Advance Orders in Ooooby are a valuable feature for special occasions like Christmas, allowing customers to place orders beyond their usual delivery cycle. This guide outlines how to activate and manage the Advance Order feature, enabling your hub to offer this flexibility to your customers.
Overview of Advance Orders
Advance Orders let customers place orders for a set week ahead of their regular delivery cycle, ideal for accommodating special events. To ensure inclusivity, it's often necessary to make the core item a zero-value, crew-only custom box, especially when not all customers may want an advance order.
Steps to Enable Advance Orders
Activate Advance Orders
In the Admin Dashboard, navigate to Orders > Advance Orders.
Fill in the necessary fields:
Advance Orders Week Start Date: The week in which your advance orders will be fulfilled. Set this to the start of the delivery cycle if deliveries occur on multiple days during the week.
Note: The customer cannot select a different day from their usual delivery day for their advanced order. For example, if a customer receives their usual delivery order on a Thursday, their advance order will also be on a Thursday.
Advance Orders Event Name: Shows up in the customer dashboard. For example, "🎅 Christmas Advance Orders 🎅" (see screenshot below). We recommend using emojis to make the tab stand out to customers.
Advanced Orders Core Product: All orders must include a "core product," typically a produce box. Consider creating a crew-only empty box product, which you might call a "Festive Box" or something similar. You can set this up in the usual way.
Visibility Settings: Ensure the Advance Orders Editable checkbox is ticked to display the option in customer dashboards.
Specifying Products for Advance Orders
Adding a product exclusively for an advance order: Navigate to Products > All Products > Add Product (see How to Add Products to Your Ooooby Site). You can also update existing products to be available for advance orders.
From the Order Visibility dropdown select 'Advance Orders Only'. This ensures that it's available only for the specified advance order period.
Products can also be set to be available for 'Regular Orders Only'.
The default being 'All Orders' and so will not need to be adjusted if you are happy for products to exist in both lists.
Adding Advance Orders for a Customer
To place an advance order on behalf of a customer:
Navigate to their subscription details.
Select Add Advance Order.
Proceed as with a normal subscription setup.
Managing Advance Orders Cut-off
To halt advance orders ahead of schedule, uncheck the 'Advance Orders Visible' option. This action removes the advance order tab from customer dashboards but keeps existing orders intact.
Confirmation Emails for Advance Orders
Consider sending confirmation emails to customers after halting advance orders early, especially since the advance order dashboard will no longer be visible to them.
Customer Dashboard Experience
With Advance Orders enabled, customers will see an additional tab for setting up and adjusting their orders, operating similarly to the regular dashboard but without the option to pause.
On opening the tab, the customer will be prompted to create and edit their advance order:
If a customer does not have an active, ongoing subscription, they will see an option to sign up for an advance order by itself.
Crew Management of Advance Orders
An overview of placed advance orders is accessible via the Advance Orders page in the Crew Dashboard, listing all products ordered.
Individual orders can be adjusted through each customer’s overview and subscription details page.
Note: If a customer has exceeded their debt limit, they will be automatically excluded and their order will not appear in the overview.
Key Considerations
Communication is key. Keep your customers informed about the availability and specifics of advance orders, especially regarding delivery days and product limitations.
Flexibility: Advance Orders offer a unique opportunity to cater to your customers' needs during special events, enhancing their satisfaction and loyalty.
Early Cut-off: Decide on an appropriate cut-off date for advance orders to ensure your hub can fulfil all orders efficiently.
Current Limitations
Fixed Delivery Day: Customers' advance orders are delivered on their regular delivery day.
One-week Limitation: The advance order period is restricted to a single week.
One-off Advance Orders: The system is not optimised for one-off advance orders; however, there is a workaround. To understand this fully, please watch the webinar in the link below.
Advance Orders are an excellent way for hubs to accommodate special requests and manage seasonal demand effectively. By following these steps, you can offer a seamless and flexible ordering experience for your customers during key events like Christmas.
Want to find out more? Watch this webinar from 2023.