Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Hello, X-Carters!

I want to share upcoming changes in X-Cart 5.1. X-Cart 5.1.0 is under development now and its beta will be available very soon.

One of the main important changes is the Fulfillment statuses for orders. Here are details.

In X-Cart 5.1 every order will have two statuses: one for payment and the other one - for shipping. Sometimes, it is inconvenient for a merchant to decide which of the statuses - “Paid” or “Shipped” - is the best for an order, as an order can be “Paid” and “Shipped” at the same time.

Payment statuses in 5.1.x

So, here are statuses of payments:

- Awaiting Payments
- Authorized
- Partially Paid
- Paid
- Declined
- Cancelled
- Refunded


1. Awaiting Payments. This status is also known as “Queued” in X-Cart 4-5. We believe that “Awaiting Payments” is more understandable than Queued (even in the code we always use Queued varnames).

2. Authorized. This status can be set only by payment gateways and means that there is authorization hold on a customer’s card.

3. Paid. This status means that the merchant got the money ). By online payment, by cash or by any other means. The money is in the merchant's pocket.

4. Partially Paid. The same as previous but means that the merchant hasn’t got a full amount. It can also be used as an alternative for Partially Refunded.

5. Declined. This status is need to show that an order is declined or failed. It can be set by the merchant or payment gateway. To make it more convenient, we have moved History from the separate tab to the same page where the status is changed. The merchant can quickly review the history of order statuses.

6. Cancelled. We keep this status separated to show that an order was approved (but not paid) at the first stage, but then had to be cancelled for some reason.

7. Refunded. I believe this status does not require clarification )

As I already wrote, we have moved the History section to the main tab. As a result, a merchant can get history details by one click and stay on the same page. Also there is still an Order note field there, which is shown only to the merchant.

Shipping Statuses

Here are they:

- New
- Processing
- Shipped
- Delivered
- Will Not Deliver
- Returned

I am sure that the names of the statuses describe their essence. However, only the first status may need clarification: “New” means that there is a new order and merchant needs to take necessary actions.

Every status has a separate label for storefront, so even if a status is called “Will not Deliver” in the admin-backend, customers will see what you want.

Stock changes

Here is a matrix showing how stock will change


One-state status 5.0.x to two-state statuses 5.1.x

And here is a workflow of transition of the current 5.0.x order statuses to 5.1.x statuses:


Custom Statuses

We have thought of custom statuses and developed a system which allows adding different statuses very quickly. In the first version it requires importing a YML file via console.

Later we will implement a special interface in the admin area.

Feedback

We are eager to get your feedback about these upcoming changes, you are welcome to share your opinion here.

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Very cool Max, I like most everything about this change. Two statuses will be very helpful for tracking ad managing orders. Custom Statuses will also be very nice.

We need an email to go out when order is shipped, with a tracking number if available. Not sure if it does this now or not.

Awaiting Payments is much better than Queued! I think it might be better simply as "Awaiting Payment".

What about Refund Requested? That does seem useful, and I don't see it replaced by anything.

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Thank you, Mike!

The system will send email notification for every status changes. Tracking number is also will be in 5.1.x (not in beta, but definitely in the official release).

We had the discussion about "Refund Requested" status. How merchant generally use it? Why the order does require the separate status for this state? Any feedback are welcome. Actually, we never need this status for Qualiteam orders: if a customer requests the refund we discuss the issue and then make the refund and change the status to "Refunded" or solve the issue and save the order with "Paid" status.

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

I don't see a status like Backorder but I guess with the custom statuses merchant can add it. So the custom statuses module should allow for merchant not only to add custom status on payment and shipping but also to specify action(s) to be taken - send emails to both admin and customer or either one or not; increase/decrease inventory or not; etc

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Max,

Thanks for asking for our feedback. One (common) scenario, that I am curious about is (the one we use) where we only capture the payment immediately before the product is shipped.

If I understand your post above, the Processing status can only be shown if the Payment status has been moved to Paid. In the scenario above, order processing would take place while the Payment status would still be Awaiting Payment.

NOTE: In your "Stock changes" matrix you show a Payment Status called "Authorized" but you don't show it in your "One-state status 5.0.x to two-state statuses 5.1.x", so i guess I am confused.

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Will the authorized payments work with PayPal and SagePay?

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Thanks for the update ...

Looks good.. Steve actually had one question I did which was in regards to Backorders, but guess that can be custom.

My question is in regards to those using the Anti-Fraud service .. I'm assuming for orders that are flagged over the risk limit that they are marked as 'Processing' ? Right now they are set to 'Queued"

Thanks,
Ryan

Re: Fulfillment order statuses in X-Cart 5.1
 

Right, Steve. This is the idea of Custom Order Statuses: merchants will define actions to be taken.

We didn't add Backorder statuses, since this status needs special actions and functionality. I believe, that it is better to create separate "Backorder" addon with needed functionality. 3d party developers are welcome to create this addon and then we will add it to our marketplace.



tartaglia, you are welcome! Payment and Shipping statuses are independent. You can have "Shipped" and "Awaiting payment" at the same time.

"Authorized" from 50x will be be shown as "Authorized"&"New" in 51x


PayPal integration supports authorized payments. SagePay - only "sale" transactions.