Why Your Order Operations Need a Written SOP Without a written SOP, your
order operations run on a combination of experienced staff knowledge and informal team consensus. That works until: - A key team member is absent and nobody else knows the full process - You onboard new staff and the training is inconsistent from person to person - Order volume spikes and steps get skipped under time pressure - Something goes wrong and you cannot identify where in the process the failure occurred A well-written SOP does not eliminate judgement. It captures your standard process so your team has a reliable baseline to work from
- and a reference point to return to when things get complex. --- ## Order Operations SOP Template ### SOP 1: Daily Order Review Purpose: Ensure all new orders are reviewed for exceptions before entering the fulfilment queue. Frequency: Start of each operating day. Repeat after each order cutoff if you operate multiple daily dispatch windows. Responsible: Operations lead or shift supervisor. Process: 1. Open Shopify admin and filter orders by the period since the last review 2. Scan each new order for exception indicators: incomplete address, payment hold, out-of-stock item, duplicate order, or high-value order requiring manual verification 3. Flag any exception orders and create a task in ShopTasks with the order number, exception type, and required action 4. Confirm inventory availability for all clean orders 5. Release confirmed clean orders to the pick queue Exception criteria for escalation:
- Address correction required - Any item out of stock or showing inventory discrepancy - Order value above your manual review threshold - Duplicate order detected - Any order flagged by the customer before fulfilment --- ### SOP 2: Pick and Pack Purpose: Ensure orders are picked accurately and packed to standard before dispatch. Frequency: Continuous during operational hours, prioritized by dispatch deadline. Responsible: Warehouse team. Process:
- Pull orders from the pick queue in priority order: same-day dispatch first, then chronological 2. Pick items against the order manifest - confirm item, variant, and quantity before placing in the tote 3. Apply packaging to the standard defined in your Packaging Guide 4. Apply the correct shipping label for the selected carrier service and delivery type 5. Complete the packing checklist task in ShopTasks before marking the physical order ready for dispatch 6. Move packed orders to the carrier collection area Quality controls: - Verify the pick against the order one final time before sealing the package - Record any picking discrepancy as a ShopTasks task before proceeding - Never seal a package with an unresolved pick discrepancy --- ### SOP 3: Exception Handling Purpose: Ensure all order exceptions are resolved before the relevant shipping deadline. Frequency: As required throughout the operating day. Responsible: Customer service team for customer-facing exceptions. Warehouse team for fulfilment exceptions. Operations lead for escalations. Process: 1. Any team member who identifies an exception creates a task in ShopTasks with: order number, exception type, and a brief description 2. The task is assigned to the appropriate resolver based on exception type 3. The resolver takes action - contacts the customer if required, coordinates the fulfilment correction, or escalates as needed 4. On resolution, the task is marked complete with a note describing what was done 5. If the exception cannot be resolved within the same operating day, it is escalated to the operations lead before end of day --- ### SOP 4: End-of-Day Reconciliation Purpose: Confirm operational completion and carry forward any unresolved items to the next day. Frequency: End of each operating day. Responsible: Operations lead. Process: 1. Confirm all orders within the day's dispatch window have been picked, packed, and collected by the carrier 2. Review all open ShopTasks tasks for that day - note any unresolved exceptions 3. Escalate any exception tasks that are outstanding and time-sensitive 4. Update stock counts for any discrepancies identified during the day's picking 5. Record the daily exception count by type in your operations log --- ## From Document to Enforced Standard A PDF SOP is a starting point. ShopTasks converts each step of your SOP into a trackable task your team completes inside Shopify admin - turning a document into an enforced daily operational standard with completion records, named owners, and a full audit trail.