a day, consider using an MQ message to generate pick slips rather than the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to print pick slips one at a time from the Web browser. For more information on MQ messages, see the topic "Inbound fulfillment integration messages" in the WebSphere Commerce Development online help. - View and print pick ticket. Using the WebSphere Commerce
Accelerator, for each fulfillment center, do the following:
- Select Operations > Pick Batches.
- Select the check box next to the pick batch you want to work with and click View Pick Ticket.
- Click Print.
- View and print packaging slip. Using the WebSphere Commerce
Accelerator, for each fulfillment center, do the following:
- Select Operations > Pick Batches.
- Select the check box next to the pick batch you want to work and click Packing Slips.
- Select a packing slip from the list and click View.
- Click Print.
- Pick and pack products specified in the pick ticket and packaging slip. Products specified in the pick ticket are then manually picked from the fulfillment center, and products are packed according to the instructions in the packing slips. Typically, these actions are completed after the products are received from the appropriate distributors.
- Create package. Using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, for each
fulfillment center, do the following:
- Select Operations > Release Ready to Ship.
- Select the check box next to the release you want to work with and click Packages.
- Click New and provide appropriate package information.
- Ship goods. Ship the order to the customer.
- Confirm shipment has been sent. Using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, for each fulfillment center, select Operations > Release Ready to Ship, select the check box next to the release you want to work with, and click Confirm Shipment. Once you have verified the shipment on the system, the status of the order changes to Shipped.