Order aging report: how old are your unfulfilled orders?
The short answer
An order aging report counts every open, unfulfilled order by how long it has waited since it was placed, in bands such as 0 to 2 days, 3 to 5, 6 to 10 and over 10. Add each order's promised date and customer, so the team can clear the oldest and highest-value orders first.
Why it matters
Old orders turn into cancellations, complaints and customers who do not come back. A daily view of the backlog by age tells operations where to focus and tells service which customers to contact before those customers chase you.
The question to ask
Copy this into Lexi as written.
What the answer looks like
Illustrative output on sample data
Illustrative example: how Lexi answers this for a toy retailer in early December. It bands every order with an unshipped line by days since it was placed, excluding agreed preorders.
- 0 to 2 days: 8,400 orders
- 3 to 5 days: 2,900
- 6 to 10 days: 1,100, with 640 past the promised date
- Over 10 days: 300, all past the promised date
What the data shows
12,700 orders are open and 940 are late. 85 of the late orders belong to customers who also had a late order last month.
What it means
Those 85 customers have now had two failures in a row in the busiest weeks of the year.
What to do
Have the service team contact the 85 directly, and send every late customer an update email today.
Would you like me to push the late-order customers to Klaviyo?
Frequently asked questions
Should order age start at order date or promised date?
Track both. Age since order date shows how long the customer has waited, which drives their frustration. Age since the promised date shows how late you are against what you told them, which drives service contacts. Report bands on order date and flag every order past its promised date.
Why do unfulfilled orders build up without anyone noticing?
Most reports count orders shipped, which can stay high while a backlog of hard-to-fill orders grows behind them. Orders waiting on one out-of-stock line, a split shipment or an address check sit untouched. An aging report surfaces them by counting open orders by age.
How often should an order aging report run?
Daily for most retailers, and twice a day during peaks such as the holiday season. The report only helps if it reaches the people who can act while the oldest orders can still ship on time, so send it at the start of the warehouse and service shifts.