E-commerce VA · Order Processing and Returns

Order Processing Virtual Assistant

Every order processed, every shipping status current, every return handled to your policy, by one dedicated person who works for your store alone. Here is what that covers and what it costs.

Order processingShipping updatesReturns and exchangesRefunds within policy
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✓ From £5/hour ✓ UK-managed ✓ Dedicated VA, not shared ✓ No long-term contract
What They Handle

What an order processing virtual assistant handles each day

Order processing

Reviews new orders, checks for fraud flags, address problems and stock conflicts, and moves each order to fulfilment or to you, so nothing sits unprocessed past the window you set.

Fulfilment tracking and shipping updates

Tracks every order through your warehouse or 3PL, updates shipping statuses and tracking on the store and the marketplaces, and chases the couriers when a parcel stalls.

Cancellations, edits and address changes

Handles the requests that arrive after checkout: cancellations, quantity changes, address corrections and delivery instructions, applied before the order ships rather than after.

Returns & exchanges

Issues return authorisations, tracks the returned goods, books exchanges and restocks or writes off items to your rules, and identifies the patterns that reduce return rates.

Refunds and goodwill within your policy

Processes refunds and partial refunds, applies the goodwill gestures you allow and brings anything outside policy to you with the context written up.

Order messages and reviews

Answers the customer messages an order generates, where is it, can I change it, it arrived damaged, in your voice and on your marketplaces' standards, protecting your seller rating.

Which model

A dedicated order processing VA compared with a 3PL's support desk or a freelancer

A 3PL moves boxes well and handles exceptions badly, because exceptions need your policy, your customer history and your judgement, and the support desk has none of them. The result is that the founder still fields the cancellations, the damaged parcels and the refund arguments. A freelancer clears a backlog and leaves; the next backlog needs a new briefing, and the mistakes made in between are found by your customers.

A dedicated order processing VA is one person in your order flow every working day. They know which courier loses parcels, which products come back and why, which customers deserve a goodwill gesture and where your policy stops. The exceptions get handled at the moment they arise, by someone who has handled the last hundred, and you see only the ones that need your decision.

Who It's For

Who an order processing virtual assistant is built for

Founders still processing their own orders

Every order, update and return is you. One VA takes the flow so you take the product and the marketing.

Brands using a 3PL that still field the exceptions

The warehouse ships; the cancellations, address changes and damaged-parcel messages still land on you. Your VA becomes the desk between the 3PL and the customer.

Marketplace sellers with a rating to protect

On Amazon and eBay, late responses and mishandled returns cost more than the refund. Your VA works to the marketplace's standards and flags anything that could touch your account health.

Stores with seasonal peaks

Scale hours up for the peak and back down afterwards, with no penalty and no hiring, and the returns wave in January handled by someone who saw the orders go out.

Cost Comparison

What an order processing VA costs depends on where you hire

The same work is priced very differently by market: a UK employee costs a salary plus employer costs and a desk, a UK freelancer or agency bills by the hour or the project, and an offshore marketplace leaves the managing to you. With Ant Assist the entry rate is £5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier, 3 months on Mid, 1 month on Expert. It covers your dedicated VA's time, our office facilities in Cairo, and the supervision and management that keep quality up.

Set that against a UK in-house e-commerce hire once salary, employer National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk are counted; the comparison card on this page shows the calculator's model, and the full calculator gives your figures for your hours.

UK in-house hire
~£3,100/mo
~£37,205 / year
You save ~£24,725 a year
Ant Assist VA
£1,040/mo
£12,480 / year at the standard rate
UK In-House · Entry level
UK in-house e-commerce hire (calculator model)
£2,384 a month gross salary, full time (the calculator's ecommerce benchmark, ONS ASHE 2025)
Monthly salary£2,384
Benefits (5% of salary)£119
Equipment and office£442
Management time (2 hrs a week)£156
~£3,100/mo
~£37,205 / year
Ant Assist VA · Entry
Dedicated Order Processing Virtual Assistant
160 hrs a month · £5/hour for the first 6 months (£800/mo), then £6.50/hour on the ecommerce rate card
VA hours (160h × £6.50/hour standard rate)£1,040
Management and supervisionIncluded
Recruitment and onboardingIncluded
Office infrastructureIncluded
£1,040/mo
£12,480 / year at the standard rate
You save ~£24,725 / year at the standard rate (est.)

What the £5/hour entry rate includes

  • Dedicated VA, never shared
  • UK-hour aligned support
  • Management and supervision included
  • Recruitment and onboarding included
  • Office infrastructure included
  • VA replacement available
  • No NI, pension, or holiday costs
  • No long-term contract, rolling monthly

These are typical estimates. Get your exact numbers in the full calculator. Or read how much a virtual assistant costs in the UK.

Calculate your exact savings →
Process

How to hire an order processing VA

1
First call
A short call about your tasks, your tools and the hours you need covered.
2
Matching
We pick a VA from our in-house team for your work and introduce them to you.
3
Onboarding
Together we write down your rules and set up your access before day one.
4
Live
Your VA starts on your hours from our managed office, supervised from the UK.
5
Ongoing management
A UK team reviews the work each week; hours scale up or down as you need.
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Why Managed

Why a managed order processing VA beats a 3PL's support desk or a freelancer

Managed, not just placed.
Your VA is recruited, trained and supervised from our own in-house office. Not a ticket queue, not a freelancer profile.
Exceptions handled by someone who knows the store.
The same person sees every order, so the patterns in cancellations, damage and returns are noticed and fixed.
Replaceable without restart cost.
If the fit is wrong, we replace the VA and carry the handover. No re-recruitment, no starting from zero.
No NI, pension, or holiday overhead.
One hourly rate; the employment costs sit with us.
Your data stays yours.
Every VA signs an NDA and a data-processing agreement, works inside your admin through password managers at the access level the job needs, and you can revoke access at any time.
Rolling monthly.
Scale hours up or down, pause, or cancel with 30 days' notice.
Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients
FAQ

Common questions about hiring an order processing virtual assistant

Every order after the customer clicks buy: checking it, processing fulfilment, uploading tracking, handling cancellations and address changes, updating shipping statuses, chasing couriers on late parcels, and answering the where-is-my-order messages before they become complaints. You get a short daily line of orders processed, exceptions and anything waiting on you.

Yes, inside the policy you write down. Routine returns, exchanges and refunds within your policy are handled end to end; anything outside it, a refund above your limit, a chargeback threat, a damaged high-value item, is escalated to you with the context written up before the VA acts.

By recording why each one happened. The VA logs the reason, the product and the channel for every return, and the weekly pattern, a size that runs small, a photo that misleads, a courier that damages parcels, goes back to you as a short list of fixes.

Yes. Late parcels are chased, claims are raised with the evidence prepared, and fulfilment exceptions are resolved with your partner in your name, inside the portals you already use. A new service or carrier is never booked without your instruction.

Your VA works your agreed hours, usually UK business hours, and extended hours or weekend cover are available at additional cost. For Black Friday and Christmas, hours scale up and back down afterwards without penalty, and a second dedicated VA can be added for the season.

£5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier. After the promotion the e-commerce rate card applies: £6.50 per hour full time, £1,040 a month for 160 hours, or £6.80 per hour part time, £544 a month for 80 hours. Rolling monthly, cancel with 30 days' notice.

Didn't find your answer? Browse more common questions in the Help Center.

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Every order handled. Every return, too.

One dedicated order processing VA, from £5 per hour. Book a free 15-minute call.

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