Orders are groups of purchased items that are normally created by customers through the checkout process, but you can also create orders manually through the dashboard.

To view orders in your store, navigate to the Orders tab in your dashboard. From there, you can filter by All orders, Awaiting payment, Ready to ship, On hold, and Refunded. You can also Search orders for specific keywords or properties, and the search can be filtered by various order properties, such as the order Total, the Status, orders containing specific Products, as well as other order characteristics.

You can also view Draft orders, which are orders manually created in the dashboard that have not actually been submitted into the regular order workflow (possibly because they are still missing information), and Carts, which are customer-driven groups of items that have not actually been taken all the way through the checkout process. Carts can be abandoned or converted.

You can manually create orders on behalf of customers. Creating orders is often useful if you haven’t set up your storefront but wish to begin fulfilling orders right away—or for your customer support team to create orders on behalf of a customer who’s having difficulty using your store.

When creating an order from the dashboard hit the New order button in the top right of the Orders or Draft orders section. On the order, you can then specify:

• The items within that order, which are chosen by searching the product name for products in your store, choosing that product’s additional configured properties, and specifying the quantity.
• The payment method associated with this order (a credit card, account credit (after selecting a customer), or gift card). When choosing a credit card, you will be asked for (optional) additional billing details such as the customer’s address and phone number.
• The customer associated with this order (you can create a new customer, or choose an existing one by searching for name or email).
• Once a customer is selected, you can Edit that customer to specify a shipping address if the customer does not have one directly associated with their account.
• Notes to associate with this order.

Once the order’s items are chosen, you will be able to apply discounts, choose shipping, or edit the items. Before submitting the order, you will see the Subtotal, Shipping fee, Taxes amount, and the order Total.

By default, an order created within the dashboard will be a draft order until it is converted to an active order by pressing Submit—this will put the order into the order workflow.

Once an order has been created, you can make adjustments as needed to any section of the order. This allows for adapting an order based on a user request, or making changes due to unforeseen circumstances.

When selecting an order from the order list, you will have the opportunity to edit the order’s properties, including all of the details described in the Create an order section above.

Additionally, you may perform certain actions on existing orders:

• Cancel items: for items that may have been accidentally ordered, or might no longer be available; this will adjust the items subtotal and associated calculations such as shipping and taxes
• Fulfill items: this marks items as shipped (it will ask for the shipping service, tracking number, carrier, etc.), and you will have an option to email the customer, as well as to add additional notes
• Put on hold: this changes the order’s status to “on hold” and can be useful for items that are back-ordered, for customers who are changing addresses, or for any other reason you might not want an order to show up in the regular orders queue
• Remove hold: for orders that were put on hold, this removes the hold status and returns it to the normal flow
• Resend order receipt: after confirmation and noting the last email sent about this order, you’re given the option to send another receipt email for this order, to the customer
• Cancel order: this cancels the order (and this action cannot be undone)
• Print order: provides a utility to print an order template with the order’s information
• Charge, Edit, and Refund payment methods
• Edit the order’s shipping and discounts
• Delete the order to completely remove it from the orders list

View order activity

When reviewing an order, you can also view changes that have been occurring on that order in the Order activity section. This section keeps track of any updates that have been made to the order (such as adding or removing items from the order, shipping updates, etc). The activity provides a running history of changes made to the order as well as the users who made those changes. There is also a notes section that can be utilized for communicating between store admin on the order itself—these notes are not visible to the user.

Fulfill an order

Orders can be fulfilled manually on individual order pages by selecting the Add shipment button under the fulfillment section. This will display a window where you can change the tracking number, shipping service, and send an email confirmation to the customer. You can also edit the number of individual line items by entering a number in the Quantity field.

Send an order invoice

To customize an invoice navigate to Settings > Notifications and select Draft order invoice. An editing window will open for your invoice with several tabs: Preview, Fields, Template, Settings, and Test email. Each manages a particular aspect of your invoice and can be adjusted.

• Preview: Displays a preview of your invoice and reflects any changes you make within the editor window. You can designate the subject line for your invoice here.
• Fields: Create a new field and manage existing text within your invoice.
• Template: Adjust the format and styling of your invoice's HTML.
• Settings: Designate an email to send the invoice from or BCC additional email address—both are optional.
• Test email: Send a test invoice to a specified email address. Simply enter the desired email you wish to send a test invoice to and click Send.

Once you have edited the invoice, press Save in the popup window, then Save changes on the Notifications page. You can also reset the invoice to its default state by clicking Revert to default in the popup window. This will remove any changes that were made to the invoice.

Export an order

If you want to export your orders (to import into other software or for other reasons), you can easily do so by navigating to Orders > All orders on the dashboard.

Click the Export button on the top right and a popup window will appear. You can export either the current page or specific orders, depending on your preference. Both CSV and JSON formats are available.

Cancel order items

Items can be canceled manually on a customer's order if needed. This is helpful for canceling items from an order that might have been purchased by mistake.

To remove an item from an order, select the customer's order that you'd like to edit, and click Cancel items from the Actions drop-down. You can also select Cancel items from within the order's items section.

You can adjust the number of individual line items via the quantity field. You also have the option to select Cancel all items to completely remove all line items from the order. A reason for canceling can be entered in the Reason text field.

If you choose to return a partial quantity, the amount will be shown in the order form. Click the Save button when you're finished editing the order to complete the changes.

Charge a customer's account

Navigate to Customers on the dashboard and select the customer's account. Click Charge under the payment section. Enter an amount to be charged. If you select the Gift card option you must enter a valid code. Click the Charge button when the correct amount is displayed. Making charges on an order provides the ability to split payments for a customer as well as facilitate payments on a per-item basis.

Issue a refund

Swell store owners can issue a refund to a customer by navigating to Orders > All orders on the dashboard and clicking the Refund button. The original payment method and amount will be automatically selected. Click the Refund button in order to process the refund.

Return order items

Swell supports the ability to return items on an order if a customer initiates a return. To return items to an order, begin by navigating to Orders > All orders on the Swell dashboard and selecting the return order. Click Actions > Return items under the fulfillment section of the order page. This will prompt a window to edit the number of items to return. Enabling the Return items back to stock option allows you to set the number of items you will be restocking from the return.

You can create a note for why the items are being returned, as well as provide a shipping credit, or charge a restocking fee. When you are finished making changes, click the Save button.

You can also cancel a return by clicking the Edit button and selecting the Delete option afterward in the new window. If you choose to return a partial quantity, the amount can be found on the order table after the return has been saved.

Send email receipts

If a customer accidentally deletes an email confirmation or doesn’t receive it, you can quickly send another with Swell. Navigate to Orders on the dashboard and select the desired order. Click the Actions drop-down button and the Resend order receipt option. Confirm it’s the correct email on file and send the receipt.

Swell provides an easy way to manage and customize order views for printing. These can be used for creating templates for printouts such as packing slips and gift receipts to include within orders upon shipment. Access the printout templates through Settings > Orders.

You can create and store multiple print templates for a variety of needs, and each template can be customized through the editor window. To edit an existing template, click Edit in the row corresponding to the template you wish to edit. Otherwise, you can create a new template by selecting Add template. Click Remove to permanently delete a template.

The template editor

When editing or creating a new print template, you can customize the template’s contents and style through the editor window. There are three tabs within the window:

• Preview: Here you can set the template’s name, preview it in different locales, and add a template description. The template preview will be displayed in the Template body window.
• Fields: This is the information that is included on the template and populated by default. You can add locales, edit the fields by enabling the Edit toggle, and update the content within each field as desired.
• Template: This tab provides the space to optionally customize and style the template’s base HTML to suit your needs.

Carts are groupings of items put into a customer's cart that have not yet gone through the checkout process. Once a cart proceeds through checkout, it is converted into an order. Sometimes, a customer might not complete the checkout process. Swell keeps track of abandoned and converted carts—you can view these from the Orders tab within the Swell dashboard.

When viewing your Orders tab, you are also able to review cart information for both Converted and Abandoned carts:

• Converted carts have gone through the checkout process and have become an order to be fulfilled by your store.
• Abandoned carts are groups of items that a customer has placed in their cart but have not gone through the checkout process.

Mixed carts

Swell offers customers the ability to make purchases that include both single, one-time purchases and subscriptions in the same transaction—providing for a more convenient check-out experience.

Abandoned cart emails

You can configure a series of emails to remind customers about the pending items in their cart in order to prompt them to complete their purchase.

These emails are completely customizable, and you can adjust the notifications' content and frequency. To access the abandoned cart email settings, navigate to Settings > Notifications. From there, it can be found in the Orders sections. There you can update the scheduling and content for the cart recovery emails. See our store notification guide for more details.