How to stop losing orders in your DMs

Why do orders get lost in DMs?

A DM is a conversation, not an order form. When someone buys through a chat, the order is spread across a dozen messages, and nothing pulls it together. That causes the same few problems for almost every seller:

• The details are in different messages. The size is in one, the colour two days later, the address in a voice note.
• Orders come in through more than one app. Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook each keep their own inbox, so there is no single place to look.
• Payment proof is a screenshot. You have to match it to a name and an amount by hand, and screenshots can be edited.
• Nothing shows the status. Has this one paid? Did it ship? The chat doesn't know.
• New messages bury old ones. A customer who said yes on Monday is ten chats down by Wednesday.

The fix is the same in every case: get each order out of the chat and written down once, as soon as the customer says yes.

Step 1: Answer the usual questions before they're asked

Most DMs start with the same three questions: is it still available, how much, and how do I get it. Every one you answer in advance is a chat you don't have to keep track of.

• Put the price in every post caption. “DM for price” brings in more chats, not more sales.
• Pin a post or make a story highlight called “How to order” with your sizes, shipping or pickup, and payment options.
• When something sells out, say so in the caption or archive the post.

Step 2: Write every order down in one place

Pick one list and put every order in it, whichever app it came from. A notebook works for a few orders. A spreadsheet works better. These columns are enough:

Give every order a number and use it in your messages. “Your order #1047” is much easier to find later than “the scarf order from last week”.

Step 3: Confirm the order back in writing

Before you take payment, send the customer one message with the whole order. It catches mistakes while they are cheap to fix, and it gives you a single message to search for later.

Order #1047: 2 × linen scarf, small, $52.00. Pickup Saturday 10 to 2 at the market stall. Please pay by e-Transfer and put 1047 in the message. Reply OK and I'll set them aside.

Step 4: Take payment before you make or ship

Unpaid orders are where most of the chasing happens. Ask for payment before you bake, make, pack or set anything aside, unless it is a regular you trust.

Don't confirm from a screenshot. Open your bank or payment app, find the payment, and check the amount and name. Asking customers to put the order number in the payment note makes this a ten-second job.

Step 5: Send a link instead of typing the order out

Steps 2 to 4 work, but you are still doing all the writing. Once you sell more than a few things a week, it is faster to let the customer fill in the order themselves.

That is what an order link does. When someone asks for something in a DM, you pick the items once and send a link. Their cart opens with the right size and colour already chosen. They add their address, pay by card or PayPal, and get an email. The order lands in your list with its status, and your stock goes down by itself.

Step 6: Keep a short daily routine

• Check messages at set times, for example morning and evening, rather than all day.
• Move every “yes” into your list straight away, then send the confirmation or the link.
• Label or archive the chat once the order is written down. The WhatsApp Business app has labels such as New order, Pending payment and Paid.
• Go through unpaid orders once a day, and send one friendly reminder before you release the item.

When is a spreadsheet enough?

If you get a few orders a week and they rarely go wrong, a spreadsheet and a confirmation message are fine. Switch to a checkout when you notice any of these:

• You have missed or double-sold an order.
• You spend more time copying details from chats than making things.
• You are chasing the same customers for payment every week.
• Customers ask “do you have a website?”