Order, self-service & rewards lifecycle

This guide is the end-to-end map of what Sellerlane does after a buyer checks out. It connects payment, fulfillment, inventory, self-service, loyalty, referrals, and review rewards so the rules do not contradict each other.

The central rule is simple: money, order lifecycle, and fulfillment are three different states. A paid order can still be unfulfilled. A fulfilled order can later be partially refunded. A canceled order can keep payment history without allowing any new delivery.

The complete order gate

An open order branches to fully paid, any other financial status, or a terminal lifecycle. Only open and fully paid orders enter automatic fulfillment. — Automatic delivery needs an open order and exact paid status. Every other financial status—including pending and refund states—remains held; canceled and closed orders are terminal.

The same decision is restated below so it remains searchable and readable without the diagram.

Current order state	Automatic fulfillment	Buyer self-service	Seller action
Paid · Open	Runs for eligible non-shipping and carry-out items according to the product → type → store policy	Normal snapshotted policy applies	Fulfill, split, move, hold, or release
Payment pending · Open COD or other manual method	Held. No download, key, gift card, event seat, meeting, or no-ship fulfillment is created automatically	Remaining unfulfilled quantities may be canceled when policy permits. Standalone refunds, delivery, redelivery, and rescheduling stay blocked; cancellation can refund only genuine prepaid tender	Record collection to mark paid, or use the explicit audited unpaid-fulfillment override
Partially paid · Open	Held until fully paid	Normal snapshotted self-service policy applies; any refund exposure is capped to tender actually collected	Collect the balance or use a deliberate seller override only where exposed
Authorized · Open	Held until captured and fully paid	Blocked as unpaid	Capture the authorization, or use a deliberate seller override only where exposed
Voided · Open	Held	Blocked as unpaid	Take and record a new payment; a voided authorization cannot be captured
Partially refunded / Refunded · Open	Held because automatic delivery requires exact paid status	Normal snapshotted self-service policy applies; monetary actions are capped by remaining refundable tender	Review remaining quantities and refund state; use explicit audited fulfillment only when intended
Canceled / Closed	Never	Blocked	New fulfillment is blocked, including force actions

An explicit seller override is for exceptional manual workflows, such as handing over a paid-at-the-counter item before the manual payment record is updated. It requires an authenticated seller actor and is auditable. It does not weaken the absolute canceled/closed lifecycle gate.

What “automatic” means

Automatic fulfillment never packs or ships a parcel. It can:

create an active digital grant or license-key assignment;
issue a gift card;
reserve an event seat and stage online-meeting provisioning;
complete a physical item explicitly configured as not requiring shipping, including a POS carry-out sale.

A physical item that needs shipping always remains in its fulfillment order for a person or fulfillment service to pack and ship.

COD and manual-payment examples

Order #1042 is awaiting ₹1,000 at delivery and nothing has been collected. The buyer cancels before fulfillment. Sellerlane cancels the remaining quantity, releases its inventory, and removes the ₹1,000 manual collectible. The refund is ₹0, because no money was taken.

When an address is required

The address rule follows the delivery promise, not the product title or sales channel.

Checkout shape	Shipping address	What else is required
Online order with any shipped item	Required	A complete shipping option and delivery-group plan
Online pickup	Not required	Pickup location/group; pickup currently applies to the whole cart
Online digital, gift card, event, or no-ship-only cart	Not required	Billing address is still required online for invoice and tax
POS carry-out	Not required	Register location supplies the operational location
POS ship-to-customer	Required	Adding the address switches the sale into delivery mode; a shipping option is then required
Cancellation	Not required	Order identity and reason/policy checks
Return	Buyer shipping address is not requested again	The approved return shows the merchant return destination

See Addresses at checkout for the buyer-facing version of these rules.

Split fulfillment, locations, and inventory

One order can become several fulfillment orders. Sellerlane groups quantities by delivery group and assigned location, so Order #1044 can ship one line from Bengaluru warehouse while another waits at Chennai warehouse.

Checkout reserves stock against the routing plan.
Successful order creation commits the reservation at the actual source location. A failed or canceled checkout releases it.
Each location receives its own fulfillment order. Staff can fulfill part of a quantity, hold it, or move the remaining plan to another eligible location.
A fulfillment consumes only the quantity recorded at that location. A canceled unfulfilled quantity releases the corresponding commitment.

Moving work does not merge unrelated shipments or silently move inventory. The order page keeps the source location, destination, remaining quantity, package, and tracking state visible. See Order routing and Locations & inventory.

Customer self-service

A buyer request is validated, stored durably, and either auto-approved, sent for merchant approval, or rejected with a reason. — Instant does not mean ephemeral: Sellerlane stores the request first, applies it under locks, and uses a worker plus periodic sweep to recover safely after interruptions.

Every order keeps the policy version that applied when it was placed. A later settings edit does not unexpectedly rewrite the buyer’s window or fee. Current order facts—payment, quantities, lifecycle, duplicate open requests, and deadlines—are still rechecked when the action runs.

Buyer action	Main eligibility	Approval and result
Cancel order or lines	Remaining `ordered − fulfilled − canceled` quantity and open cancel window; pending manual/COD is the sole unpaid exception	Configurable; default is approval. Cancels quantity, releases stock, reduces manual collectible, and can atomically refund real tender when policy or seller requests it
Return a physical item	Fulfilled but not already returned; delivery-anchored window, final-sale, reason, and condition rules	Approval by default. Creates the return/RMA workflow; refund can be a separate or approved linked action
Refund a digital item	Eligible active grant inside the digital window	Approval by default. Revokes entitlement/key before a configured refund is created
Redeliver a digital item	Active grant	Approval by default; an address matching neither the order contact nor the customer email always forces approval. Does not reset download count
Reset digital downloads	Active grant and redownload enabled	Always approval. Resets the meter, invalidates prior access, and grants fresh access
Reschedule an event	Active reservation, before event, within reschedule limit	Instant outside the configured cutoff by default; inside the cutoff forces approval. The reservation change and provider work are staged safely
Cancel an event	Active reservation before the event	Approval by default; cutoff and snapshotted refund percentage apply. Reservation/meeting access is revoked before any refund
Resend a gift card	Issued, spendable, and not future-scheduled	Instant by default, but only to the original recipient

Damage, defect, wrong-item, or not-as-described reasons can bypass a normal window/final-sale block into manual review. They never become an automatic approval. Physical and digital items are handled in separate return requests so one decision cannot accidentally revoke the wrong kind of entitlement.

Retry and refund safety

An instant request is stored as Requested · Auto-approved before Sellerlane tries the action. The synchronous path provides a quick result; an immediate background job and periodic sweep recover it if the browser, process, or provider fails at the wrong instant. The same idempotency key replays the original request, so retries do not double-cancel, double-refund, resend twice, or create a second meeting.

For COD/manual cancellation, only money actually collected can be refunded. Automatic cancellation refunds are off by default; a merchant can enable them in policy or choose Create refund while approving. Cancellation and that linked refund are then committed together.

A physical return’s first partial refund does not finish the request. Completion requires the approved goods and the saved net refund obligation to be resolved; receiving goods alone does not refund money. This also keeps an unresolved return visible to reward eligibility checks. See Completing a buyer’s return request for a three-shirt example and the explicit Close action for an agreed partial settlement.

Finish or cancel any remaining warehouse receiving documents too. Completing the buyer request does not close those documents or invent returned stock; outstanding warehouse work or another open refund can still hold rewards.

Events and digital delivery issues

Event meetings are provisioned asynchronously so a slow Zoom or Google Meet response does not hold an order write transaction open. Until a replacement is confirmed, regeneration keeps the usable meeting intact. The order shows a plain-language state such as Meeting provisioning failed with retry or regenerate actions; a broken join link is not presented as ready to the buyer.

Digital access is controlled at the grant, not merely at the email link:

the merchant sets a download limit and a duration after access is granted; provisioning freezes the resulting absolute grant expiry;
issuing a short-lived signed URL does not itself count as a completed file download;
a successful download consumes that file’s independent meter and increments the grant’s aggregate usage count;
a reset invalidates prior access before creating new access;
the order page shows downloads used, limit, expiry, activation, and last download in readable labels.

See Event bookings and Digital products & downloads.

Loyalty, referral, and review rewards

Three reward paths: purchase points wait before spending, referral rewards wait for a qualifying purchase and holds, and authentic reviews qualify independently of storefront publication. — Points, discount codes and monetary credit have different refund rules. Accepted offers keep their saved terms; pending work remains subject to eligibility and safety checks.

Loyalty points

New earning and redemption require an active program and the customer’s eligibility, membership and consent. Redeeming points does not silently enroll a customer. Personal rewards do not apply to company purchases.

State	Meaning
Pending	Earned but still waiting for the purchase/return hold; cannot be spent
Available	Vested, unexpired points that can be used
Reserved	Held for an active redemption
Redeemed	Consumed by a completed benefit
Unrecovered	Invalidated points were already spent; future earns repay this points debt first

Purchase-backed points wait for the saved order policy and their configured delay. An open return/refund request can keep an award pending. Pausing freezes vesting and expiry for existing point lots; resuming shifts those clocks. Accepted review-point offers retain their saved terms and can still be evaluated while the program is paused. New redemption stays blocked, and pending point lots remain subject to the program’s hold and resume rules.

Refund and cancellation rules use the original eligible merchandise basis:

when Partially refunded is selected for clawback, a partial reversal removes the corresponding earn; a fixed or threshold award can reverse completely if its qualifying threshold is lost;
full cancellation, void or terminal full refund unwinds order-earned points;
a partial refund on a discounted pay-with-points order does not also restore redeemed points: the refund already uses post-discount values;
a full unwind restores the applicable redemption;
free-shipping points return on a terminal unwind before successful shipment, or when charged shipping is explicitly fully refunded. An item-only refund after shipment keeps those points spent.

Example: Asha earns 100 points, waits for them to become available and spends all 100. A later full cancellation records 100 unrecovered points. Her next earn of 150 first settles that debt, leaving 50 available after any applicable hold. It does not debit ₹100 from her card or unrelated store credit.

VIP qualification is separate from points spending. A qualified tier carries a 12-month membership term; ordinary aging or later threshold edits do not shorten that term. A refund invalidating the underlying qualification can still change it. See Loyalty & referrals for setup.

Customer referrals

A link click is not a completed referral reward. The friend needs an eligible personal purchase, attribution, the minimum purchase value and any required new-customer checks. Company and test orders do not qualify. The advocate’s award also waits for purchase maturity and any risk review.

Attach the advocate’s signed referral code to the friend’s checkout.
Save the accepted referral terms before starting payment. Asynchronous order creation uses that checkout claim, including its buyer and checkout generation; an edited reward or later program pause does not replace the accepted terms.
Qualify the paid purchase. Deterministic self-referrals are blocked; uncertain address, household, device or network evidence can require merchant review. A shared address alone is not a finding of fraud.
Wait for the later of the saved purchase-maturity deadline and the configured reward delay. Delivery, the applicable return/refund window, event end and unresolved requests can affect when value is available. Do not simply add every duration together or count all of them from payment time.
Issue the eligible discount or store credit after the gates pass. A later disqualifying cancellation, chargeback or refund can disable unused value or create recovery for already-spent promotional credit.

Example: If the saved purchase policy permits an award after 8 November and its saved program delay ends on 4 November, it waits until after the 8 November boundary, provided no request or review is still open. It does not become available on 4 November or automatically wait another four days after the 8th.

Disabling referrals stops new attribution. Existing saved referral obligations continue under their stored terms, including accepted checkouts waiting for order creation. A browsing link by itself is not an accepted obligation. See Rewards: settings and recovery.

Reviews and review rewards

An authentic review is rewarded for the contribution, not for a positive rating, publication on the storefront or the buyer keeping the product. Direct review incentives and loyalty review points share one financial incentive entitlement per order. They do not pay two separate incentives for the same order.

A submitted review waits for its original attachment window to close and for relevant media safety checks. Clean qualifying media can count before public media delivery finishes. Public visibility, AI publication moderation and star rating do not decide whether an authentic contribution earns a reward. A later content-only media reminder does not create a new reward opportunity.

Event	What happens
Honest 1-star instead of 5-star review	Same incentive eligibility; sentiment is not a gate
Publish, hide or change the public display of an authentic review	Presentation changes do not by themselves cancel its reward
Ordinary product return or refund	Can affect purchase points or referrals; does not by itself invalidate an authentic review reward
Fraudulent, duplicate or inauthentic submission	Can invalidate the review reward; previously issued value is reconciled rather than erased from history
Original photo still being safety-checked	Reward evaluation can remain pending; an upload alone is not a clean qualifying photo
Upload during a later content-only reminder	May improve the displayed review; cannot upgrade the frozen reward
Company purchase	Does not earn a personal review incentive

Direct and loyalty review offer terms are saved at invitation or submission, with a claim window capped at 30 days. A deadline to qualify is different from the lifetime of an already-issued coupon. Pending, issued, expired, revoked and failed states remain explainable in the buyer’s reward history. Rechecking status does not mean submitting the review again.

Example: Ravi submits an authentic 1-star review under a saved ₹100 offer. The merchant hides it while investigating the product problem and refunds the shirt. Those actions alone do not take back the review incentive. If that offer uses a once-per-customer cap, another order cannot consume the same rule’s entitlement again. Removing required qualifying media or establishing fraud can still invalidate the contribution.

Native Verified purchase badges represent eligible historical purchases. A normal refund can preserve that history; canceled, voided, test or ineligible linked purchases cannot establish it. Trusted imports and manual verification are distinct assertions. See Reviews for the full rules.

Refunds of promotional credit

Credit keeps its source, owner, currency and original promotional expiry when returned by a refund. If the source reward was invalidated after the credit was spent, a later credit refund settles that recovery instead of making the same invalid reward spendable again. Only the relevant source is recovered; unrelated purchased value is not taken. A merchant waiver closes recovery without issuing new money or renewing expiry.

The store-credit example separates a ₹1,000 order into ₹800 gateway payment and ₹200 promotional credit, then shows the cash refund, credit restoration and credit withheld for recovery.

What the order page explains

The order detail page uses customer, product, location, payment-method, event, and fulfillment names in normal UI. Internal UUIDs remain available only where they help technical support; they are not used as the primary label.

The order detail surface distinguishes actionable conditions, including:

outstanding COD/manual collection or a failed/still-reconciling payment;
fulfillment holds, overdue work, split locations, packages, and tracking;
event meeting provisioning or regeneration failure;
missing or pending digital access and pending key assignment in attention, plus grant revocation, expiry, and download counts in the digital card;
open customer requests in the self-service card, with the stored request and auto-approved history instead of a claim that every open row awaits a person;
pending, failed, or manually reviewed refunds;
payment, fulfillment, return, refund, event, gift-card, and digital status changes in the timeline.

A buyer-facing page says Order received while payment is pending, not “Ready.” A canceled order is labeled explicitly. Problems remain visible with the next safe action instead of showing a raw error code or internal identifier.

Worked launch checklist

Place one paid gateway order and confirm eligible digital delivery occurs.
Place one COD order and confirm every irreversible deliverable remains held.
Cancel a plain COD order and confirm collectible decreases with ₹0 refund.
Test a split-tender COD cancellation and confirm only real prepaid value is offered for refund.
Test carry-out, pickup, and ship-to-customer address behavior separately.
Download two assets from one digital grant and confirm each file keeps its independent cap while the grant total increments.
Split a physical order across two locations, partially fulfill one, and move the remainder.
Interrupt an instant self-service action and confirm its worker finishes the same request without duplicating the effect.
Pause and resume loyalty; confirm vesting and expiry clocks shift.
Refund/cancel qualifying referral orders before and after reward issuance.
Submit an honest low-rated review, hide it, and make an ordinary return; confirm its authentic contribution is not confused with purchase points.
Rehearse settings changes, repeated refunds and expiry boundaries from Rewards: settings and recovery before enabling a promotion; record the resulting histories and messages.

POS billing & payments

Run simultaneous in-store sales and choose a safe buyer payment action in POS billing & payments.

Automatic fulfillment

Configure the product, type, and store policy in Automatic fulfillment.

Loyalty & referrals

Configure earning, redemption, maturity, fraud review, and reporting in Loyalty & referrals.

Review requests & rewards

Set timing, media qualification, rewards, and disclosure in Review requests & rewards.