How to create custom order statuses 3 March 2025  |  Cate

Managing orders efficiently is crucial for any business and having the right order statuses can make a big difference. While default order statuses, like In Progress or Shipped, cover the basics, custom statuses can help you streamline operations, improve communication, and keep customers informed. In Bluepark, you can create your own custom order statuses, such as Order on Hold and Return Request Submitted, to create an order workflow to fit your business needs perfectly.

Create a custom order status

To create a custom order status, go to Orders > Order Statuses within the admin panel and click the green plus Create New icon. Give the status a name - Status Name (Internal) is required but, if you prefer to show different wording to your customers for this status, add this into Status Name (Customer) as well.

An example of this would be setting the Status Name (Internal) as Order on Hold (No Stock), but setting the Status Name (Customer) to In Progress, so they don't start worrying that they won't get their order on time. Always think carefully of the perception of your internal name for customers. Put yourself in their shoes, and think about how you would interpret the name, if you saw that status on an order you'd placed elsewhere. If it's a negative perception, add in a separate name for customers.

Make your order status stand out

There are various ways you can make your custom order status stand out within your list in Orders. You can do this by setting a different icon, which will show to the left of the order, using the Image Shape option. Here, you can select from Pause, which could be used for an on-hold status, a Plane, which could be used to flag an overseas order, and many more.

Below this, you can set the colour of the icon, either type in a HEX code you want to use or click on the field to open the Colour Picker. You can also set a Line Border Colour, which will add a border all the way around the order line in Orders. The latter is particularly good for making urgent order statuses stand out, such as if an order is next day delivery.

Lastly, you can set if the order should be moved up or down within the list of orders, or should remain in the position it's in. Moving it up to the top can be used if it's something needs dealing with urgently, such as next day delivery, and moving it to the bottom can be used if the order no longer needs any action taken on it, such as the order's been returned and refunded.

Set automation

You can use the settings in the Conditions for Use section to set and unset the order status on orders automatically. For instance, if you use the Bank Transfer payment option, you may want an order to be set with a status of Awaiting Bank Transfer as soon as it's placed, or you may want a status of Items Not In Stock to be unset on an order as soon as all the items come into stock.

If Never is selected in both Set Automatically If and Unset Automatically If, then the custom order status won't be applied automatically and your team will have to apply this to an order manually. This is done by clicking into edit the order, so you're in the Order Processor, and then selecting the relevant order status from the drop down at top middle.

Set Automatically If contains lots of different scenarios you can use, such as stock availability, if items have been picked, if items have shipped, if the order was placed by in-house staff (MOTO), the payment method used, the shipping method used, or the customer is within a specific group. By selecting one of these, the custom order status will be automatically applied to an order as soon as those conditions are met.

Unset Automatically If contains various conditions relating to availability, such as All Items Available and Some Items Unavailable, as well as a Due For Despatch condition.

And Set Rule is used in conjunction with Unset Automatically If. Here, you can select another custom order status to be applied if the condition within Unset Automatically If is met. For instance, if a custom order status called Items Unavailable - Don't Despatch is set to automatically unset when all items come into stock, then, once this happens, a new custom order status of Due For Despatch can be applied automatically.

Prevent Auto-Completion is rarely used, but is an option if you want to stop the system automatically setting the order to the standard Completed order status, if the order has been fully paid for and shipped.

An example of this would be creating a custom order status called Despatched - Awaiting Confirmation, selecting All Items Shipped in Set Automatically If, which would apply as soon as the order has been shipped, but you don't want it to be set to Completed until the customer or delivery company confirms its delivery. Once they've confirmed, you can then manually set it to Completed. This is particularly useful if you sell expensive bespoke goods.

Create a custom email

If you wish for your customers to receive an email once a custom order status has been set, then you can create this within the Optional Email section. A good example of this would be if you created a custom status for return requests and you want to provide customers with details on where they need to return the order to. You can then include this within the custom email.

You can set the subject line in Email Subject and the content of the email in Email Body. If you have an Email Wrapper set in Settings> Settings > Website tab > Additional Email Content (HTML), this will be applied to the email.

The variables that are listed below this section can be used to pull pieces of information about the order and the customer into the email subject and/or content. For instance, you could set the subject line as An update about your order - %order and then this would place the customer's actual order number where the %order variable is. The line would then appear as An update about your order - OR1001 for the customer, when the email is sent, if their order number was OR1001 .

Features that use custom order statuses

Custom order statuses can be used in conjunction with the Customer Questions and Self-Service Returns features. In Settings > Settings > Orders tab > Customer Requests section, you can set which custom order status needs to automatically apply if the customer sends an order change or cancellation question or a returns request. This allows you to streamline these processes in-house, as well as keeping the customer informed.

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