Alert on orders significantly above your typical order value, using the median rather than the mean as the baseline. A large order deserves a human look before despatch for two unrelated reasons: it carries more fraud exposure than usual, and it may be a wholesale or repeat opportunity that a silent automatic fulfilment will waste.
Why this one is worth an interruption
Most alerting is about problems. This one is genuinely two-sided, and framing it only as a risk check means the commercial half never happens.
The stock consequence is the part most often missed. A single order taking a large share of a line's stock changes the position for everything else, including any campaign currently running against it, and nothing else will surface that in time.
The threshold
Baseline off the median, because a handful of large orders drag the mean up and desensitise the threshold you are trying to set.
| Condition | Set it to | Why that number |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | a multiple of median order value | The median represents your typical order |
| Unit trigger | a large share of a line's available stock | The stock consequence, separate from value |
| First-time customer | lower the threshold | No history to weigh |
| Express shipping | flag regardless of value | Speed plus size is a known pattern |
| Timing | before fulfilment | Afterwards you have neither option |
Who should receive it
Somebody who can hold the order and somebody who can act on the opportunity, which may be two people.
- Whoever can hold or verify an order.
- Whoever handles wholesale or key accounts, if that is a separate person.
- Whoever watches stock, when the order takes a meaningful share of a line.
What to do when it fires
- Check the fraud indicators before anything else, and hold rather than cancel if they are unfavourable.
- Check what the order does to stock on those lines, and to any campaign running against them.
- Decide whether it is a wholesale enquiry wearing a retail order's clothes, and whether to make contact.
- If verifying, contact through a channel from the order itself, not one supplied in a later message.
When not to set this alert
Do not set this if your order values are tightly clustered and genuinely large orders never occur. The alert will fire on ordinary variation.
Do not set it purely as a fraud check if you also sell wholesale, or the commercial half of the response will never happen.
Common questions
What counts as an unusually large order?
A multiple of your median order value, not your mean. A few large orders pull the mean upward and desensitise the threshold you are trying to set.
Why alert on large orders at all?
Two unrelated reasons: more fraud exposure than a typical order, and a possible wholesale or key-account opportunity that automatic fulfilment would silently waste.
What about the stock consequence?
Worth a separate trigger. One order taking a large share of a line's stock changes the position for every other customer and for any campaign running against that product.