What Exactly is an Offline Order in 1ShoppingCart?
November 8, 2010
1ShoppingCart has the ability to turn on the “process orders offline” feature in the order settings. I recommend turning this feature on and I’ll explain why. If there are any challenges with a customer’s order following entry of their checkout information, they will have the option to submit the order offline to send their order information in. This basically means the order has been received by the cart, but is not going to be processed by the payment gateway. Their order receipt will note this for reference as well as the cart’s internal order notification.
There are a variety of reasons why the gateway and the cart may not be ‘talking’ correctly. There could be a mismatch in an international address such as entering a Province vs. a State name, or a billing address or name may not match exactly, like a missing middle initial. The advantage of the offline order is that you have not lost the sale as a result of technical difficulties. The customer’s information is captured and many times, a simple log in to your gateway for manual order processing through the Virtual Terminal, sends the order right through.
It’s important to relay the situation to a customer, who may believe their order was good because they received the order notice; they may not have noticed the “order was processed offline” notation. They will receive their payment receipt when the order is actually processed through the gateway. A final step, is to change the cart’s order status to ‘manually approved’ in the cart, which correctly identifies the order as processed, for cart reporting.
The offline order processing feature also comes in handy for orders that may have been taken at an offsite live event, for example, and you processed payment onsite using the Virtual Terminal. How can the handful of paper orders be entered into the cart when a customer has already paid you? Use the product cart link and enter the customer’s checkout information, but enter a test credit card number such as all 4′s to force the order ‘offline’ message. Submit the order offline and mark it ‘manually approved inside the cart. Be sure to contact your client in advance to let them know you are your simply entering the order into your cart for reporting purposes, and NOT processing a payment.
