[Coming Soon] Combine Orders｜Order Management

When your customer creates multiple orders at different times, you can use SHOPLINE's "Order Merger" app to auto-pair and combine multiple orders into one. Not only can you save on packaging costs and simplify the shipping process, but you can also have better communication with your customer.

In this article, you'll find:

• Install Order Merger
• Set up permissions
• Order pairing rules
• Rules for promotions, credits, and member points
• Steps to combine orders
• View combined orders
• Notes

 

1. Install Order Merger 

Step 1

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Apps] > [Apps Store]. Click on the "Order Merger" box to open its app detail page.

 

Step 2

Click Install Now in the upper right corner.

 

Step 3

You have to authorize Order Merger before installing the app in the SHOPLINE Admin. Check the box to agree to the privacy terms and terms of service, and click Install & authorize.

 

Step 4

You will be redirected to the app detail page. When the upper right corner shows "Installed", Order Merger is installed successfully. To learn how to combine orders, please go to 5. Steps to combine orders.

 

2. Set up permissions

Step 1

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Settings] > [Permission & Security]. Click Edit on the staff member you would like to grant permissions.

 

Step 2

In the "Admin Access Rights" tab, scroll down to the "Order management" section, and check "View" and "Edit". By checking "View", the staff will have permission to view the details of combined orders but cannot perform the order merger feature. By checking "Edit", the staff will also have permission to combine orders.

*Note: By checking "View" and "Edit," the staff will also have permission to view and edit general orders.

 

Step 3

Scroll down to the end of the page, click Update at the bottom right corner, and you can grant permission for the staff.

 

3. Order pairing rules

When the system pairs orders, it will check the following conditions to ensure successful order combination.

i. Required conditions for order pairing

• Same customer information (buyer information)
• Same payment method: cash on delivery (COD) or non-cash on delivery (non-COD)
• Same payment status
  • To combine COD orders, their payment statuses must be "Unpaid".
  • To combine non-COD orders, their payment statuses must be "Paid".
• If the orders to be combined have any payment method of "Buy Online, Pick Up in Store," all products in the orders will be deducted from the same warehouse.
• Same delivery status: all delivery statuses must be "Preparing."
• The quantity of the orders (of the same customer) to be combined must be between 2 to 50.

 

ii. Failed order pairing

If any of the following situations occur, the selected orders will fail to be paired and cannot be combined.

• The delivery status is "Failed".
• The order status is "Cancelled" or "Completed".
• The order is a combined order, original order of a combined order, or split order.
• The payment status is "Refunding", "Refunded" and "Partially Refunded".
• There is already another order combination task in progress. Please wait until the completion of the existing task to proceed with a new order combination.

 

4. Rules for promotions, credits, and member points

• Promotion usage counts:
  The promotion usage counts are based on the usage counts recorded in the original orders before the combination.
• Free shipping promotion: The free shipping promotion is determined by the earliest created original order. The combined order will have free shipping if the said original order has one.
• Credit/ member point redemption rules:
• Reverts credits/ member points to the original order A and B, and deducts the credits/ member points on the combined order C.
• Unexpired credits/ member points will be reverted with the original expiration date, while expired credits/ member points will be reverted with an extended expiration date of "current date + 1 day".
• If the customer places a new order and redeems the reverted credits/ member points during order combination, the remaining credits/ member points will be deducted from the combined order C.
• Reward credit/member point redemption rules:
• Reward credits are sent when the order status changes to "Completed". Therefore, after combination, the reward credits are sent depending on the combined order C.
• The earned member points are sent when the order status changes to "Completed". Therefore, after combination, the earned member points are sent depending on the combined order C.
• The sending of reward credits and earned member points are subject to the rules on the latest created original order.
  For example, Original Order A is created on 25 Sep., and Original Order B is created on 30 Sep. After combination, the reward credits and earned member points will be sent according to the rules set on Original Order B, which is the latest created order.

 

5. Steps to combine orders

Step 1

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Order Management] > [Orders], and check the orders you want to combine.

You can select all orders on the page or use the [Coming Soon] "Select all orders across pages" feature to select all orders that meet the conditions in your online store.

 

Step 2

After selecting, click the "Bulk Actions" drop-down list and select Merge orders. The system will then automatically pair the orders.

 

Step 3

You can continue to check other orders you want to combine or go to [Order Management] > [Orders] to view the recent pairing results.

 

Pairing results

Pairing Status	Description
Pairing successful	The pairing task is successfully completed. Click View detail on the right to view the details of pairing results.
Pairing	The pairing task is still in progress, please wait patiently.
Task failed	The pairing task has failed. The orders are not paired up due to potential system errors.
Partial pairing exception	The pairing task is partially completed. Some orders are not paired up due to potential system errors. You can click Pair again on the right to restart the pairing task.

Successfully paired order tasks will contain the following basic information.

• Creation time (of the task)
• Status (of the task)
• Order statistics: Total orders available for combination and unavailable for combination

The order (information) section will list the order's pairing status based on the same purchaser and recipient address.

1. Available for combination: Same purchaser, recipient address, and delivery method 
2. Unavailable for combination: Purchaser, recipient address, or delivery method (at least one of them) is different. Or there are other aforementioned reasons. The reasons for unsuccessful combinations will be listed in the "Reasons" field.

*Note: After a task is successfully paired, if you change the order details (delivery address or delivery method) in the order detail page, the changes will not be synced to the order combination-related pages. Please refer to the order detail pages.

 

Step 4

For the task of "Pairing successful" or "Partial pairing exception",  click Combine orders on the right. A confirmation notification will pop up for you to choose whether to send emails to customers after the combination. Click Confirm combination to proceed.

 

Combination Results

Combination Status	Description
Merge completed	The combination task is successfully completed. Click View details to view detailed information on the combined orders.
Combination in progress	The combination task is still in progress, please wait.
Partial combination exception	The combination task is partially completed. Some orders are not combined successfully. You can click Combine again to restart the combination for the orders that encountered issues.

Successfully combined order tasks will contain the following basic information.

• Creation time (of the task)
• Status (of the task)
• Order statistics: Total orders available for combination and unavailable for combination

The order (information) section will list the order's pairing status based on the same purchaser and recipient address.

1. Merged: The orders are combined, and the order number of the combined order will be displayed below. Clicking the order number will lead to the order detail page.
2. Unavailable for combination: The orders cannot be combined. The original orders will be displayed below. When the order combination is in progress, the system would also try combining the orders which are not paired up. Therefore, unsuccessful combinations might occur. The reasons for successful combinations will be listed in the "Reasons" field.

*Note: After a task is successfully combined, if you change the order details (delivery address or delivery method) in the order detail page, the changes will not be synced to the order combination-related pages. Please refer to the order detail pages.

 

6. View combined orders 

i. Combined orders 

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Order Management] > [Orders]. Click on Additional Filters and select the following conditions.

• Add Filters: Order Created From
• Select a value: Admin - Combine Order 

With the above conditions applied, you can filter the combined orders. Click the order numbers to enter the order detail page for further information and actions.

The order detail page of a combined order is mostly the same as that of a general one. However, please pay attention to the following differences. 

1. Order details:
   The order remarks of the original orders will be copied onto the combined order. Remarks will be separated by commas (,).
2. Product details:
• The promotions, credit redemption, and member point redemption will be copied onto the combined order. If the combined order is cancelled, the reverted inventories, credits, and member points will also be recorded on the combined order.
• The system will input the shipping fee of the earliest created original order. You can edit the shipping fee on the order detail page.

3. Payment details:
   If the payment method of the original orders is a non-COD option, the payment type of the combined order will display "Combined order payment".
4. Delivery details:
   The system will input the delivery method and other recipient information of the earliest created original order.
5. Invoice details:
   The system will input the invoice information, including the donation unit and member carrier of the earliest created original order.

 

ii. Original orders before combination

On the order detail page of a combined order, you can find its original orders before the combination. You can click on their order numbers to view the original order details. The order detail page of the original orders cannot be edited. You can only void the issued invoices.

 

iii. View combined orders at the storefront

Customers can view and track their combined orders in the member center at the storefront. In the storefront, go to [Member Center] > [Orders]. Click the new combined orders to view its order details.

 

7. Notes

• The order combination's invoice feature currently does not support multiple taxes and multiple product attributes.
• Upon order combination, if the combined order's order status is "Open" and payment status is "Paid", a transaction service fee (monthly maintenance fee) will be incurred.
• For original orders using "affiliate campaigns", after the order combination, the commission will no longer be generated for your affiliate partners as the original order statuses have been changed to "Cancelled".
• After order combination, statistics on the original orders are still calculated as staff's performance (as the reason for cancellation is "Order combined"). 
• For original orders using SHOPLINE Payments as the payment method, after the order combination, please go to the original order detail pages for refunds.

 

Read more

• Order Management Overview | Order Management
• Edit Invoice Details