Get Started with Online Order Extensibility
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Summarize the advanced orders feature of Consumer Goods Cloud.
- State the advantages of personalizing the order-capture process.
- Define online order extensibility.
- Describe the advanced order pages in CG Cloud.
Before You Start
Before you start this module, consider completing the following recommended content.
Order, Track, and Fulfill
Order management is more than just moving products from point A to point B. It’s making sure the right product gets to the right place, on time. On the whole, effective order management keeps your customers happy and your business profitable. At the heart of order management is order capture: the process of gathering and recording customer orders.
Order capture involves selecting products, checking availability and pricing, entering quantities, and submitting the order for processing. In the consumer goods space, you might have heard the term order placement used for when sales reps visit stores to perform audits. In this case, their goal is to check and replenish inventory. This module uses the term order capture to include order placement.
Despite the critical nature of order capture, businesses often struggle with tools that fall short, leading to disrupted operations, frustrated customers and employees, and lost business. For retailers, that might mean empty shelves and disappointed shoppers. For manufacturers, this can be missed opportunities to build trust and loyalty.
Consumer Goods (CG) Cloud lets you take control of your order-capture process. And with the advanced orders feature, you can tailor and optimize the ordering experience. Enhanced filtering and search capabilities, clear product displays, and flexible customization options can transform the ordering process at every stage.
Key Benefits
Use the interactive tool to learn the benefits of advanced orders in CG Cloud.
Advanced Orders in CG Cloud
Both consumer-goods retailers and manufacturers have a lot to gain from advanced orders in CG Cloud. Namely, manufacturing sales agents and supervisors, and retail store workers and managers can place accurate digital orders on the spot.
Alpine Group is a consumer goods company that makes food and beverages for health-conscious people. One of its major customers is Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO), a chain of stores across the US.
Fatima Daniels, the Salesforce admin at Alpine Group, manages ordering processes for NTO. Recently, the sales manager shared some feedback with Fatima from several NTO store managers, highlighting the challenges with the current system.
Store managers want more capabilities from their current order-capture tools. For example, they want to update fields like the order currency or order name in the order header. They also want to add custom text in the delivery notes.
Fatima knows just the ticket: advanced orders with CG Cloud. She plows ahead to start customizing the CG Cloud order pages with store managers in mind.
Advanced Order Pages
The advanced order pages in CG Cloud are designed for flexibility and personalization. Here’s an advanced order record shown in the Field Sales Execution app.
Order templates define the basic layout and structure of order pages, including these elements.
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Order Page Header (1): Displays key details like customer name, order ID, and order status
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Order Items (2): Lists the products included in the order
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Order Header (3): Shows information like order dates, delivery notes, and the person responsible for the order
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Add Item (4): A place to add new order items
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Free Items: An optional element that shows any complimentary items associated with the order
Order Extensibility
To customize order pages, you or your Salesforce admin can edit the JSON fields in the Advanced Order Experience Customization section of the relevant order template. These fields on the order template initially appear blank by default, but the JSON codes are visible and can be modified to add, remove, hide, or reorder elements on the page. Any changes made to the JSON affect new and pending orders created with the updated template.
Order extensibility means expanding what you can already do with CG Cloud to make your online ordering process even better. With CG Cloud Online Order Extensibility, also called Order LWC UI Extensibility, you can refine the order-capture user interface (UI) to boost productivity—without changing core workflows. Start with order templates, which form the basic structure of orders. Then configure the order templates to customize order pages in CG Cloud. To learn about creating order templates, check out the resources at the end of this unit.
So far, you’ve learned about order capture in the consumer goods industry, along with the current challenges that manufacturers and retailers face. You also explored the key benefits of customization using the advanced orders feature, where Order Extensibility comes into play. In the next unit, learn how to customize the advanced orders pages.