If you’re new to Order Desk and not sure where to begin, or you’re just looking for a refresher on the basics, this guide is here to help you out. Here you’ll find a brief overview of the Order Desk app, along with some guidance on where to go next to begin the setup process.
The information outlined here is primarily focused on setting up your online store with Order Desk. We have separate guides for suppliers and printers for those interested in learning how they can use the Order Desk app with their clients.
What Order Desk Does
Think of Order Desk as your personal assistant; with the right guidance, it’ll take the busywork off of your already busy plate.
Your Order Desk store can automatically edit, split, and move orders exactly how you need them processed. It can also track inventory, send tracking updates back to your shopping carts, send custom email notifications, and create customized documents such as receipts, invoices, and packing slips.
Another big part of Order Desk is the wide selection of print on demand services we offer integrations for. A complete list is available here, or you can refer to our Print on Demand Fulfillment guide for a thorough walkthrough on setting up a print on demand store.
Integrations
Order Desk connects to hundreds of integrations across the ecommerce industry. You can link your shopping carts, fulfillment services, printers, shipping apps, and more so all of your orders can be managed from one convenient place. Check out our ever-expanding list of integrations here.
Can’t find the integration you’re looking for? We’re always interested in learning what integrations our customers would like to see next. Drop us a line through our request form with some helpful details, such as links or API info, so our team can review it.
No Integration? No Problem!
While our selection of integrations is one of the highlights of the Order Desk app, it’s not the end of the world if you can’t find an integration for the service you want to work with. You can still automate much of the process by using import and/or export templates.
Import templates let you import orders from a spreadsheet. Have a shopping cart we aren’t integrated with? If you can download a spreadsheet of your orders there, you can import them into Order Desk.
Export templates let you export orders to a third party either through email or FTP. You can set these up to run automatically, so once the setup is done, the exported file will be pushed if orders are there to be sent, much like how an integration works.
If you export your orders this way to a printer, they can send a file back with the shipment details to be added to your orders.
Rules
Our Rule Builder is a customizable tool that lets you tell Order Desk exactly what to do with your orders, based on the filters you need to use.
If you want to split orders, move orders, submit orders, email customers or vendors, create a PDF, change the shipping method, add a timestamp, or do any other number of actions, you can make rules that will do this automatically for you.
For more information on the Rule Builder, read through the Order Desk Rule Builder guide.
Inventory
Inventory can be one of the most important aspects of managing your online store, whether you’re coordinating your print details or keeping your item info synced across platforms. Adding your inventory to Order Desk should be a priority during your initial setup.
Every product you add to Order Desk needs these required details to be sent to your printer:
Some printers or products will have additional fields that may also be needed, such as print_location, print_mode, or print_design_id, to name a few. Check with your printer to find out what fields are required on their products, or refer to our integration guides to see what print details are supported for the integration you’re working with.
Once your inventory is stored in Order Desk, the SKUs in your orders will match up to the SKUs you added to Order Desk, and your print details, such as print_sku and print_url, will be synced into the order. After the print details are synced into an order, they will be sent to your printer for fulfillment. This entire process is automatic and nearly instant, so if you set up your store right, you won’t have to do anything to the orders but monitor them to make sure everything is running smoothly.
For instructions on how to add your inventory and print details to Order Desk, see the Add Inventory section of the Print on Demand Fulfillment guide.
Further Reading
To help point you in the right direction, we’ve gathered a list of some of our most essential guides that may help you navigate your way through the Order Desk app.
General
- Store Settings: An outline of all your store’s details and appearance, from setting your currency and contact info to customizing the folders that you sort your orders into.
- How to Work with Rules: How to use the Order Desk Rule Builder.
- How to Split Orders: Instructions on the different methods for splitting orders once they are in Order Desk.
- How to Split & Dropship Orders for Separate Vendors: An overview of how to split orders and send them to separate vendors.
- How to Work with Email Templates: How to work with emails using Order Desk.
- Customizable Receipts/Order Documents: Create your own customized order documents, such as receipts, packing slips, and invoices.
- How to Create PDF Files for Receipts and Invoices: Instructions for creating a PDF from a receipt template.
- Managing Your Account: How to manage your personal information, including login details and two-factor authentication settings.
- Common Errors from Integrations: An outline of the most common errors from integrations.
Print on Demand
- Print on Demand Providers: List of all printers integrated with Order Desk.
- Print on Demand Fulfillment: Step-by-step instructions for setting up your Order Desk store to work with printers and on-demand products.
- Print on Demand Order Syncing: Describes why order syncing is important and how to check for and fix errors.
- How to Set Up Shipping Class Matches: How to tell your printer your shipping preferences.
- How to Get Public Dropbox Links: How to get the Dropbox links you need for your artwork files.
- Dropbox Integration: How to use the Dropbox integration in Order Desk.
- Print on Demand Bundles: How to bundle print on demand items.
Don’t forget to search the help site for guides about your specific integrations. If available, more information will be provided in the integration guide.
What Next?
To review the steps you can take to set up your own store in Order Desk, continue on to our Quick Start guide.
Otherwise, we have an entire library of guides at your disposal covering just about every topic related to our app, including help articles for every integration we offer. Our support team is also available Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm EST for all your other Order Desk related needs.