If you're an artist or a photographer, placing an order manually with your Fulfillment Vendor can be a crucial step in your business. There are various reasons why you might need to do this, such as stocking up for an upcoming art show, having samples on hand, or processing offline sales on your website. Whatever your reason, you can easily place a Self Made Order directly from your Site Manager. In this article, we'll explain the different types of orders, guide you through the process of placing a Self Made Order at both regular and wholesale costs, and show you how to delay a vendor purchase and send an invoice from your website. So, let's get started!
If you have any questions regarding your existing orders, please refer to the following correspondence to receive the best assistance. By directing your questions to the appropriate parties, you can ensure that your concerns are addressed as efficiently and effectively as possible:
Graphik Dimensions: asfprints@artstorefronts.com
Bay Photo: bayphoto@artstorefronts.com
Gooten: gooten@artstorefronts.com
Print Partner: https://www.printpartner.ca/contact
What is a Regular Website Order
A Regular Website Order is an order that a customer makes through your website at the regular price, which includes markups added. This is the most common type of order for most artists, where customers view a product on the artist's website and purchase it without any intervention from the artist. However, if the artist is making a purchase on behalf of a customer or for themselves, they should create a self-made order through their Site Manager instead of making a purchase through the website like a regular customer.
What is a Self-Made Order
A Self-Made order is a convenient feature available on your Art Storefronts website that enables you to place orders through the Site Manager on your own behalf or on behalf of your customers. This feature is particularly useful when you need to purchase samples, stock up on prints for an upcoming art show or facilitate a sale you made offline.
When you create a Self-Made order for a product that is automatically fulfilled, any vendor fulfillment costs associated with the order will be charged to the credit card linked to your Art Storefronts account. It's important to note that these costs will need to be paid to the vendor before they start processing the order. However, if you've enabled a delay on vendor fulfillment order charges, the costs will be charged at a later date.
What is a Wholesale Cost Order
If your website uses automated fulfillment, you can utilize a Self-Made Orders feature to buy prints directly from the company that is currently handling your print fulfillment, at wholesale prices (in other words, your markups will be removed from the pricing).
This feature is commonly used by artists and photographers who sell at local art fairs or in retail art galleries and need to get prints made for in-person sales. Buying prints directly from your fulfillment partner allows for a simple process, with the prints shipped directly to you and all records kept within your Site Manager. We recommend reading our blog post "Benefits of Using the Wholesale Orders Feature"to learn more about the advantages of this process.
The term "wholesale" is used to clarify that for these orders, your markups will not be added to the cost of the order. If markups are applied, it is considered "regular website" pricing.
Instructions on how to place both regular and wholesale Self-Made orders, how to delay vendor charges, and how to send an invoice from the site can be found below. These guides are organized into separate tabs for easy navigation.
How to make a Self-Made Order
Table of Contents
Please note: If you are looking to place an order at a wholesale cost, please navigate to the "Wholesale Cost Order" section.
Getting started
Log in to your Site Manager and, in the upper right-hand corner, find the menu labeled Jump To. In this menu, select the option labeled Orders.
At the top of the page, you will have four tabs. Click on the one labeled Self-Made Orders.
Select the black button labeled + New Order on the left-hand side of the page.
Billing & Shipping information
You will be directed to a new page with two different options: New Customer and Choose an Existing Customer.
Create a New Customer
Here you will either create a new contact for the order or select an existing customer from your contacts. If you have not created your contact yet, you will click on New Customer.
Once you click on this, new fields will appear, where you can enter the personal details of your customer into these fields, which should be fairly self-explanatory.
Near the bottom of the list are three other fields that need extra explanation. The first is the option to make this customer Tax Exempt. You should only enable this if you have a specific reason to.
The second is Can Buy Wholesale. Again, you should only enable this if you really need to. Any customer who has this enabled will be pay wholesale prices for their orders, but you should not enable this as you will not make any profit on any orders for customers who are Wholesale-enabled.
The last option is Send Welcome Email To Customer. If you check this, the customer will be sent a notification email informing them about the creation of their account.
After you have reviewed the information you have entered, if it is correct you can click on the black button labeled Create to create the account for your customer.
Once the contact has been created, you will be given the option to Start Order or Go Back. If you would like to continue purchasing a product, select Start Order. If you would like to edit the contact you just created or add another contact, click the button labeled Go Back.
Use an Existing Customer
If you already have a contact for this customer, click on Choose an Existing Customer.
A drop-down will appear with a search bar labeled Search Contacts. Type in the name of the contact you would like to use for the order inside the text box. When finished, click GO to see your results. Once you see the contact, click the black button labeled Select.
If you are placing a Wholesale Order, make sure that the contact you are selecting has wholesale buying ability. This can be checked by clicking on the contact Name and selecting the "User" tab.
Shipping and Billing Addresses
Once you have created or selected your customer, you can see on the right under the Order Summary that there are no shipping or billing addresses set up. So let’s move on first to filling in their Shipping Address.
If your contact doesn't have the customer's shipping address, then you will need to click on Create New Address. You will then see a drop-down with fields to add your shipping address. After you have added all the information, click on the black button at the bottom of the fields labeled Create New Address to save your information.
This will add the address to the account. You can click on Ok here to move on to the next stage where you will select it.
Click on Select Existing and select the address you have created.
Once you have done so, you can also check the box Apply To Billing Address to automatically fill in your Billing Address for the order. This is useful if you are placing an order for yourself and it is shipped to your address.
Next, you will need to add your Billing Address (if you didn't do so in the previous step.)
If your contact doesn't have the customer’s billing address, then you will need to click on Create New Address. You will then see a drop-down with fields to add your billing address. After you have added all the information, click on the black button at the bottom of the fields labeled Create New Address to save your information.
If your contact already has a shipping address entered for their account, you can click on Select Existing. A drop-down box will appear and you can select the correct address from the listings.
Optional: Backdating an Order
You may have noticed a new section appearing at the top of the screen labeled Custom Order Date. This is so you can set the date and other details of an order you may have received previously but have only been able to enter into the system.
For example, a customer at a show paid for a print on Sunday, but you didn’t get back home where you were able to enter the purchase into the site until Monday.
All you need to do is click in the box labeled click here, select the date in the window which has opened (and the time if you wish), and then click on Done.
Selecting Products
Now click on + Add Items. This is where you will select the products for the order.
You can type the name or category for the product you are looking for, and click on GO to begin a search. Once you have found the product you are looking for, click on the Select button beside it.
Once you have selected a product, you will be given the option to add it to your cart. If you have selected a print product, you will need to select your preferences before you can add the print to your cart. First, you will select your Medium type. When finished, press Continue.
Then select the size of your print and press Continue.
Now, select the Styles of your print and press Continue.
To add your item to the cart, review your Summary, and click on the Add to Cart button. (You have the option of setting a Price Override here, but unless you have a need to set this at a specific value we recommend you use the price as shown.)
Keep in mind that the Price Override will not affect the wholesale price of the order. You'd still be charged the wholesale price, regardless of the value you add in this field
Select Shipping Option
After adding all the products you need to the order, proceed by clicking on the Shipping Method tab and select a shipping method available for the product you've chosen.
It's important to note that the Override Shipping Total option should only be used for self-fulfilled orders and when you have a specific need to do so. Keep in mind that your Fulfillment Vendor will always charge you the correct shipping price regardless of the value entered in this field.
Review & Pay
Now click on Review & Pay.
You can empty your cart by clicking on the red Empty Cart button if you want to remove all the products from your cart and start over.
You will also now see a breakdown of the order you are about to place.
It's now time to select your Payment Method. By default, it requires the credit card details from your customer.
Alternatively you can select Already Paid Externally if they have paid you directly already (such as cash payment at a show), or Going To Pay Externally if you have yet to receive payment. Also, if you'd like to send an invoice for the order to the Customer, select Create an Invoice. More details on how to send an invoice can be found in the "Send an Invoice" tab of this article.
Note: Your credit card on file with your Art Storefronts site will be charged immediately upon this order being placed, so you should be prepared to cover this cost.
Next is Order Status. If the order has fulfillment items you will be unable to change this.
Next is Shipping Status. If you are self-fulfilling the order you will be able to set this to reflect the shipping status of your order, but for an order with vendor-fulfilled products, this setting will initially be set by your vendor.
Next is the option to add a message to the customer to the order. This will appear on the order receipt they are emailed.
Here you can disable the emailed Order Receipt. Our recommendation is that this should remain enabled.
Once you are happy with your order, simply click on Place Order to complete your order.
How to make a Wholesale Order
This type of order is priced according to the wholesale cost of fulfilling the prints which make up the order. This means there is no markup being applied, so it should not be used when creating an order for a client, or you will not be making any profit on this order.
Table of Contents
Getting started
Starting in your Site Manager, open the Jump To menu, and select Orders.
2. Then click on the Self-Made Orders tab.
3. Next click on the + New Order button.
Billing & Shipping information
You will need to create a wholesale contact for your website using the same email attached to your Art Storefronts platform. If you're unsure which email address this is, you can check this under your Account page at the very top of the screen. Click on New Customer to begin creating your wholesale contact.
2. Fill in at least your first name, last name, and email address associated with your Art Storefronts platform.
Note: If the email entered into this section is different from the email address connected to your Art Storefronts account you may find this feature will not work correctly.
3. Turn the Tax Exempt status ON. Since you are purchasing wholesale, your order will be tax-exempt.
4. Turn the Can Buy Wholesale? setting to ON. This setting is required to be ON when placing a wholesale order.
5. If Send Welcome Email To Customer? is enabled, then you will receive a confirmation email that your customer account has been created. This will also allow you to see what the customers will receive whenever they sign-up on your website.
6. Once all the details have been added, you can click on Create to save your wholesale contact.
7. Now that the page has refreshed, you will see an order number along with your customer name and the Can Buy Wholesale? option will appear as "Yes." If the wholesale option says "No" then you will need to go back to your Contacts and turn the Can Buy Wholesale setting on in the contact and check that you are using the same email address for this contact as is set up for your Art Storefronts account.
8. Now we will need to add the Shipping Address to the order. Since this is a new contact, you will need to select the Create New Address option.
9. You can now enter your address information.
10. Once you have filled it all out, click on Create New Address.
11. Click on Ok on the next page.
12. Now you will have the option to apply the same address to your billing address. If you would like to use the same address, make sure the box has a checkmark and it will automatically apply it. If not, leave the box without a checkmark.
13. Select 3. Billing Address to confirm the billing address for the order. This needs to be confirmed even if you applied the shipping address to this field. Please, don't skip this step.
14. If you need to use a different address for your Billing Address, click on the Create New Address field and fill in the relevant fields.
Selecting Products
Now it's time to add the products to your wholesale order. Click on the next step 4. + Add Items. Here, you have the option to search by product name for the exact products you would like to purchase.
Once you have located a product you would like to purchase, click on the black button labeled Select.
Select the Media type then click on Continue.
Select the product Size and click on Continue.
Select your choice of options on the Styles tab, then on Continue.
You will now see a summary of your product.
You have the option to Price Override the product. This SHOULD NOT be used during your wholesale order. This feature should only be used in regular self-made orders only!
If you use this feature during a wholesale order, your fulfillment vendor will contact you for the remaining balance of your order before they will begin printing the order, delaying the time before the order will go into production.
After you have confirmed the print summary, click on the black button labeled Add To Cart to add the art print product to your shopping cart.
On the right side of the screen, you will now see the product details.
After adding all the products you need to the order, proceed by clicking on the Shipping Method tab and select a shipping method available for the product you've chosen.
It's important to note that the Override Shipping Total option should only be used for self-fulfilled orders and when you have a specific need to do so. Keep in mind that your Fulfillment Vendor will always charge you the correct shipping price regardless of the value entered in this field.
Step 6 Discount: For wholesale orders, you should skip the discount as you are already paying the minimum for the order. If your fulfillment vendor is offering a promotional discount, it will appear automatically in the invoice you receive, and you don't need to enter it in this section of the process.
Review & Pay
Select Step 7. Review & Pay to review all the order details.
Scroll down the page and locate the Payment Method. This will appear as Purchase by Website Owner. The wholesale order will be charged to your credit card on file for your Art Storefronts site. This is the only way to purchase the wholesale order without receiving transaction fees. If you need to review or change the credit card linked to your account, you can follow the instructions in our guide How To: Update Your Credit Card On File For ASF Payments.
Once you have reviewed everything for the order, click on the black button labeled Place Order to send your wholesale order to your fulfillment vendor.
Congratulations! You have placed your first wholesale order! If you have the time, please send us your feedback at cs@artstorefronts.com. We would love to hear about your experience and any suggestions you may have about the wholesale process.
How To: Delay your Fulfillment Vendor Order Charge
The way the Art Storefronts payment system for Automated Fulfillment works, you are generally charged immediately for the print order that is placed on your site. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you have sufficient funds to cover the costs of your prints upfront. For further details about how payments are processed, we strongly recommend reading the article Everything You Need to Know About the Fulfillment Set-Up Process for Artists- particularly the section titled "How Payments are Handled." In this article, you will also find instructions on how to delay the charge for Printing and Shipping from your Fulfillment Vendor for a specified number of days
First thing we need to make sure of is that we are logged in to our Site Manager. Find the tab labeled SITE SETTINGS and click on it.
You’ll be taken to a new page, but before you progress any further, you need to make sure you’re on the tab labeled INFO. If you aren’t on the tab labeled INFO, you won’t see any of the options we are discussing, and you won’t be able to complete this process.
When you’re sure you’re on the correct tab, scroll down until you see a section titled Number of Days to Delay Charges for Vendor Order.
You will find a drop-down menu where you can select the duration for the delay. When you receive an order that needs fulfillment, setting this field will hold off the creation of a vendor order for at least the specified period. After the period expires, the order will join the queue of Art Storefronts' current orders being processed. This feature allows you to receive payment for the sale you made before you need to pay for the fulfillment costs of the order.
Note that modifying this field will only impact future orders, and past orders cannot be altered.
To delay vendor orders based on a minimum order total threshold, locate the section on the tab labeled "Vendor Order Settings" and find the field labeled "Minimum Order Total Threshold to Delay Vendor Order." Here, you can enter a minimum order total amount that will trigger a delay in the vendor order creation process. Only orders that meet or exceed this minimum order total will be affected by the delay, and all other orders will process as usual.
After you have selected the number of days to delay an order, click the Save
Then, when you receive an order, there will be a note on it saying the payment was delayed for the number of days your previously specified
Please Note: Your orders WILL NOT be sent directly to the Vendor when they are received. Instead, the order will be sent when payment for the order has been processed. Please factor this into your shipping time for your customers to avoid any issues.
Sending an Invoice From The Website
In case you have made a sale in person, or the customer was unable to complete the purchase on your website, you can create an order for them and send an invoice via email. This guide will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to generate an order and send an invoice to your customer, which they can pay instantly.
Table of contents:
Creating the order
The first step is to create a Self-Made Order for the selected product or products. Once the Self-Made Order has been created, you can then send an invoice for any product type, regardless of its Fulfillment.
Log in to your Site Manager and, in the upper right-hand corner, find the menu labeled Jump To. In this menu, select the option labeled Orders.
At the top of the page, you will have four tabs. Click on the one labeled Self-Made Orders.
Select the black button labeled + New Order at the left-hand side of the page.
You will be directed to a new page with two different options:
New Customer and Choose an Existing Customer.
Create a New Customer
Here you will either create a new contact for the order or select an existing customer from your contacts. If you have not created your contact yet, you will click on New Customer.
Once you click on this, new fields will appear, where you can enter the personal details of your customer into these fields, which should be fairly self-explanatory.
Near the bottom of the list are three other fields which need extra explanation. The first is the option to make this customer Tax Exempt. You should only enable this if you have a specific reason to.
The second is Can Buy Wholesale. Again, you should only enable this if you really need to. Any customer who has this enabled will be pay wholesale prices for their orders, but you should not enable this as you will not make any profit on any orders for customers who are Wholesale-enabled.
The last option is Send Welcome Email To Customer. If you check this, the customer will be sent a notification email informing them about the creation of their account.
After you have reviewed the information you have entered, if it is correct you can click on the black button labeled Create to create the account for your customer.
Once the contact has been created, you will be given the option to Start Order or Go Back. If you would like to continue on to purchasing a product, select Start Order. If you would like to edit the contact you just created or add another contact, click the button labeled Go Back.
Use an Existing Customer
If you already have a contact for this customer, click on Choose an Existing Customer.
A drop-down will appear with a search bar labeled Search Contacts. Type in the name of the contact you would like to use for the order inside the text box. When finished, click GO to see your results. Once you see the contact, click the black button labeled Select.
Shipping and Billing Addresses
Once you have created or selected your customer, you can see on the right under the Order Summary that there is no shipping or billing addresses set up. So let’s move on first to filling in their Shipping Address.
If your contact doesn't have the customers shipping address, then you will need to click on Create New Address. You will then see a drop down with fields to add your shipping address. After you have added all the information, click on the black button at the bottom of the fields labeled Create New Address to save your information.
This will add the address to the account. You can click on Ok here to move onto the next stage where you will select it.
Click on Select Existing and select the address you have created.
Once you have done so, you can also check the box Apply To Billing Address to automatically fill in your Billing Address for the order. This is useful if you are placing an order for yourself and it is shipped to your address.
Next, you will need to add your Billing Address (if you didn't do so in the previous step.)
If your contact doesn't have the customer’s billing address, then you will need to click on Create New Address. You will then see a drop down with fields to add your billing address. After you have added all the information, click on the black button at the bottom of the fields labeled Create New Address to save your information.
If your contact already has a shipping address entered in for their account, you can click on Select Existing. A drop-down box will appear and you can select the correct address from the listings.
Selecting Products
Now click on + Add Items. This is where you will select the products for the order.
You can type the name or category for the product you are looking for, and click on GO to begin a search. Once you have found the product you are looking for, click on the Select button beside it.
Once you have selected a product, you will be given the option to add it to your cart. If you have selected a print product, you will need to select your preferences before you can add the print to your cart. First, you will select your Medium type. When finished, press Continue.
Then select the Size of your print and press Continue.
Now, select the Styles of your print and press Continue.
To add your item to the cart, review your Summary, and click on the Add to Cart button. (You have the option setting a Price Override here, but unless you have a need to set this at a specific value we recommend you use the price as shown.)
Keep in mind that the Price Override will not affect the wholesale price of the order. You'd still be charged the wholesale price, regardless of the value you add in this field
Select Shipping Method
You can now repeat these steps for each product you wish to add to the order. When you can added all the products you need to, it’s time to click on Shipping Method and select one of the shipping methods available for the product you’ve selected.
There is also an option for Override Shipping Total, but you should only use this for self-fulfilled orders, and only when you have a specific need to do this. Your Fulfillment Vendor will always charge you the correct shipping price, regardless of the value you add in this field.
Discount
If you would like to add a discount to the order you can do so by selecting a currently active discount coupon from your website. This should only be done for the regular price orders, and not wholesale price orders.
Keep in mind that discount activated here will only discount the price your customer is paying, not the Vendor Purchase price you are paying for Vendor Orders.
The discount activated here will also appear on the Checkout Page the invoice will link to.
Review & Pay
Now click on Review & Pay.
You can empty your cart by clicking on the red Empty Cart button if you want to remove all the products from your cart and start over.
You will also now see a breakdown of the order you are about to place.
It's now time to select your Payment Method. By default it requires the credit card details from your customer.
Sending an Invoice
In the Payment Method section, please select "Create Invoice" option. This option will generate the Invoice creation page you can use to specify the details of the invoice.
Here, you can add Invoice Title and Message, and also determine the Invoice Delivery Method, Payment Frequency and Invoice Delivery time. At this moment, these only have one option each, but we are looking into adding more options in the future.
Once those are filled, we can move on and select Place Order option.
Once you select the "Place Order" option, the order will be created in the system. It will be displayed with the "Unpaid" and "Invoice Pending" status. For Vendor Orders, or print and merch orders fulfilled by the Fulfillment Vendor your site is connected to, the order will not be sent to the vendor until it has been paid by the customer. The Order status will update automatically upon receiving the payment, and the order will automatically be sent to the vendor following a successful checkout. For Self Fulfilled orders, you can update the status manually upon receiving the funds.
Once the order has been placed, the system will automatically send an invoice to the customer's email address specified in the beginning of the process. In the Invoice Email, the Customer will see a link they can click on that will lead them to the checkout page of your website, where they can complete the purchase.
On this page, the customer can choose the Payment Method, and complete the purchase.