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What is Order History?

Order History

What is Order History?

Order history is a convenient way for a buyer to keep track of all current and past orders and their status in the order process. It allows the buyer to get up-to-date information on each order placed online, including shipping updates, delivery, and payment details.

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What is Order Status?

An order status is a live update that provides timely information on what stage of the order process the product is at. General order statuses include active, pending, processed, shipped, canceled, and returned orders. A tracking or order number is often used to check order status.

  • Active order is an order that is currently placed in your system and has not been marked as complete.
  • Pending order is an order placed on your system, for which you haven’t received payment yet and, therefore, haven’t processed. It indicates that an action from your customer is required.
  • Processed order is a confirmed order that has been paid for and needs to be dispatched.
  • Shipped order is an order that has been received, paid and shipped to the customer.
  • Canceled order is an unpaid order canceled by the customer prior to your set time and before it’s been dispatched for shipping.
  • Returned order is a paid order that has been delivered to, and then returned or declined by the customer. A refund is typically processed to the original form of payment.  

Why is Order History Important?

Order history page is one of the must-have pages that should be included in any eCommerce site because it acts like a record-keeping system that is useful for both buyer and seller. A buyer can quickly and easily identify the progress of an order by navigating to the order history page instead of contacting customer support. By keeping your buyers informed and communicating swiftly, you’re improving their shopping experience, reducing the likelihood of complaints and making sure your customer support resources are invested in the optimal way. In addition, order history can often serve as a neat method for enabling customers to easily reorder the same item again.

Besides the obvious benefit of maintaining your customers’ satisfaction, order history also plays a pivotal role in helping you forecast inventory demand and identifying your bestselling products. By maintaining accurate records of order data from all of your customers, you gain a unique insight into seasonality trends, customer buying patterns and your top selling items. Which, in turn, can help you increase your ROI. By utilizing various eCommerce marketing tactics, such as cross-selling, upselling and bundling, you can leverage this data to target the right consumers at the right time.

Additionally, order history is a convenient way for eCommerce entrepreneurs to classify their buyers into single time customers and repeat buyers. Having this information on hand is exceptionally useful when crafting email marketing or other promotional campaigns, as it allows for more personalized and targeted messaging.

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