Order statuses and "discussions" for non-physical products

[kreitttbw]

Is it possible to consider adding custom statuses to the orders feature in Commerce? I provide non-physical digital assets and business services, and would really appreciate the ability to assign custom statuses to each order (in progress, pending information, in production, complete, etc.). In terms of general layout, it would be VERY cool if the order would have it's own "forum-style discussion" section, where clients can communicate with me and/or my team regarding that particular order; a process much like the ability to post to a pre-defined forum when creating a database record, for example, would be excellent! My recommended process would offer the ability to choose whether to start a "discussion" section within the order. There are several layers of informational requests I conduct with my clients when progressing through an order, and a discussion is usually necessary in order to fulfill certain types of orders/request(s).

Please let me know if this is something you guys would consider implementing, I'd be very grateful!

[Joel R]

On 1/20/2021 at 9:21 AM, Joss Leal said:

Is it possible to consider adding custom statuses to the orders feature in Commerce? I provide non-physical digital assets and business services, and would really appreciate the ability to assign custom statuses to each order (in progress, pending information, in production, complete, etc.). In terms of general layout, it would be VERY cool if the order would have it's own "forum-style discussion" section, where clients can communicate with me and/or my team regarding that particular order; a process much like the ability to post to a pre-defined forum when creating a database record, for example, would be excellent! My recommended process would offer the ability to choose whether to start a "discussion" section within the order. There are several layers of informational requests I conduct with my clients when progressing through an order, and a discussion is usually necessary in order to fulfill certain types of orders/request(s).

Please let me know if this is something you guys would consider implementing, I'd be very grateful!

When you create a new product, use Client Area Settings > Show 'Submit Support Request' button.  This will send the customer to a support request with the purchase selected.  

You can then use Support Tickets as private notifications, and build out multiple statuses.  

Edited January 22, 2021 by Joel R

[kreitttbw]

On 1/22/2021 at 10:09 AM, Joel R said:

When you create a new product, use Client Area Settings > Show 'Submit Support Request' button.  This will send the customer to a support request with the purchase selected.  

You can then use Support Tickets as private notifications, and build out multiple statuses.  

This is a decent workaround, but still looking for something a little more deliberate.

*I’d love it if the button could be changed to “request updates,” and for that click to systematically open a support ticket that I can then follow through with, that doesn’t seem to be possible without code.
*I also don’t want to require someone to enter a support ticket after entering each order, and that would be a significant modification to the way I’ve done business with my clients for years.

Maybe the answer is to take orders through a database, connect the DB to Zapier and automate billing...I’ll have to look again at IPS being a solution to transition my other business to, as it doesn’t seem ready/friendly for service-based processes. Either way, your suggestion is much appreciated, but still doesn’t fill what I consider to be a huge void in the commerce system.

With all these add-ons in the marketplace, I’m actually quite shocked I haven’t come across one that adds ‘order status’ to ‘orders,’ and allows customers to subscribe to those updates in various ways (like forums, etc.). Thanks again!

Edited January 25, 2021 by Joss Leal
minor spelling issue