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Customer Order History

A customer detail page answers what someone has bought at two depths: a statistics strip with their spend, order count and RFM group, and View all orders, which opens the Orders overview filtered to that person. This covers reading both, why the count and the list can disagree, and which figures on that page ignore the filter.

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Before you answer a customer, reply to a complaint, or decide how far to go to keep someone happy, it helps to know what they have actually bought. Tanqory answers that at two depths, and knowing which one you are looking at saves you from acting on the wrong number.

The shallow read is the statistics strip at the top of the customer's page, which gives you their spend and order count at a glance. The deep read is View all orders, which opens the Orders overview filtered to that one person, where every order is a row you can sort and open.

Before you begin

  • The customer has at least one order. View all orders appears only once they do, and before that the card reads No orders yet.
  • You have settled which customer record you are reading. A person with two records has their orders split between them, and Merge Duplicate Customer Records combines them.
  • Your role includes View customers and View orders, since the history is assembled from both.
  • Open Customers in the admin sidebar and select the customer whose orders you want to read.

Steps

1. Read the statistics strip

Five tiles run across the top of a customer's detail page, above their orders.

Tile What it tells you
Amount Spent Their lifetime spend
Orders How many orders they have placed
Average order value What a typical order from them comes to
Customer since How long they have been a customer, in plain words such as 4 months ago
RFM group The group Tanqory has put them in, such as CHAMPIONS or NEED_ATTENTION

The top of a customer detail page. The breadcrumb reads Customers then Noah Williams, and five tiles run beneath it: Amount Spent $887.00, Orders 3, Average order value $295.67, Customer since 4 months ago, and RFM group CHAMPIONS. Below them the Last order card holds orders #1031, #1006 and #1002, with View all orders and Create order at its foot, and the Customer card sits to the right (opens full size)

Average order value is their spend divided by their order count, so the figure is already implied by the two tiles beside it. What it saves you is the arithmetic when you are deciding how to treat someone: two customers who have each spent the same amount are different people when one of them did it in a single order.

RFM group is the tile people skip and should not. RFM stands for recency, frequency and monetary value, which is to say how lately this person bought, how often they buy and how much they spend. The group is Tanqory's own reading of those three, so it says in one word what the tiles beside it only imply, and a customer marked CHAMPIONS and one marked NEED_ATTENTION deserve different answers to the same complaint. Tanqory recalculates it, so the value on a record can change between visits without anyone editing the customer.

The order number of the most recent order is not one of these tiles. It is the first entry on the Last order card below them, which Customer Orders on the Detail Page covers in full.

Stop here when the question is about a recent order. Go further when you need the whole history or want to sort it.

2. Open the full list with View all orders

Select View all orders at the foot of the Last order card. The Orders overview opens with a filter already applied to that customer, shown as a chip reading Customer: followed by their name, with an X to drop it and Clear all beside it.

Removing the chip does not take you back to the customer. It leaves you on the Orders overview showing every order in the store, which is a different page from the one you came for.

The Orders overview filtered to one customer. Above the table, the Order Metrics cards read Total orders 26, Items ordered 61, Returns 3 and Orders fulfilled 15, and a Batches panel lists orders belonging to other customers. Below them a chip reads Customer: Noah Williams with an X, with Clear all beside it and Manage columns to the right. The table holds three rows, orders 1031, 1006 and 1002, and the footer reads 1-3 of 3 (opens full size)

3. Read the list

Each row is one order, newest first. The first columns are the ones that answer most questions.

Column What it holds
Order The order number, which opens the order
Date The date and time it was placed
Customer The customer's name, the same on every row while the filter is on
Channel Where the order came from, such as Online Store or Draft Order
Total The order total with its currency
Payment status Paid, Pending, Partially paid, Partially refunded, Refunded
Fulfillment status Fulfilled, Unfulfilled or Cancelled
Items How many items the order holds

The table does not stop there. Nine more columns run off to the right, which you reach by scrolling the table sideways: Delivery status, Delivery method, Tags, Destination, Label status, PO number, Return status, Total weight and Risk. Manage columns, above the table on the right, is where you turn the ones you do not use off, which is worth doing if you read this list often.

Return status is the one worth scrolling for while you have a customer on the phone. A row reading Return in progress is an order they have already sent something back from, which changes the answer to most questions about it.

Reading down the two status columns is the fastest way to spot a problem: a run of Unfulfilled rows means this customer is waiting on you, and a Pending row on an old order means money was never collected.

4. Open an order for the full detail

Select any row to open that order's own page, where the line items, payments, fulfillment and the actions you can take on it live. Order Detail Page walks through what you find there.

What on that page ignores the filter

The chip filters the table and nothing above it, which is the trap on this screen.

Above the table What it counts
Order Metrics Your whole store over the date range shown, not this customer
The Batches panel Recent unfulfilled work across the store, so it can list orders belonging to people you did not filter for

Both are visible in the picture above: the metrics read 26 total orders while the table below them reads 1-3 of 3, and the panel between them names other customers. Read the figure at the foot of the table, not the one at the top of the page.

The metrics are on screen only while analytics are shown. The control sits at the top right of the page and names what it will do, so it reads Hide analytics while they are visible and Show analytics once they are not.

Two numbers that do not always agree

The Orders tile counts orders and the filtered list shows rows, so it is natural to use one to check the other. Do not.

On most customers they match, and the one in the pictures reads 3 on the tile and returns three rows. On another customer on the same store the tile read 8 while the filtered list returned nine rows. No rule for the difference was established, so treat the tile as a quick indication and the filtered list as the record when the exact set matters.

If something goes wrong

  • An order is missing. The customer may have a second record. Search the Customers list by their email address to check.
  • The list shows every order in the store. The filter chip has been cleared. Go back to the customer and use View all orders again.
  • The totals look wrong. Check whether you are reading the store-wide Order Metrics rather than the tiles on the customer's own page.
  • The Order Metrics cards are not on the page. Analytics are hidden. The control at the top right reads Show analytics while they are.
  • A row names somebody else. Look at where it sits. The rows inside the Batches panel are not part of the filtered table.
  • A column you were told to check is not there. It is one of the nine off to the right. Scroll the table sideways or turn it on under Manage columns.
  • You can open the customer but not their orders. Your role may not include View orders. Ask an owner or admin.

Next steps

Still stuck?

More in Customers

  • Customer Segments

    A segment is a saved question about your customers rather than a saved list, so its members change as they do. Tanqory gives you two ways to write that question, a query builder and a form of Field, Operator and Value filters, and this article covers both, plus the panel that starts closed, the AI Refine field and what to do when it answers with nothing, the forty-nine fields you can filter on, and everything the row menu lets you do to a segment afterwards.

  • Adding a Customer

    Creating a customer record by hand, from the Add Customer button to the saved record. Three fields are required and everything else can wait, the three marketing consents start unticked and are a record of what the customer agreed to rather than a way to opt them in, and the Save bar is on the form from the moment it opens.

  • Customer Tags

    A tag gives a group of customers a name so it is already assembled when you need it. This article covers where tags are set, one record at a time or in bulk from the list, what a tag is actually good for once it exists, and the one thing it will not do, which is answer the search box.

  • Edit a Customer Record

    The Edit control on the Customer panel opens five things, not four: contact information, addresses, marketing consent across three channels, tax details, and adding the customer to a company. This walks each dialog, what it asks for, which fields are required, and which of them the store acts on without asking you again.

All 49 articles in Customers

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