Overview
We get a lot of questions about whether it's better to send website orders down to Counterpoint as "Orders" or "Tickets". This article discusses that topic in detail, and hopefully gives you some things to think about.
Counterpoint Orders
Counterpoint Orders are often referred to as "open orders" because they are not yet completed. Accepting payment converts an Order into a Ticket.
Counterpoint Tickets
Counterpoint Tickets, on the other hand, are completed orders, where payment is received and products are shipped or given to the customer in the store.
Orders Vs. Tickets
The main difference between Orders and Tickets comes down to where you want to process the orders- Counterpoint or your ecommerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc...).
Using tickets is designed to have all the order processing done in your platform, and all the completed transactions (invoice, shipment, refunds) are sent down to Counterpoint as tickets. So, the integration of orders is really just one way, platform to Counterpoint. Nothing is sent back to the platform from Counterpoint. The goal of this is that you can do everything through your platform, and don't have to jump back between your platform and Counterpoint to fulfill orders.
Sending open orders to Counterpoint means that when the order is placed, the order is sent down from the platform to Counterpoint and the integration does nothing after that. You would be processing the order in Counterpoint- nothing from your platform is sent down after the order has been sent, and nothing done in Counterpoint is communicated back to your ecommerce platform. This means that you would have to process in Counterpoint and then go into your platform and manually make changes to the order to send any communications to the customer.
B2C Websites
For B2C, or "Business to Consumer" websites, Modern Retail recommends sending Tickets down to Counterpoint instead of Orders. Here's why:
- Marketplace Integrations
- Getting your website integrated with marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay is now commonplace. In fact, both Shopify and BigCommerce offer free integrations with both Amazon and eBay. That's right, you can start selling on Amazon and eBay for free if you're using Shopify or BigCommerce.
- Shipping Tools
- Years ago customers started requesting that we support 3rd party shipping tools like ShipStation, ShipWorks, Shipping Easy, etc. If you have not used one of these shipping tools before, you may wish to consider starting to, because they are very powerful! Not only can you configure multiple carriers such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc. but also these tools will suck in orders from ALL your channels. Meaning, they will pull in all orders from your website, Amazon, and eBay into one shipping program, and use your negotiated rates from UPS, USPS, and FedEx. You can also decide which carrier to use at the time of shipment, and set up automation rules to make your job easier. This means the person doing all your shipping only needs to log in to one application to ship out the orders from any channels you're selling on.
- Editing Orders
- Editing a customer's website order has been the dream for many retailers. This capability is available with Shopify and Magento. This allows your customer service representative to modify a customer's order before it is shipped. This means your staff could swap out a medium shirt with a large one, or replace a blue shirt with a red one. Doing all of this inside your ecommerce website just makes sense, considering it's also the platform for verifying and charging the consumer's credit card.
- Ship From Store
- Ship From Store is an extra service from Modern Retail that treats your stores as warehouses, automatically routing website orders to your individual store locations for fulfillment. This feature is essential when you have inventory spread across multiple stores or warehouses. Customers using Ship From Store will use ShipStation as their shipping tool, where they complete and ship their orders, which Modern Retail grabs and sends down to the appropriate Counterpoint location as Tickets.
- Better Approach
- Lastly, sending Tickets down to Counterpoint instead of Orders is just a better approach for most B2C customers. The process is easier, you get to use sophisticated tools like ShipStation for your order fulfillment needs, and the integration is far less complicated.
B2B Websites
Modern Retail can also support sending Orders down to Counterpoint. Typically, this is done with business to business (B2B) websites, where Counterpoint must get an Order for the business sale. This works just fine with our integration. However, our integration does not currently complete the order on your website when you turn the Order into a Ticket in Counterpoint. This means you must go back to your website and either complete the order or have some sort of process that auto-completes them at the time of purchase.
Mixing Orders & Tickets
Modern Retail can handle a mixture of Counterpoint Orders and Tickets. This is frequently needed when a customer has both a B2C and a B2B website. Typically, the B2C orders from the website go down to Counterpoint as Tickets, while business orders go down as Counterpoint Orders.
Please log into the Admin Panel and submit a support request if you have any questions regarding if your business should be sending Tickets or Orders down to Counterpoint.