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Using NewStore Associate App to fulfill orders

Retailers can enable store fulfillment in Associate App for independent stores or for their entire business.

Associates can use Associate App for the fulfillment operations shown in the following diagram:

After enabling store fulfillment in Associate App, a new Fulfillment menu is displayed in the navigation drawer. Tap Fulfillment to see the Order Fulfillment dashboard.

note

To configure order documents to be generated and printed, see Configuring documents to be generated and printed for orders .

Wave fulfillment​

Waves are groups of orders that you can create for order fulfillment. A wave can include a maximum of 50 orders, but the default is 10. When creating a wave, you specify the order count and select the following types:

  • All Types, which includes all types of orders (including carrier and customer pickup orders)
  • Customer, which only includes customer pickup orders
  • Carrier Pickup, which only includes carrier pickup orders

When a wave is created, orders with the oldest order date (the date when the customer placed the order) are prioritized and added to the wave.

note

When priority orders are not enabled, they do not appear in the list of order types to add to a wave.

Priority orders​

You can use Priority orders to decide which order service levels are prioritized over other orders when performing wave fulfillment via Associate App.

Carrier pickup orders with priority service levels are displayed in an additional order list that associates can use to create Priority Order waves, ensuring that the most important carrier orders are ready to hand over as soon as possible.

When an associate creates a Carrier (Priority) wave, NewStore prioritizes orders based on their designated service levels and order age (the date when the customer placed the order), ensuring that the oldest orders with the highest priority are added first.

When creating other wave types for fulfillment, NewStore first evaluates the service level and then the order date. If an order is not a carrier priority or is a customer pickup order, NewStore prioritizes orders based on the order date. However, orders with priority service levels are always given precedence over other orders.

To enable this feature, see Enabling priority orders in store fulfillment .

Technical configuration
The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

For priority service levels, create a list of service levels sorted from top to bottom, with descending order of priority from the top to the bottom. Create this list via the Store fulfillment configuration API.

Important

Only service levels considered for priority orders are included in the list of Carrier (Priority) orders.

Creating waves​

Before creating waves, ensure that you:

  • Select the type of order that you want to fulfill. For example, customer, carrier pickups or priority orders.
  • Specify the number of orders that you want to fulfill. You can fulfill maximum 50 orders in a single wave.

To create waves of orders:

  1. Go to the navigation drawer and tap Fulfillment.

    On the Order Fulfillment dashboard, you can see the following metrics:

    • Orders Not Started
    • In Progress Orders
    • Ready Orders
    • Customer Pickups
    • Carrier Pickups

  2. Tap Fulfill Orders to continue picking order items.

Picking regular order items​

You can pick many items without scanning their barcodes, however you must confirm the number of units you picked for each item.

For all carrier pickup orders, which can also contain carrier priority orders, orders are prioritized based on:

  1. The service level(s) matches the service levels configured as priority order service levels in the Store fulfillment configuration API.

  2. If there are priority pickup orders with the same service level as regular orders, NewStore prioritizes older orders based on the order date and adds them accordingly in the order wave.

  3. In the Select Order Type screen, choose a type of order that you want to fulfill from:

    • All Types
    • Customer
    • Carrier (All)
    • Carrier (Priority)
    note
    • When you select All Types, which can include customer pickup, carrier pickup, and carrier priority orders, orders are prioritized to be added to a wave based on service levels. If orders have the same service, they are then prioritized based on the order date, where older orders are given priority over newer ones.
    • To pick priority order items, see Picking priority order items .

  4. Tap Confirm Order Type.

  5. Next, in the Specify Order Count screen, enter the number of orders.

  6. Tap Start Picking to begin picking items.

  7. Tap ... and add items by tapping the + button.

  8. Tap Confirm>Complete Picking to finish picking items. Now you can either start packing or return to the dashboard.

Picking priority order items​

You can pick many items without scanning their barcodes, however you must confirm the number of units you picked for each item. For priority carrier pickup orders, orders are prioritized and added to the Carrier (Priority) list based on whether:

  1. The service level(s) matches the service levels configured as priority order service levels in the Store fulfillment configuration API.
  2. If there are priority pickup orders with the same service level, NewStore prioritizes older orders based on the order date and sorts them accordingly in the priority order wave.

To pick priority order items:

  1. In the Select Order Type screen, choose Carrier (Priority).
  2. Tap Confirm Order Type.
  3. Next, in the Specify Order Count screen, enter the number of orders.
  4. Tap Start Picking to begin picking items.
  5. Tap ... and add items by tapping the + button.
  6. Tap Confirm>Complete Picking to finish picking items. Now you can either start packing or return to the dashboard.

Mispicking order items​

You have to confirm mispicks because of various reasons. For example, the lack of inventory.

When you mispick the order items, the ATP of the product is reduced to 0 and the cycle count is triggered if it was enabled for the store. After the mispick, the items associated with the order are removed and the entire order is re-routed to another location. If mispick happens for a BOPIS order, the order is placed on-hold to be investigated by a Store Fulfillment Manager.

  1. After you start picking items, if they are missing or damaged, remove them by tapping the - button.

  2. Tap Items Not Available? and Confirm the mispick.

  3. Tap Complete Picking to finish mispicking items. Now you can either start packing or return to the dashboard.

    note

    You can find the Not Started and Ready to Pack order items on the dashboard. Any associate can start working on these in-progress items based on the priority of the order.

Packing order items​

For packing items, you must scan each item that you picked.

  1. Tap Start Packing to pack items.

  2. From the list of picked items, choose the items to be packed.

  3. In the next screen, select one of the following options:

    • Not available for fulfillment for items that are missing or damaged.
    • Enter barcode to scan barcode of items or enter them manually to continue packing items.

  4. Tap Print after packing the items.

Once you pack the items, you can keep them in a single package or move them into separate packages.

Single package shipment​

By default the items are shipped with a single package.

Multi-package shipment​

Tap ... > + New Package to move items to a new package.

Mispacking order items​

You have to confirm mispacks because of various reasons. For example, damaged items.

When an order is mispacked, the ATP of the product is reduced to 0 and a cycle count is triggered, if enabled for the store. After the mispack, the items associated with the order are removed and the entire order is re-routed to appropriate location. If mispack happens for a BOPIS order, the order is placed on-hold to investigate by a Store Fulfillment Manager.

When items are fulfilled from a warehouse or DC, the impact of a mispack on ATP is different. See Mispack .

Tap Decline Order for items that are missing or damaged.

Specifying reasons for mispicked or mispacked items​

Early Access

If you are interested in early access to this feature, ask your point of contact at NewStore or contact your Omnichannel Success Manager to enable this feature for you.

When enabled for your business, you can select one of the following pre-defined reasons to specify why an item had to be mispicked or mispacked in Associate App:

  • Damaged
  • Cannot be located
  • Reserved

The list of reasons is displayed during the picking or packing step when you specify that item(s) in an order cannot be fulfilled. This allows your business to understand why orders could not be fulfilled and result in inventory and operational optimization for stores.

This data is also available in NOM for further reference and audit if required.

Printing order documents​

After the items are packed for the order, the order documents become available for printing.

  1. Tap Print and select the printer. Now items are sent to the printer. You can reprint invoices and shipping labels.

  2. Tap Complete Packing. The order is now ready for customer or carrier pickup based on your choice. Now you can return to the dashboard.

Setting up printers​

For more information, see Setting up a printer .

Printing errors​

If you are unable to print shipping labels or return shipping labels for the order, the order cannot move forward to the next step. When the order documents are successfully printed, then the order status changes to Awaiting Handover.

In spite of printing errors, you can fulfill external orders. For more information, see Updating the shipment status for external orders .

Handing over orders​

Orders that are picked, packed, and processed successfully are displayed on the Order Fulfillment dashboard.

These orders are segregated into two categories based on the pickup of your choice.

Handing over orders to customers​

You can select the orders from the Customer pickup category and hand them over to the customer.

  1. Tap Customer Pickups.
  2. Select the item for pickup.
  3. Tap Confirm Handover.

Handing over orders to carriers​

You can select the orders from the Carrier pickup category and hand them over to a carrier from the list of carriers.

  1. Tap Carrier Pickups.
  2. Tap Hand Over All or tap View Orders to verify the order details.
  3. Tap Handover to confirm the handover of all items to the carrier.

The handover to carriers can happen in two ways:

Manual handover​

When the carrier doesn't support a way to automatically indicate that orders have been handed over, the associate can manually handover the items to the carrier.

Automated handover​

Some carriers provide a webhook that can interact with the NewStore platform. When the carrier scans the barcode of the package to be handed over, Associate App changes the status of the order to Handed over automatically.

Handing over orders using Single Scan Form​

Upon request from a shipping service provider, NewStore can create a document called Single Scan Form. This documents lists out all order items to be picked up with a single barcode. The carrier scans the single barcode to confirm handover of all orders during manual pick up. The associate must deliver all orders at once when the single scan form is printed for a carrier.

For help with creating a single scan form, contact the support team.

Canceling orders​

For more information on managing orders to be canceled, see Monitoring orders .

Searching orders​

You can achieve the following using the SEARCH tab:

  • Browse a list of all orders that have been assigned to be fulfilled from your store.

    note
    • The orders displayed in the list are sorted so that orders which had an action taken on them most recently are displayed first.
    • The list currently only shows orders marked as Handed Over from the last 7 days.

  • Select and fulfill specific orders for which fulfillment has not started yet (marked as Not Started). For example, orders which have been escalated by the customer or special VIP orders that need immediate attention can be searched for and fulfilled first.

  • Search this list by Order ID and also see the date & time when an action was taken for the order.

  • Select an order and view more details such as:

    • Customer name
    • Package details including the products that were included in the order. This is useful for situations where the only identifying information the associate has about an order is a box with products in it.
    • Product prices

  • Reprint the documents associated with the order such as invoices, labels, and slips.