Moving into Mail Order

[DavidGeran]

We've been running as an internet-only retail business for 2 years, and apart from the occasional issue (no one is perfect!), Actinic has been brilliant for us.

We are having our first product catalogue professionally printed in the coming months and Actinic Business V6 does not have the functionality to deal with Mail Order customers.

From what we've seen of V7, Mail Order processing is not really handled here either.

Are the any plans to look at accomodating the Mail Order business model into Actinic V8, or should we be looking at more expensive integrated eCommerce and Mail Order software?

Anyone going down the same business route?

www.youraromatherapy.co.uk

[george]

We don't have a catalogue as such but we have a fair bit of mail order, some customers do not and will not use the internet at all. V7 has the offline order facility where you can insert phone orders or snail mail orders and they basically end up in Actinic like the downloaded ones do. A great addition, not perfect, check the V7 threads, but more than okay to use I'd say.

Remember you can download a trial if you want a wee preview of how it works. (ps I'm deffo not on commision here!).

[DavidGeran]

Cheers George. Anyone know when V8 is out and what might be in it?

[cdicken]

Anyone know when V8 is out and what might be in it?

Don't lets start down that road. The next major release will not be showing its face for a good while yet.

I would say v7's offline order features are excellent and will allow you to enter orders from mail order customers into the application with no problems (but then I would say that wouldn't I? )

[Jan]

I have several customers whose main revenue comes from mail order, they tend to use a proven mail order system (Mail order manager, Options etc) to handle orders and they transfer their Actinic orders into that system OR they use an accounting package to handle telephone orders and mail orders and again transfer Actinic orders into that.

Having said that if Actinic is working well for you I see no reason why you shouldn't use the offline ordering system to keep all of your orders in Actinic.

Regards,

[magicalwonders]

Hi Folks,

I must be missing something here. Why would you enter an offline order into Actinic? If the customer has telephoned or mailed in the order as a result of seeing the product on the site, wouldn't it be handled like an over the counter sale or any other offline sale such as from a printed catalogue?

My site's not up and running yet, but any telephone or mail-orders will go straight into my accounting package (Quickbooks) when my site goes live. What would I be missing out on by not entering them in Actinic?

What would be useful is the ability for the customer to print out his order and mail it in with a cheque. (For those that don't trust the net!) Is that function possible?

Myles

[Jan]

If you enable the payment method invoice with order, a printable form will be shown at the end of the checkout screens, for your customer to print off and send in with either credit card details or a cheque.

Regards,

[magicalwonders]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for that. I had seen this option but thought it meant that the customer was sent an invoice with the goods!

Many thanks

Myles

[Mike Hughes]

That was the original intention for that order method. To change it to 'pay be cheque' simply change the name to 'pay by cheque' or whatever and add some instructions to the receipt page (and email) so your customers know what to do next.

Mike

[george]

Ours is changed to `Cash, Cheque or Postal Order`.

[magicalwonders]

Thanks for the advice, this sounds Good.

Can I trigger a different receipt page for payment by cheque instead of credit card? Or will I have to add blurb to suit both situations?

Thanks,

Myles

[Nadeem]

Hi there

Can I trigger a different receipt page for payment by cheque instead of credit card? Or will I have to add blurb to suit both situations?

I'm afraid it is the latter

Kind Regards

[DavidGeran]

Wow

Hot topic, although got a little off the point. Chris, your right from what I've seen of V7 that offline orders are catered for which is great, although Actinic's greatest single failing in providing comprehensive customer and account management has not been addressed yet.

I've a meeting on Monday with a mail order 'specialist' (they do work for some very big clients) about taking our business into the mail order market, and I'll let you their take on sticking with Actinic as a multi-channel sales solution...

[DavidGeran]

The outcome was...

For those looking to move into mail order, the general consensous is that Actinic V7 Business is ok for a first-run catalogue because it can handle processing mail order / telephone purchases.

In terms of second-run catalogues and beyond (when a critical mass of customers is hopefully reached), it is recommended to use more powerful multi-sales channel software, simply because of the lack of analysis and management of customer accounts in Actinic.

Not wanting to tell you chaps what to look at next (not that you'd listen anyway ;-)), but perhaps evolving Actinic to take more note of the massive mail order market is worth a discussion?

Either way, looks like we'll muddle on with a V7 upgrade in the Spring and see where we are at next Autumn...