Follow one order from click to delivered and see where the hours go
In a small online store, the founder knows every step and nobody else can see them. We sit with you and map how an order moves from click to delivered, how stock gets reordered, and how a return gets handled. Then we mark the steps that eat hours. Often it's the emails and the typing around each order, and that's where an AI helper starts. Packing, product decisions, and upset customers stay yours.
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What we map in a small online store
Order to delivered
Every step from payment to the parcel arriving, including the customer emails in between.
Restock
How you notice stock is low, order from suppliers, and get invoices into the accounts.
Returns and complaints
Who handles a return, what gets checked, and how long it takes from email to refund.
Launches and sales
The work behind a new product or a sale, from product pages to the Klaviyo email.
The steps nobody has written down
Ask a store founder what happens after an order comes in and you’ll hear about picking and packing. Ask about the whole week and more comes out. Customer emails, supplier invoices, restock orders, returns, review replies, the launch email, the daily payout check. It all lives in the founder’s head and in six different apps. That’s fine until you hire someone, go on holiday, or try to hand part of it to AI.
How we map it
Mapping how you work (the industry calls it process mapping) means writing down each step of a job, who does it, which tool it happens in, and how long it really takes. For an online store, we follow an order from click to delivered, then a restock from low stock to the bill in Xero, then a return from email to refund. We talk it through with you and look at your Shopify, inbox, and accounts. Then we mark the steps that repeat, the ones that wait, and the ones that should stay with you.
What mapping found in two stores
We work with a three-person online skincare store where the costly step was order emails, mostly asking where a parcel was. An AI helper now drafts those replies, and the founder clears them in about twenty minutes each morning. We also work with a five-person online homewares store where the costly step was typing 60 supplier invoices a month into Xero. Those are now drafted from the inbox and approved in one sitting a week. Two stores, two different first jobs, found by following the work.
The limits of a map
A map is a picture of today and goes out of date when your store changes. It also needs the honest version, including the weeks a courier loses a pallet of parcels. If it only shows the smooth weeks, AI gets pointed at the wrong step.
If you’re not sure where your store’s hours go, get your AI Starter Plan. It’s the fastest first map.
Related
Read about our Mapping how you work service, and how we help small teams in e-commerce.
Common questions
Why map it if I already know how my store works?
How long does it take?
Do we keep the map?
What does it cost?
What won't the map do?
Start with a map of one order
Talk us through what happens after someone clicks buy. Get your AI Starter Plan and you'll see where your hours go.
Get your AI Starter Plan