53+ SAMPLE Order Form Templates in PDF | MS Word | Excel

What Is an Order Form?

An order form is a sales tool that customers use to request for merchandise or services from a business. It’s often used in direct marketing to allow customers to communicate information directly with retailers or manufacturers. It contains details about the order and the party placing the order for the receiving end to process the data efficiently. By summarizing the needs of a customer accordingly in a single document, orders may be processed more smoothly for a successful transaction.

Although printable order forms have been around for decades, many businesses have begun to adapt to the modernized method of data collection through online order forms. Many of us are guilty of placing our orders in, as we scroll tirelessly through different shopping apps. A study by Statista even found that 46% of global online shopping orders were made by smartphone users as of early 2019, in which shoppers with Android devices had online orders that valued at approximately 67.96 U.S. dollars.

In cases where order forms are a key part of the business process, customers fill in the form, receive an invoice, and wait for their orders to arrive.

The Importance of Order Forms

One of the easiest ways to collect data for your business is through a form. You’ll find all kinds of business forms used for different intentions, but with a common aim of acquiring important information from users. In a sales cycle, a form lets you persuade prospects to make a purchase, monitor your sales funnel, evaluate your conversion rates, and store individual records of customers. These documents can come as an advantage to both the company and its consumers as it allows the business to list out its offers in detail for a customer’s convenience. Users can fill out these forms before initiating payment as they go through the crucial stages of the sales cycle.

Many small businesses and global corporations utilize custom-made order forms that are easy for users to fill. Once a customer submits the form, the data reflected in the document will then be forwarded to the designated departments for processing. Employees may quickly scan each column to find the data required to process the order before filing an invoice. It saves a lot of time for staff members to accommodate more requests as they continue with their daily operations.

As for securing business deals with other entities, many government agencies use order forms when venturing with private firms to not only validate the relationship but to also produce a record of the product or service availed. Having an order form for different company-related tasks is sure to expand and improve your scope, allowing the business to grow.

How to Make an Order Form

Securing a professional order form is a vital part of completing a purchase. But because these forms play a significant role in the sales process, knowing how to create one for the benefit of your staff and customers is not something to ignore. Collecting buyer information is easy if your form can do the job without issues. To help you out, found below is a step-by-step guide on how you can create an order form for your business.

Step 1: Download a Template

There are several reasons why using a form template could be your best option. For one, it saves time and effort. The structure of your order form becomes the least of your worries, as these are pre-formatted documents designed to meet a general function. All you need to do is to look for a template that closely fits your preferences and download a file in your format of choice.

Step 2: Determine the Essentials

In this step, you’ll spend most of your time customizing the template to suit your business needs. Apart from your company logo and contact information, the order form must also consist of specific indicators for easy tracking. Some of these elements include a purchase order number, order date, retailer name, and shipping date. Shipping and billing details must also be apparent in the form. As for product selection, you can stick with the basics, such as product information and price.

It is possible for your order form to be slightly different from the information provided. So as long as you know how your business runs, you should be able to identify the correct fields for your order form.

Step 3: Organize Data Fields

No one wants to fill out a form with a messy layout. Not only is it an eyesore to look at, but it’s bound to confuse those who attempt to fill it out. After determining the must-haves of your form, be sure to arrange these items correctly in the body of your document. Numbering your questions and dividing them into categories will also be a helpful approach.

Step 4: Conduct a Test Run

Order forms are crucial for businesses that rely on purchases and service inquiries to stay afloat in a competitive industry. So to finalize your order form, try conducting a test run to measure its effectiveness. See if the form fits well with your target audience by gathering a group of people for the pilot test. You can also create a separate feedback form to obtain insights on what you can do to improve the order form. Once you have applied the necessary changes, you can then finalize your form for printing or posting.

The Dos and Don’ts of Order Forms

You’d be surprised by how often people make mistakes when it comes to creating order forms for their business needs. There are several things that you should do and those that you should avoid doing to get the data you need from customers. With all that said, you might want to consider the following guidelines when creating an order form.

Dos

1. Do talk in the first person. 

You want to make it seem as if you’re speaking to the customer directly. It’s almost like the digital version of a handshake to help close the deal, making the transaction seem more credible as customers begin to feel comfortable about pursuing it. It’s a technique that those in the field of customer relations would be familiar with when it comes to delivering a sales pitch. It helps you empathize with the needs of a consumer to help them find a solution to their problems.

2. Do restate the purpose of the form. 

The most obvious reason for creating the form is to gather relevant data from a prospect to finalize a sale. It’s best to turn your focus to the benefits that those from the other end of the deal are set to acquire. Think about the objectives that your products or services offer their receivers. For instance, if a client fills a work order form to have movers transport his or her belongings from one location to another, then the objective of the service is to provide a fast and easy moving experience to a targeted market. Making this benefit known in the first part of your order form should encourage prospects to continue answering.

3. Do clarify the terms of the order. 

Every business agreement comes with a set of terms and conditions that both parties must be aware of upon entering the first part of the sales deal. If there are things that a prospect should know about before submitting the order form, be sure to point it out in the document. In a work order form, for example, some businesses do allow customers to make special requests for an additional cost. Customers must be aware of these fees through the terms included in the order form. Hidden charges don’t resonate well with consumers, and they’re bound to jeopardize future deals with prospective clients.

4. Do organize related information in the same group. 

One way to increase response rates is to improve the layout of your order form. Cluttered forms tend to discourage customers from going any further in the process, given the amount of time and effort it takes to complete. Forms like this tend to scare away customers who are looking for a more efficient alternative to purchasing goods. But by grouping similar fields together, users can make better sense of the information they need to fill in thanks to the boost in readability. It also helps establish a logical flow of information for users to finish the form with ease. Make sure that these sections consist of a parent label to make identification much easier to do.

5. Do mention important information. 

Some things are worth emphasizing in your order form. It could cover anything from tax concerns to subscription details that customers may want you to address before they send in their orders. You’ll ease the minds of your customers by providing some reassurance, so make sure to have this clarified in your form to avoid the trouble.

Don’ts

1. Don’t name it an order form. 

It’s easy for people to associate “order” with “money.” Whenever the idea of finalizing a sales deal comes to mind, prospects start to think twice about whether it’s something worth getting into. You don’t want people to start feeling hesitant about their decision as they stumble upon the first few parts of your order form. Instead, you can scratch off the concept of spending money by calling it a response form, a subscription form, or anything similar.

2. Don’t create ridiculously long field labels. 

Try not to confuse prospects with wordy field names. It’s always a good idea to keep it simple and direct for better comprehension. Otherwise, users are likely to misinterpret specific fields, which will lead them to input the wrong data.

Take the time to review each of your field labels to ensure that they’re as clear and concise as possible. If you think it needs some modifications, you can try rewording your questions while still maintaining the essence of the point you want to convey. These changes may help improve the readability of your form for a higher response rate.

3. Don’t put everything together on one page. 

How many times have you tried to order something online, only to receive a form that’s longer than your mother’s monthly grocery list?

Thanks, but no thanks.

Nothing drives customers away more than something that could seemingly consume a significant amount of their time. Using a small font size while putting everything on a one-page form—when you could have utilized the back for more space—is both lazy and unnecessary. You don’t want to turn the ordering process into a dreadful task for your customers to finish.

4. Don’t include unnecessary data fields. 

The cardinal rule of forms is only to ask what you need. Naturally, you want to stick with the basics, such as one’s name, email address, and phone number. Always consider the relevance of what you’re asking to the objectives of your form. The more questions you ask, the more you risk affecting the form’s conversion rate. Adding one too many items will only lengthen your order form and discourage users from completing it. It’s essential to think long and hard about what you must include in the form to avoid a lengthy document.

5. Don’t make all fields mandatory. 

You don’t want a customer to waste too much time filling out every field in the order form, even for areas that don’t concern them. Unless you’re using an online platform to create your order form, it’s essential to indicate which field items are mandatory to answer from those that are not. This technique allows users to skip parts of the order forms that do not apply to them. Keep in mind that it is possible to use the same order form for multiple purposes or to deal with clients with unique characteristics and preferences. In such cases, specific data fields may not apply to all.

Collecting data from your customers can be critical for operating a successful business. Fortunately, order forms allow you to record and manage product or service requests from buyers to help hasten operations. From job order forms to purchase order forms, there are a ton of order forms to suit your every business need. Feel free to browse through our collection of order form samples and templates to get started!