Order Management

Selling on Amazon is as much about reputation as it is about price and the quality of your product listings. This means delivering an excellent level of customer service every time. That starts with managing a customer’s order efficiently as well as following through on the promises you make in your listing. Amazon order management includes the tools and processes available to help you deal with customers who have made a purchase from you, including shipping their item.

The Manage Orders tool in Amazon gives you an overview of the current orders in your Amazon seller account. You can also look at and update the details of a specific order. Your Manage Orders page provides a customizable view of all your orders on all sales channels. You can view all orders within a given date range or use Search to filter specific types of orders. For example, you can confirm you have shipped the order.

View and Search Orders

Amazon facilitates sellers’ abilities to monitor and manage their orders by enabling them to view and search all orders through the Seller Central page. To view your Amazon order information, follow these steps:

Step 1: To view the Order Details page for a specific order, click Orders.

Step 2: Then choose Manage Orders. 25 orders per page are displayed automatically. You have the option of customizing the number of orders displayed at one time. You may also sort their orders by purchase date, shipping date or service, or order status.

Step 3: Click the Order ID link in the Order Details column. From the Order Details page, you can perform the following tasks:

• Print an order packing slip – The delivery note is shipped with the delivery. You can reprint it. You could also replace Amazon’s standard form with your delivery note. Click the button on the right side of the page.

• Contact the buyer – When you are the sender of the products, here you find their phone number and email address. Click the link in the Contact Buyer field to go to the Contact Customer page. (Buyers’ phone numbers and email addresses will not be visible for Fulfillment by Amazon or Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders.)

• Enter your own order ID – Here you can replace Amazon’s order reference with your order number. Click “Edit” below the Amazon-issued Order ID.

• View the product details page on Amazon – Here you can view all product details and enter additional details. Click the product name/title in the Product Details section.

When sellers click on the Orders tab on the Seller Central page, Sellers have many ways to search for a particular order. From Seller Central, for example, one may use the Search function under the Manage Orders tab. The seller may enter any of the following product details to search for a particular order:

• ASIN
• Buyer email
• Listing ID
• Seller’s merchant SKU
• Order ID
• Product name
• Order status
• Date range

After selecting the search criterion, the seller will be prompted to enter any additional information, using drop-down menus. Additional information may include keywords, order numbers, or order status. Sellers may also find a particular order using Advanced Search. To do so, the seller must:

Step 1: Use the Search drop-down menu to select the order information to start searching.

Step 2: In the Keyword box, enter either the description or other text for the product or the Order ID. 

Note: Order IDs will only be recognized in the format 000-1234567-1234567.

Step 3: Add any additional information:

• Order placed – Date or date range in which the order was placed.
• Order status – View orders based on their status (All, Cancelled, Items to Ship, or Fully-Shipped).
• Pending orders – This detail includes all pending orders in the search.

Step 4: Use the Sort by drop-down menu to switch the default setting that organizes by order status.

Step 5: Click the Search button.

Order Status

For all orders placed, Amazon records an order status that identifies where the order is in the purchase-to-shipping process. Making the order status readily available benefits sellers, who need to monitor their receipt and fulfillment of the orders. Orders placed through Amazon have one of the following two statuses:

• Payment Complete: this means simply that the buyer has paid for the item(s) ordered.
• Pending: this usually means that at least some of the products ordered await shipment. An order receives a status of “Pending” under the following scenarios:
  
  • The buyer’s credit card has not been authorized. As soon as Amazon obtains the authorization, the seller is paid, and the order status becomes Payment Complete.
  • The order qualifies for FREE Shipping, which means that all items will be shipped together, but not until they are all collected and prepared for shipment. As soon as the order is shipped, the seller is paid, and the order status becomes Payment Complete.
  • Amazon splits an order of multiple items for shipping, usually because one or more products are not in stock. In this case, the seller has been paid, but only after all items are shipped does the order status become Payment Complete.

Orders processed via Multi-Channel Fulfillment (that is, NOT via Amazon.com) have one of the following four statuses:

• Planning (received)
• Shipping (packing for shipping)
• Complete (shipped)
• Unfulfillable (out of stock; invalid shipping address; etc.)
  
  

Confirming Orders

After you receive an order notification and ship the order, you must confirm shipment of the order. If you fail to confirm the shipment, the order will be cancelled and you will not receive a payment. Your seller central metrics will also be negatively affected. Amazon provides a reminder one week ahead of the 30-days-deadline with a request to confirm the shipment before a certain date. To avoid cancelling, you should react in time. If you purchased shipping through Buy Shipping Services, you do not need to confirm shipment since this is done automatically. Or, if the order is fulfilled by Amazon, you also do not need to confirm the shipment as this is done by Amazon.

To confirm shipment, you will need:

• Ship date
• Shipping method (including the carrier information)
• Tracking ID (supplied by the carrier)

Follow the steps below on how to confirm shipment:

Step 1: Log in to Amazon Seller Central, go to Orders > Your Orders.

Step 2: Locate the order or orders that are “Unshipped”.

Step 3: Locate the order in Manage Orders and click “Confirm Shipment” in the Action column for the order.

Step 4: On the Confirm Shipment page, enter the Ship Date, Shipping Method (including the carrier information), and the Tracking ID (supplied by the carrier).

Step 5: Enter any special notes about the order in the Seller memo field (optional). This is for your reference only.

Step 6: Click Confirm Shipment.

After you confirm shipment, Amazon will do the following:

• Charge the buyer for the order.
• Credit your seller account for the order.
• Send a shipping confirmation email to the buyer.
• Update the buyer’s Amazon account with the shipping information. The buyer can then see the status online.

Note: If you do not confirm shipment of an order within 7 business days of the shipping availability date, we will automatically cancel the order. We will not charge the buyer, even if you already shipped the order.

Cancel Orders

As the seller, you can cancel orders any time prior to shipment. The buyer has approximately thirty minutes to cancel an order they have placed. Unfortunately, we can no longer cancel the orders that have already been shipped. The option here is just for the buyer to return the item for a refund. There may be times you need to cancel an order every now and then due to inventory problems, customer requests, a foreseen delay in delivery, or for any other reason. If in any case you as an Amazon seller might need to cancel an order, it’s important to know how to quickly do this and what steps you need to take to avoid a negative impact on your seller performance metrics. Simply follow these steps:

Step 1: Log in to Amazon Seller Central. Go to the “Manage Orders” section and click on “View Your Orders.”

Step 2: Sellers can browse through the orders manually or use either the standard search or advanced search options provided to find the specific order in question.

Step 3: Once you’ve located the order, a “Cancel Order” button should appear somewhere in the close vicinity of the order (either next to or below depending on the page view). Press this button to cancel the order.

Step 4: A Cancel Order page will pop up automatically. Choose the Reason for Cancellation from the menu provided, and then press Submit.

Orders will automatically be canceled and an email will be sent to the Buyer.

You can also cancel an FBA order anytime as long as it still has a pending status by following these steps:

Step 1: Log in to your Amazon seller account and contact seller support. You can also call 1 800 419 7355.

Step 2: Give the seller support representative the Order ID of the purchases that you want to cancel. 

Step 3: You also need to provide the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) and the number of items that you want to cancel for each ASIN.

Step 4: Provide the reason for cancellation.

Once you’ve completed the process, the seller support agent will give you a cancellation confirmation. The buyer will receive an email informing him of the order cancellation.

Amazon’s cancellation process is quite easy, but you could easily lose your seller privileges if you have a cancellation rate of more than 2.5%. There is a metric implication in cancelling orders which is unfavorable to you as the seller. You have to make sure that you regularly monitor your seller performance. Keep an eye to your inventory and make sure that your product is always in stock by knowing your inventory turnover by heart. Moreover, it’s important to have open communication and a good relationship with your suppliers. If you’re doing order fulfillment, it’s a good idea to invest in a reliable and advanced inventory management technology. 

Having a foolproof inventory management system can help you reduce your order cancellation rate. It can also help you easily scale your business. Most of all, it helps you build your brand reputation, reduce negative reviews, and increase customer satisfaction.

Return and Refund of Orders

Customers return the item(s) that they’ve purchased due to some reasons. It may be due to defective item or it doesn’t work, they no longer need it, or they are not satisfied with the product. For a seller to manage the return of an item, the buyer needs to request it within 30 days of delivery. All return requests made by a buyer are sent automatically to the seller, including the reason for the return. The seller will have the final decision regarding the return/refund request based on the stated policies. There are some options for the seller to do after receiving the return request:

1. Accept and authorize the return
   If a seller decides to authorize a return request, it is required to have an RMA or Return Merchandise Authorization number to complete the transaction. Sellers will have an option to generate a number on their own or use the Amazon-generated RMA number. This is an important piece of information that will be printed on the return merchandise label that is sent to the buyer along with the seller’s return mailing address.

2. Close request
   Alternatively, the seller can also decide to decline the return request if there is sufficient reason or if the return does not comply with the Amazon return policy. If this option is chosen, the seller will be prompted to select the reason for the closure and asked to leave an explanatory note for the buyer. The reason stated for closing the request will be automatically sent to the buyer by Amazon. But you have to remember that customers may leave seller feedback, product review, or may contact Amazon to raise a dispute.

3. Issue a refund
   If the seller chooses this option, a full or partial refund may be issued for returned items. Depending on the seller, these are the available options that can be done:
   
   • The seller can choose to wait until orders are received back before issuing a refund.
   • The seller can choose not to issue only a partial refund for damaged goods.
   • The seller can choose to issue a refund of the item cost only and not the entire shipping costs. This is applicable only if the seller has described the product correctly within the product listing.

4. Contact the buyer
   If the seller would like to be in touch with the buyer directly to attempt a compromise or a resolution of issues, this option is available.
   
   

How to Issue a Refund

The seller may process a full refund for undamaged goods in the same condition they were shipped in or perform a partial refund for damaged goods that were not returned in the same condition they were shipped in. However, you still need to explain this course of action prior to issuing the refund to avoid misunderstandings. Sellers can also decide when to issue the refund, either before or after the returned item is received. Follow the steps below on how to process the refund:

Step 1: Access the order by entering the Manage Orders section.

Step 2: Once you found the order to be refunded, click on Order Details.

Step 3: Click the Refund Order button by either choosing it from the Action column or the Order ID section.

Step 4: Enter the amount, either full or partial, and choose the reason for the refund.

Step 5: You can leave a message or a memo. Press Submit Refund.

Manual refunds will retain a status of “pending” for two hours once issued. This is done to give the seller an opportunity to double-check that the refund given was the proper amount and order. A pending status does not apply to feed generated refunds, which go through automatically.