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<title>Operation of the Ecommerce Module</title>
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<h2>Operation</h2>
of the <a href="ecommerce.html">Ecommerce Module</a> by <a href="mailto:eveander@arsdigita.com">Eve Andersson</a> of <a href="http://arsdigita.com">ArsDigita</a>
<hr>
Before reading this, make sure that you have read about <a href="ecommerce-setup.html">setting up your ecommerce module</a>. This document takes up where that one leaves off and covers all the components of operating your on-line shop with the exception of
<a href="ecommerce-customer-service.html">customer service</a>, which is a submodule
in itself.
<p>
<h3>Orders</h3>
These are the states that an order can go through:
<blockquote>
<pre>
+-------- IN_BASKET <----------------+ (if authorization fails --
| | | it might also temporarily go
| | | into FAILED_AUTHORIZATION
EXPIRED CONFIRMED------------------+ before returning to IN_BASKET)
|
+-----+------------+
| |
AUTHORIZED_MINUS_AVS AUTHORIZED_PLUS_AVS
| |
+----+--------+----+
| |
PARTIALLY_FULFILLED--->FULFILLED
|
RETURNED
</pre>
</blockquote>
An order can also be put into the VOID state at any time by the site
administrator. (Note: these states are actually stored in all lowercase
in the database, but it's clearer to use uppercase letters in the
documentation.)
<p>
An order is IN_BASKET when the customer has put items into their shopping
cart on the site but has not indicated an intent to buy (if they stay
there too long they go into the EXPIRED state; "too long" is defined in
the parameters/yourservername.ini file; default is 30 days). When the customer
submits their order, the state becomes CONFIRMED. Only then do we try
to authorize their credit card. If the authorization succeeds, the order
state will be updated to AUTHORIZED_PLUS_AVS or AUTHORIZED_MINUS_AVS.
AVS stands for Address Verification System (for more information on AVS,
read the <a href="http://photo.net/wtr/thebook/ecommerce.html">ecommerce
chapter</a> of Philip & Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. Because AVS
is flaky and unreliable, we treat AUTHORIZED_PLUS_AVS orders the same as
AUTHORIZED_MINUS_AVS orders. If an order fails, it goes back into the
IN_BASKET state and the customer is given another chance to enter their
credit card information.
<p>
Problems occur if we don't hear back from CyberCash or if they give us
a result that is inconclusive. In cases like this, the order state
remains in the CONFIRMED state. A scheduled procedure sweeps the
database every once in a while looking for CONFIRMED orders that are
over 15 minutes old and tries to authorize them. If the authorization
succeeds, the order is put into the AUTHORIZED_PLUS_AVS or
AUTHORIZED_MINUS_AVS state. If it fails, it is temporarily put into
the FAILED_AUTHORIZATION state so that it can be taken care of by
a scheduled procedure which sends out email to the customer saying
that we couldn't authorize their order and then saves the order for
them (a saved order is one in the IN_BASKET state with saved_p='t'; it
can be retrieved easily by the customer later).
<p>
Once an order is authorized they are ready to be shipped. An order
which has some of its items shipped is PARTIALLY_FULFILLED and orders
for which a full shipment is made are FULFILLED. It remains in the
fulfilled state unless <i>all</i> of the items in the order are returned,
at which time it becomes financially uninteresting and goes into the
RETURNED state.
<p>
Individual items in an order also go through a series of states:
<blockquote>
<pre>
IN_BASKET -----------+
| |
TO_BE_SHIPPED EXPIRED
|
SHIPPED
|
ARRIVED
|
RECEIVED_BACK
</pre>
</blockquote>
An item starts out in the IN_BASKET state. When the order it's in becomes authorized, the item becomes TO_BE_SHIPPED. Because partial shipments can be made on orders, SHIPPED is a state of the individual items, not of the order. There is currently no mechanism for
putting an item into the ARRIVED state but it could be used if you were to set up a
method of data exchange with FedEx's database to get the actual arrival date and arrival
detail for each of the packages you ship. If the customer returns an item to you, it is
put into the RECEIVED_BACK state. Like orders, individual items can also be put into the VOID state (e.g. if the customer changes their mind or if you run out of stock before you can ship it).
<p>
OK, so what can you actually do with orders? You can:
<ul>
<li><a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/by-order-state-and-time.tcl">view them</a>
<li><a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/fulfillment.tcl">fulfill them</a>
<li><a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/">search for individual orders</a>
</ul>
On an individual order, you can:
<ul>
<li>add comments to it
<li>record a shipment
<li>process a refund
<li>add items (only if it hasn't shipped yet and if it was paid for using a credit card instead of using a gift certificate)
<li>change the shipping address
<li>change the credit card information
<li>void it
</ul>
<h3>Gift Certificates</h3>
As you know from <a href="ecommerce-setup.html">setting up your ecommerce module</a>,
you can configure whether to allow customers to purchase gift certificates for others.
These are the states that a purchased gift certificate goes through:
<pre>
CONFIRMED
|
+-------------------+---------------------+
| | |
AUTHORIZED_PLUS_AVS AUTHORIZED_MINUS_AVS FAILED_AUTHORIZATION
</pre>
Regardless of whether you allow customers to purchase gift certificates, you
can always issue gift certificates to your customers. Gift certificates
that you issue automatically go into the AUTHORIZED state.
<p>
There are a few fundamental ways in which purchased gift certificates
differ from assigned gift certificates. Purchased gift certificates are
sent to some recipient who may or may not be a registered user of the
system, along with a claim check. These gift certificates must be claimed
upon order checkout in order to be used. Issued gift certificates, on the
other hand, are given to registered users of the system and are put
directly into their gift certificate balance. There is no need for them
to be claimed because there is no ambiguity about who the gift certificates
belong to.
<p>
All gift certificates have an expiration date (this is necessary so that your
liability has a definite ending point). A customer's gift certificate
balance is equal to the sum of all the unused portions of each non-expired
gift certificate they own. When their gift certificate balance is applied
toward a new order, the gift certificates that expire soonest are the first
to be applied.
<p>
Things you can do with gift certificates:
<ul>
<li>view <a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/gift-certificates.tcl">purchased
gift certificates</a>
<li>view <a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/gift-certificates-issued.tcl">issued
gift certificates</a>
<li>see your <a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/revenue.tcl">gift certificate
liability</a>
<li>see a customer's gift certificates (find the customer using the customer
service submodule or <a href="/admin/users/">/admin/users</a>) and void their
gift certificates or issue them new ones
</ul>
<p>
<h3>Site Upkeep</h3>
Besides the most important task of filling orders, there are some other things
that need to be done once in a while.
<p>
Naturally, you'll want to rotate your <a href="/admin/ecommerce/products/recommendations.tcl">product recommendations</a> every so often to keep your site looking fresh, even
if your product database doesn't change. You will also need to periodically
<a href="/admin/ecommerce/customer-reviews/">approve/disapprove customer reviews</a>
(if you've set reviews to require approval) and perhaps view
<a href="/admin/ecommerce/orders/">some reports</a> to make sure everything is
going as you expected.
<h3>Dealing with Problems</h3>
A <a href="/admin/ecommerce/problems/">log of potential problems</a> is maintained
by the system when it comes across issues that it is unable to resolve. These
problems (hopefully infrequent) will need to be resolved by hand.
<p>
Continue on to the <a href="ecommerce-customer-service.html">Customer Service Submodule</a>.
<hr>
<a href="mailto:eveander@arsdigita.com"><address>eveander@arsdigita.com</address></a>
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