Editing order items
After an order is placed, you can edit it by adding items, removing items, and adjusting item quantities.
Edit an order if a customer wants to change an item or if you need to add or remove an item. For example, a customer might want to change the size or color of an item on their order.
To edit orders, you must be the store owner or have the Edit orders permission. Learn more about Staff permissions.
The total cost of an order is updated as the order is edited. If the cost of the order changes, then you need to charge or refund your customer the cost difference.
On this page
Considerations before editing orders
Before you start editing orders, learn more about the possible impacts and decide if you want to edit orders in your store. Editing orders can affect the following areas in your store:
- Apps
- Discounts
- Shipping
- Fulfillment services
- Risk analysis
- Accelerated checkouts
- Currencies
- Analytics
You can create test orders to check if editing orders works with your store.
Apps
Orders created by apps can't be edited in the Shopify admin or by other apps. Only the app that creates an order can edit the order. However, if an app creates a draft order and it's later converted to an order, then the order can be edited in your Shopify admin, and by other apps.
Additionally, some apps might not recognize order edits. After you edit an order, the data in your apps might be incorrect.
Order editing is more likely to affect fulfillment apps. For example, if you edit an order to remove an item, then your fulfillment app might not remove the item. You can accidentally ship an item that was removed from the order and not paid for.
You can check with the app's developer to verify if the app needs to be updated.
App developers can learn more from Editing orders using GraphQL.
Discounts
Manual line item discounts can be added, edited, or removed. Some order level discounts are recalculated after an order is edited.
Editing manual discounts
You can add a manual discount to an existing line item in the order, or update or remove a discount on an existing line item in the order.
Order level discounts can't be added, removed or updated. Additionally, the following line item discount types can't be edited:
- discount codes
- script discounts
- automatic discounts
Discount recalculation
Some discounts aren't recalculated after you edit an order. To make sure your customer is paying the correct amount, check the Total carefully on orders with discounts.
The following discount types are recalculated when an order is edited:
- Percentage discounts that apply to the entire order. These discounts are recalculated when you add new items or change item quantities.
- Discount codes for a fixed amount that apply to specific products or collections. These discounts are recalculated when you adjust the quantity of an item that already has the discount applied. This type of discount is recalculated only if the discount code can be used more than one time per order.
Shipping
Shipping methods and rates aren't recalculated when you edit an order. If you swap or add items to an order and the weight or dimensions of the order increases, then you might need to charge more for shipping.
Orders that have local delivery as the shipping method can’t be edited.
Fulfillment services
Contact your fulfillment services to check if you can edit items that are fulfilled by them.
If your fulfillment services don't work with order edits, then editing an item can cause missed or incomplete orders.
If your fulfillment services do work with order edits, then new items or new quantities added to an order become new items to fulfill. Items that are removed from an order are no longer fulfillable items.
Risk analysis
If you collect payment from a customer after an order is edited, then the order's fraud analysis indicators and fraud protection status can change.
Accelerated checkouts
If you need to collect payment from your customer after you edit an order, then your customer won't have accelerated checkouts available through the new checkout. This affects checkouts like Apple Pay.
Currencies
If you edit an order after it's paid in a different currency, then the foreign exchange rate might be different than the rate that was previously used on the order, depending on the type of edit you're making:
- If you add a new item, then the foreign exchange rate that's current at the time of the edit is used.
- If you increase the quantity of an existing item, then the foreign exchange rate at the time the order was originally placed is used.
- If you remove an item or lower the quantity of an existing item, then the foreign exchange rate at the time the order was originally placed is used so that your customer isn't affected by exchange rate fluctuations. Learn more about the currency risk for refunds.
If you aren't eligible to edit orders in other currencies, or if you can't edit the specific order, then you can refund the order, then create a draft order using the market that you want, and email an invoice in your customer's local currency.
Analytics
If you edit an order after the day the order was placed, then the edit displays as a separate order in your reports. Reports display an edited order as a new order, even though a new order hasn't been created.
The affected reports are:
Edit an order
You can edit an order to:
- add products
- remove items
- adjust item quantities
- apply a discount to an item
- adjust a manual discount on an existing item
- remove a manual discount on an existing item
The edits you can make to an order depend on the fulfillment status of the items. If an item is fulfilled, then you can't remove the item or adjust the quantity, but you can edit unfulfilled items and add products to the order.
If you want to swap items, then you need to remove the unwanted item and add a new item.
If you add items to an order, then you can email an invoice to your customer with a link to the checkout page, or you can accept payment for the order.
An order for local pickup can be edited either before or after you prepare that order. You can only edit local pickup orders in your Shopify admin or on Shopify mobile, not the POS app.
After you edit an order, you need to review and update the order.
If an order is in Pending payment status, then you might be unable to edit order items and discounts. Learn more about orders with pending payments.
Add products to an order
Remove items from an order
Adjust item quantities on an order
Apply discounts to an item on an order
Adjust a discount on an existing item
Remove a discount on an existing item
Review and update an edited order
After you edit an order, you need to review the updated total to check that it's correct. Depending on the edits you made, the total cost of the order might increase or decrease from what your customer paid at checkout.
After you edit an order, do one of the following actions depending on what happens to the order total:
- If the order total increases, then collect payment from your customer.
- If the order total decreases, then refund payment to your customer.
- If there is no change to the order total, then you can notify your customer of the edit.
After you edit an order, you can customize the order edit invoice or notification that's sent to your customer by editing the template.
Collect payment because order total increases
If the cost of the edited order increases, then you need to collect payment from your customer. The Summary displays that there is an Amount to collect.
You can send an invoice to your customer with a link to the checkout page, or you can accept payment for the order.
Refund payment because order total decreases
If the total cost of the edited order decreases, then you need to update the order and issue your customer a refund. The Summary displays the amount to refund.
Notify customer when there is no change to order total
If the order cost hasn’t changed, then you don’t need to refund or collect payment. By default, your customer is sent a notification about the edit. If you don’t want to send your customer a notification, then deselect Send notification to customer.
Click Update order to finish editing the order.
Editing orders FAQ
Why don't I have the option to edit an order?
You might not be able to edit an order for the following reasons:
- You don't have the Edit orders permission.
- The order was created by an app. Only the app that created an order can edit the order.
- You can't edit orders that have duties and taxes charged, such as Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) orders.
- You can't edit orders that have local delivery as the shipping method.
Can I restrict staff permissions for order editing?
Yes. Staff need the Edit orders permission. You can deactivate the Edit orders permission for staff that you don't want to edit orders. Learn more about Staff permissions.
What happens if staff start an edit while another staff is already editing the order?
Multiple staff can make edits and update an order at the same time. The changes made in each edit are applied to the order. If edits conflict, then the most recent edit is applied to the order.