Fulfilling your own orders individually

Fulfill your own orders individually by packaging and shipping products without a fulfillment service. You can also fulfill multiple orders in bulk.

Fulfill your own orders automatically

If you set your orders to fulfill automatically, then the order is automatically marked as fulfilled after it's paid.

Automatic fulfillment can be used if you exclusively sell digital downloads or digital gift cards. Customers who purchase digital products are automatically emailed a download link and the order is marked as fulfilled.

Fulfill your own orders manually

If you set your orders to fulfill manually, then you need to open your orders and fulfill the line items.

You can fulfill part of an order manually by fulfilling some line items. This is also called partial fulfillment. To make the manual fulfillment process faster, you can fulfill multiple orders at the same time.

Sorting orders using the fulfill by date

You can view and sort the orders that you need to fulfill, using the Fulfill by date on the Orders page of your Shopify admin. The Fulfill by date is the latest date that you can ship an order to ensure that the order is delivered within the estimated delivery window, which was communicated to the customer in the sales channel or online store.

Fulfill entire orders manually

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the order number of an unfulfilled order.

  3. Optional: If you're using multiple locations, and if you want to change the location that you're fulfilling your order from, then click on the fulfillment card, and then select Change location. Select the location that you want to use, and click Save. The location can only be changed for orders that require shipping, not local delivery or pickup orders.

  4. Do one of the following:

    • If you're using Shopify Shipping to buy a shipping label for your order, then select Create shipping label.
    • If you're using a carrier other than Shopify Shipping, then click Fulfill item(s), and enter the tracking number from your shipping provider. Shopify might recognize the tracking number format and choose a shipping carrier for you. If there's no carrier or if the wrong carrier was chosen, then select your shipping carrier from the Shipping carrier drop-down menu. The tracking URL is displayed in the customer's shipping confirmation and shipping update emails.
  5. Optional: To send a notification email to the customer right away, select Send shipment details to your customer now. This option is available only if you have an email address for the customer on file.

  6. Click Fulfill item(s) to mark the order as Fulfilled. If you're using Shopify Shipping, then select a shipping service, and then click Buy shipping label.

The order screen updates to display the order's fulfillment status.

Fulfill part of an order manually

If a customer placed and paid for an order with multiple items, and one or more of the items are out-of-stock or a preorder, then you might want to fulfill part of the order so that you can ship the items separately.

Steps:

If you're using Shopify Shipping, then follow these steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the number of an unfulfilled order.

  3. To buy a shipping label for your order, select Create shipping label.

  4. From the Fulfillment page, change the number of products that you want to fulfill for each line item in the Items section.

  5. Select the shipping method in the Shipping service section.

  6. Optional: To send a notification email to the customer right away, select Send shipment details to your customer now. This option is available only if you have an email address for the customer on file.

  7. Click Buy shipping label. The order screen updates to display the order's Fulfilled and Unfulfilled items.

If you're not using Shopify Shipping, then follow these steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the number of an unfulfilled order.

  3. Optional: If you're using multiple locations, and if you want to change the location that you're fulfilling your order from, then click on the fulfillment card, and then select Change location. Select the location that you want to use, and click Save. The location can only be changed for orders that require shipping, not local delivery or pickup orders.

  4. Click Fulfill item(s).

  5. From the Fulfillment page, change the number of products that you want to fulfill for each line item in the Items section.

  6. Enter the tracking number from your shipping provider in the Tracking information section. The tracking URL displays in the customer's Shipping confirmation and Shipping update emails.

  7. Optional: To send a notification email to the customer right away, select Send shipment details to your customer now. This option is available only if you have an email address for the customer on file.

  8. Click Fulfill item(s). The order screen updates to display the order's Fulfilled and Unfulfilled items.

  9. If you want to review the order's fulfillment details or add a tracking number, then click Add tracking in the Fulfilled section of the order.

Fulfilling orders for multiple locations

If a customer has placed and paid for an order of multiple products, and one or more of the products are stocked at different locations, then you can fulfill parts of the order separately based on the location of your inventory. You can set location priorities to specify the priority sequence for order fulfillment.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
  2. Click the order number of an unfulfilled order.
    • If the order can be fulfilled using the stock at a single location, then the unfulfilled section displays all of the items in the order listed together.
    • If the order can't be fulfilled using the stock at a single location, then the unfulfilled section displays the available items listed by location.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • If you’re using Shopify Shipping to buy a shipping label for your order, then select Create shipping label in the unfulfilled card that you’re fulfilling your items from.
    • If you’re using a carrier other than Shopify Shipping, then select Fulfill item(s), and enter the tracking number from your shipping provider. The tracking URL displays in the customer’s shipping confirmation and shipping update emails.
  4. Optional: To send a notification email to the customer right away, select Send shipment details to your customer now. This option is available only if you have an email address for the customer on file.
  5. Click Fulfill item(s) to mark the order as fulfilled. If you’re using Shopify Shipping, then select a shipping service, and then click Buy shipping label.

The order screen updates to display the order’s fulfillment status.

Change the location of a fulfillment

If you need to change the location of a fulfillment, for reasons such as stock availability, associated shipping costs, or the need for an expedited delivery, then you can change the location of any unfulfilled orders to fulfill items in that order from a new fulfillment location.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Select the order that you want to change location for.

  3. Click the ... button.

  4. Click Change location.

  5. From the Location drop-down menu, select a new fulfillment location.

  6. In the Items section, click the up or down arrow to adjust the quantity and select the items that you want to change the fulfillment location for.

  7. Click Save.

Fulfill multiple orders at the same time

By selecting several orders, you can use the Mark as Fulfilled button to fulfill them at the same time. This applies to stores that manually fulfill orders. If you aren't using Shopify Shipping, then you need to add tracking numbers to the orders.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Optional: Click the Unfulfilled tab to view only the orders that need to be fulfilled.

  3. Select the orders that you want to fulfill by clicking the checkboxes.

  4. Click Mark as fulfilled.

  5. Optional: Select the Send a notification to the customer checkbox to send your customers a shipping confirmation notification.

  6. Click Mark as fulfilled.

Split a fulfillment

You can split a fulfillment order, line items, and quantities into new fulfillment orders to get products to a customer faster. For example, if one of the items in the order is out-of-stock, then you can remove it from the order so that the remaining items can be delivered to customers as soon as possible. The out-of-stock item is later delivered in a separate package.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Select the order that you want to split a fulfillment for.

  3. Click the ... button.

  4. Click Split.

  5. Use the up or down arrow to adjust the quantity and select the items that you want to split.

Merge a fulfillment

You can merge a set or multiple sets of fulfillment orders from the same location together into one based on line items and quantities. Merging a fulfillment can help simplify your fulfillment process and reduce shipping costs.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Select the order that you want to merge a fulfillment for.

  3. Click the ... button.

  4. Click Merge.

  5. Use the up or down arrow to adjust the quantity and select the items that you want to merge with an existing fulfillment in the same location.

  6. Click Merge. Selected items are merged with an existing fulfillment in the same location.

Fulfillment holds

There are two kinds of fulfillment holds:

  • Manual holds, which you can place on fulfillments at any time
  • System holds, which are placed by back end systems, such as apps

Manual fulfillment holds

When issues arise that prevent you from fulfilling an order immediately, you can hold the fulfillment manually. Orders with a fulfillment hold have an On hold fulfillment status in your orders list. To organize and track your fulfillment work, you can use the fulfillment status to filter the orders that are ready to be fulfilled from the orders with fulfillment holds.

Hold a fulfillment

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Select the order that you want to place on fulfillment hold.

  3. Click the ... button.

  4. Click Hold fulfillment.

  5. Select the items that you want to put on hold.

  6. Select a reason for the hold.

  7. Click Hold fulfillment.

Release a fulfillment

When the issues that prevented you from fulfilling an order are resolved, you can release the manual fulfillment hold. After the fulfillment is released, the order fulfillment status changes to Unfulfilled.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Select the order that you want to release from the fulfillment hold.

  3. Select the items that you want to release from the fulfillment hold.

  4. Click Release fulfillment.

System fulfillment holds

System fulfillment holds occur when an app or other back-end system places a fulfillment on hold automatically. For example, when upsell offers are presented to customers at checkout, the order fulfillment status is set to On hold until the customer completes their order. If a customer doesn't complete a checkout, then the order status remains On hold to allow the customer time to return to the order and complete their checkout.

When an order is On hold you can reserve inventory for the order, but you can't fulfill the order until the fulfillment hold is released, and the order fulfillment status changes to Unfulfilled.

There are four types of system holds:

  • Pending upsell offer
  • Pending Marketplace Partner authorization
  • Pending Markets Pro authorization
  • Unknown delivery date

Cancel a fulfillment (automatic and manual fulfillments)

When you cancel a fulfillment, the fulfillment status of the order returns to Unfulfilled, and you can buy a new shipping label or create a new fulfillment for the order.

If you have purchased a shipping label, then you must void it before you can cancel the fulfillment.

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. From the Orders page, click the number of an order in the list that has a Fulfillment status of Fulfilled.

  3. In the Fulfillments section, click the ... button.

  4. Click Cancel fulfillment.

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