1The challenge
A prescription order is only half done when the customer pays. The lenses still have to be made. Before this integration:
- Order details had to be passed to the lab by hand.
- Lens names in the webshop didn’t match the lab’s own codes.
- There was no overview of which lenses were still in production.
- Mistakes in a shipment were hard to correct afterwards.
Made to order, at webshop speed
For made-to-order products, the webshop is only the first step. The order still has to reach production with exactly the right specifications, and status has to come back, so customer service can answer the question every customer asks: where is my order?
2Our approach
We built a custom export module in Magento that sits between the order and the lab, with a validation step first.
Validate first
A ’validated’ status and new order statuses: the team checks every prescription order before production, and can correct prescription values in the admin.
Daily export
Orders go to the lab once a day as a CSV with a PDF, including the lab’s own lens codes, the product image and the Magento order number.
Production overview
An overview of every lens in process, oldest first, with orders that are running late shown in red.
Shipments and tracking
Lenses are assigned to shipments, items added by mistake can be removed and the carrier tracking code shows in the order grid.
3The result
Wink & See’s orders now reach the lab without manual entry, in the format the lab works with. The team has one overview of everything in production and sees straight away which orders are running late, so customer service can answer status questions without chasing the supplier.
A complete user manual explains the process from A to Z, for the team and for the lab.
Next step: a remake flow for lenses that have to be produced again, so remakes are tracked like any other order.
?Frequently asked questions about supplier integrations
Can Magento send orders to a supplier automatically?
Yes. A custom export can send orders in the format the supplier uses, on a schedule or per order, and bring status information back.
Why validate orders before export?
For made-to-order products a mistake is expensive. A validation step lets the team catch errors in prescriptions or options before production starts.
What if the supplier uses different product codes?
We add a mapping, as here with the lab’s own lens names, so the export uses the supplier’s codes while the webshop keeps its own.
Does the supplier need new software?
No. Wink & See’s lab receives standard CSV and PDF files by email.
