Expandly: Help & Support

Overview

In this guide, we will show you how to set up Order Rules in Expandly, which will allow you to automate certain actions when an order comes in and meets your rule criteria. 

What are Order Rules?

Order Rules are a set of order criteria that once met, trigger specific automatic actions. This allows you to automate certain areas of your business when orders come in via your sales channel(s) or is created manually, and meets the criteria set out in your rules. 

For example: You could use Expandly to set up the following Order Rule:

Criteria = Total Order Value greater than £20.

Action = Generate Royal Mail Signed For 1st Class shipping label. 

This means when an order over £20 is placed on one of your sales channels, Expandly will automatically add it to your list of Royal Mail Signed For 1st Class shipping labels.  

This is just one example of a simple rule however there are a number of different order rules that could be set up to help automate a number of different areas of your business such as automatically sending certain products to FBA, sending channel orders to your 3PL and many more. 

Even better, you can create multiple criteria options to one order rule, to cover all instances and really finetune your eCommerce automation. 

What is an Order Rule criteria? 

An order rule criteria is a set condition that a sales order must meet before an action is triggered. 

It contains three elements:

1. Option

2. Operator

3. Value

Order Rule criteria option

We want you to be able to use eCommerce automation as much as possible for your online sales. Therefore, we have created a list of criteria options that can be used, including:

• Sales Channel
• Order Total Price
• Shipping Country
• Number of items within order
• Order Status
• Contains specific product
• Shipping method
• Payment method
• Shipping cost
• Order weight
• None (applies to all orders)

Order Rule criteria operator

For each criteria option chosen, you must select from one of the following operators:

• Equals
• Does not equal
• Greater than
• Less than

This means that you can set up and have positive and negative order criteria. 

Order Rule criteria value 

Finally, you must enter an order rule criteria value – i.e. what should or shouldn’t the order contain. 

What is an Order Rule action?

An order rule action is an automated task, that is completed when an order meets the set criteria. 

It contains two elements:

Action

We’ve added the most common actions performed in Expandly to enable you to automate your eCommerce business as much as you can. Actions include:

• Adding to a pick or pack list
• Creating an invoice
• Updating order status
• Generating a shipping label
• Sending to FBA
• Generating an address label
• Updating a custom field
• Sending to your 3PL
• Assigning to a stock location
• Order Source 

Value 

Next, you must select the value for your order rule action, depending on the action chosen. 

For example, you can select the picklist template, shipping service, or order status. 

How do the Order Rules work in practise?

1. An order comes into Expandly from your sales channel(s)

2. Your orders rules are applied in sequential order until the sales order meets one of the criteria

3. The action is triggered

Some actions will happen straight away, for example, updating the order status. Other actions will happen when you run the appropriate action, for example, generating a picklist. 

Adding an Order Rule in Expandly

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules:

2. On the Order Rules page, click (top right).

3. On the Add Order Rule page, within the Rule details section, give your rule an identifiable name:

4. Within the Criteria section, select the option, operator and value by clicking in the relevant boxes:

To add more than one criteria to the rule, click

Please Note: Selecting "None" as your criteria means that every order will trigger the set action. 

5. Within the Actions section, select the action you want Expandly to take when the above criteria is met by clicking in the relevant boxes:

6. Once finished, click (top right). 

Viewing Order Rules in Expandly

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules.

2. On the Order Rules page, you will be able to view any Order Rules that have been set up:

Reordering Order Rules in Expandly

Order rules are applied in sequential order - i.e. each rule will be applied in turn until the sales order meets the criteria of one. You can amend the order of your rules by following these simple steps. 

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules.

2. On the Order Rules page, click (top right). 

3. On the Reorder Order Rules pop up, drag and drop the rules to reorder them:

4. When finished, click

Pausing Order Rules in Expandly

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules.

2. On the Order Rules page, find the rule you wish to pause and using the toggle within the Status column, switch the rule from enabled to disabled to pause:

3. To reinstate a previously paused rule, simple switch the toggle from disabled to enabled. 

Editing an Order Rule in Expandly

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules.

2. On the Order Rules page, find the rule and click the edit icon. 

3. On the Edit Order Rule page, make the required changed and once finished click (top right). 

Deleting an Order Rule in Expandly

1. Click Settings (left menu) and then click Order Rules.

2. On the Order Rules page, find the rule and click the delete icon. 

3. On the pop-up confirm your action by click

FAQs

Question: When is a rule activated?

Answer: The rule(s) are triggered when an order comes in to Expandly from your sales channel(s) therefore will only apply to orders imported after the rule was created and saved. Any orders created before the rule was saved, will require manual action. 

Question: How are the order rules applied? 

Answer: Order rules are applied in sequential order - Each rule will be applied in turn until the sales order meets the criteria of one. 

Question: How do I amend the order of my rules. 

Answer: You can amen the order of your rules by clicking Reorder on your Order Rules page. Please see the Reordering Order Rules in Expandly section for step-by-step instructions on this. 

Question: Once a rule has been applied, how do I generate the results? 

Answer: To generate the results of an order rule, you'll need to run the appropriate action. For example: for an order rule sending different products to different pick lists, you would need to run the pick list by:

• Going to the Manage Sales Orders page
• Bulk selecting your orders (e.g. today's orders)
• Generating the picklist (Bulk Actions>Print Picklist>Assigned by Order Rules)/default)

Expandly will then generate the different picklists per the rules and a separate/default picklist will be created for any orders that fall outside of the rules criteria.

Question: What happens to orders that fall outside of my order rues? 

Answer: Orders falling outside of your rules will need to be manually handled in the usual way.

Question: Which shipping carriers can I automatically generate labels for? 

Answer: Currently, you can use Royal Mail and DPD in your orders rules. We will be looking to add other shipping carriers in the future. 

Need more help? 

If you require any more information on Order Rules, how these can help or your business, or how to set these up in Expandly, please contact us, and we'll be happy to help!

Multi-Channel eCommerce Software | Expandly