Emails when a customer places order

[jaysfinds]

Hello everyone, I have been around these boards for a bit, and there are a lot of you experienced sellers on here. I am very new to e-Crater, and while I have been selling online for some time being the new kid in town I am feeling quite lost. I am confused about whether or not e-Crater sends notification via email of an order that has been placed. I see yes, and then I saw no, and just now I think I am reading yes again... So I turn to you for the definitive and correct answer. Thank you all in advance,
Gabrielle

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Welcome to eCRATER Gabrielle and thank you for checking the boards for answers to your questions. I can appreciate the conflict you would have seen for answers to your question. The answer is Yes, most of the time, and No, under some circumstances.

When a customer places an order, eCRATER sends an email to the customer AND the seller. The email will show the payment method the customer plans to use. The email ONLY means an order was placed, not a paid order. You need to check your PayPal account to confirm payment and create your own store system for dealing with paper payments if you accept them. The email will be sent to the email address you have listed on your admin page under "Account: Edit Account Info". (NOTE: You can change this email address, but the email address eCRATER will use to contact you as the store owner will be the address you used when you opened the store and it can only be changed by direct contact with eCRATER.) The email will be from "noreply@ecrater.com" and the subject will say "eCRATER Order #xxxxxxxxxxx". Some email programs automatically place these emails in the spam folder, so make sure your email program accepts emails from this address.

There are two exceptions to the above statement. If you had been here long enough to have established an account with Google Checkout AND you are still accepting GC payments, then you would not receive a notice from eCRATER for the orders paid via GC. Your notice would come from GC for those orders. The second exception would be in those rare exceptions where there is a system glitch with the communication between eCrater and PayPal or a glitch in the eCRATER system. Again I stress, this is a rare occurrence, but it can happen. I know many sellers have a work schedule that includes checking their PayPal account on a regular basis "just in case".

[MoonwishesStore]

I agree. Just yesterday I got an order that had the green check mark in my orders but all I had was the noreply email that said I had an order. I checked in PP saw that it was paid for and went ahead and packaged it up. By the time I was done the notification of payment was finally in my mailbox.

The best thing to do, depending on how many sales you get is check on your admin page for orders twice a day - morning and evening. If any are showing, check both GCO (at least currently) and PP to see if the money was deposited. If so, go ahead and process your sale. I always check the payment venue since I want to know how much the fee was so I can track it in my income and expense worksheets. I don't trust a formula since some weird things at time can throw the amount off and I want an accurate listing of fees paid.

I'm always surprised that some sellers will go days without checking or find out months later that they had a sale they never knew about. If you want to see your business grow tend it and keep an eye out for it.

[jaysfinds]

Got it... Thank you both so much for the great information and advise. I will definitely add e-CRATER to my address book, since my filters almost always sends anything and everything it doesn't recognize directly to spam, no questions asked. And yes, I am with you Moon, I would have to agree that checking the admin page twice a day is a good practice. My store is still very much under construction, and oh my goodness, it has been tedious. I have definitely been sleep deprived these last 2-3 weeks, but I am hoping it will pay off in the end. One, last questions if I may, what do you both do for advertising? What have you found most/not effective etc... anything you can throw my way is greatly appreciated.
Happy sales to all of us
-Gabrielle

[tigercreekgifts]

[MoonwishesStore]

[jaysfinds]

I am actually pretty active on Pinterest, but wasn't sure if that was doing anything. Glad to hear it is. I got my first order here today... I think.. I say I think because when I go to Paypal it doesn't show paid, but according to the email I received it is... So, I will wait until morning and see, maybe there is something pay-pal has to yet do, I didn't get the email from them I got it from e-CRATER... I also can't see or justify spending that much of the cost of anything to sell it... 25% is a lot.

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

[MoonwishesStore]

I have found, as have many others, that waiting a few hours or a day to see if the buyer will pay and if not, send them an email asking if you can help with getting the payment through. Sometimes buyers run into glitches. Other times they have changed their minds once they see the total. I have found about 20% maybe will pay, another 20% might tell you to cancel the order and the rest never respond back. I've found I get better results sending an email within 3-4 hours of the 'order' before they forget about it.
Whatever you do, make the email you send them sound professional and courteous and even if they don't buy now, invite them to shop with you again.

This is just general advice, not aimed at you but newer sellers in particular that don't understand this. There is no blocked buyer program here. There is no reason to get angry with a non-paying buyer. Since the item doesn't go out of stock until paid for you don't even have to relist it, no fees to get reimbursed, etc. Many sellers that are escapees from ebay get mad and want to do something. The best thing you can do is be polite, offer to help even if that means sending a direct PP invoice, and always invite them back. Blocking buyers is no way to deal with customers. Have you ever come into a store looked around, picked something up and carried it around then changed your mind and left without buying anything? Does that mean you would want the store to not let you in the next time your pockets are full of money?

[jaysfinds]

That is really good advise, I was actually trying to find if there were any rules against doing that very thing. Sending them a friendly email I mean. So, I am very glad you had already thought of that, and posted it. Perfect and thank you!! I'll give it until tonight and send it, that will have given him an entire day.

[jaysfinds]

ooooh, and I just read again, where you say you have better results 3-4 hrs after the order... well then, in that case, nothing against sending it now. So let's do this.

[jaysfinds]

Moon, you are a genius... I have just completed my first order on
e-CRATER. Thank you! He did have problems making the payment, and thought it had been completed.

[PegsBUTTONS]

[jaysfinds]

Thank you... very sweet in deed... many more to all of us...

[MoonwishesStore]

Glad it all worked out. I had one of those this morning, sent them an email and am just waiting more or less to see if they come through Too late for today's mail at this point though.