Today I thought it might be helpful to share with my readers how we process orders or complete the order fulfillment process of a sale.

When an item sells on eBay I get an email from eBay, both in my email box and via my Smartphone.  I know eBay sends an invoice automatically but I also like to send an invoice myself - so if I am at the office (or near it) I run in and send out an invoice ASAP.

When the buyer pays me through PayPal I again receive an notice in my email box and on my Smartphone.

Each afternoon/evening (I do this once a day) I confirm we have the item in stock that has been paid for,.  (I do this because 3 times out of over 2400 orders we oversold the inventory.  The last time we did this was in December 2006 - however I am still afraid it will happen again). Once I have the actual item in my hands I will send out an payment receive email, which I use a template I customized in Seller Manager to the buyer letting him or her know I have acknowledged the receipt of their payment.  In this e-mail I lay out to them what to expect during the fulfillment process and when to expect it.

After sending out all payment received notifications I then start to package and weigh the items.  I log into PayPal mutli-order shipping and start processing the orders by entering in the weights and printing the scan form and shipping labels.  When the labels are being printed PayPal sends me an e-mail and the buyer an e-mail with a tracking number. 

I normally ship the items the next business day.  So, during the next business day either postal carrier Sandy comes to the door and picks up the orders or she gets them from the mailbox - either way I watch them leave from my office window.  Normally within 5 minutes of the items being picked up I send an e-mail out to the buyers (again using a customized template in Seller Manager) informing them that the item has been shipped with the tracking number.  In the letter I advise them I am leaving them feedback and will ask them to leave me appropriate feedback that I have earned when they receive the item.  I also state in this e-mail if there are any problems please contact me - I give them my phone number in this email as well.

After sending the shipping notification I again use Seller Manager to leave feedback for the buyers.