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[MUSIC PLAYING] - So you got an order, but now what? How do you get the product in the hands of your customer? This is where order management comes in. Plain and simple, order management is all about how you pick, pack, and deliver your orders. Sounds easy, right? Well, maybe for one or two orders, but what happens when you have 20, 100, 500? No sweat. In this short video, I'll show you how to get started with order management. That way, you're spending less time managing orders and more time focused on growing your business. First things first, you'll want your storage space or wherever you're picking and packing orders to be clean and organized. The less time you spend finding and packing orders, the more time you have for all the other things on a business owner's never ending to do list. For my business, I have all my products on shelves and clear bins with the product SKU and barcode label on the front. I also keep my best selling products right at the front and at eye level. That way, I can find what I'm looking for super fast and get to packing up that order. Now that you've organized your storage area in your inventory, it's time to figure out what the best way is to store your orders. So there are a ton of different ways you can do this, but I'm going to run through the ones I found most efficient. To start, you've got a first come, first serve. And this is where you simply sort your orders by date to see the most recent ones at the top. This is especially important when selling food-based products. You can also prioritize by customer status. And this is useful if you have VIP customers who might have perks like fast shipping. Grouping orders by package size is another superstar tip to save time. For example, you might want to start with orders that have two items, so it's faster to package them in the same envelope or box, or you can take a look at the delivery method column. This way, you can base it on the delivery schedule of your shipping provider. It's a best practice to fulfill orders with faster delivery first. Now that you've got your order fulfillment process down, let's talk about how you pick and pack orders. First, you'll want to choose a time of the day that's just dedicated to packing orders. Depending on your order volume, this might be a few minutes a day or a few hours. This way, you're fulfilling as many orders at once instead of one at a time as they come in. To start, print your packing slips. This helps you see which products you need to pick for each order. To save you time, do this in bulk, so for multiple orders at once. Next, if you're eligible for Shopify shipping, you can purchase and print the shipping labels in bulk right from your admin. If not, you can print them from your carrier directly and add the tracking details in Shopify. Then set up an assembly line of your packing slips, shipping labels, products, thank you notes, and packaging. Finally, go down the assembly line and start packaging each order one by one. Then set them aside and store them neatly in a container until they're ready to be shipped. I really hope this video is helpful. Order management is such a key part of business operations that often doesn't get the attention it needs. But having a turnkey process to get your orders at the door will save you time, money, and make for more happy customers.
