How to fulfill an order in Shopify, step by step

Order fulfillment is the process of managing and shipping customer orders from your store. It covers everything from when an order is placed to when the package arrives at the customer's door, including picking items, packing them, and preparing them for shipment.

What are the different ways to fulfill orders?

Shopify supports several fulfillment methods to fit how your business operates. Your chosen method determines how orders are picked, packed, and shipped. (Fulfilling orders) Before you can fulfill orders, you need to configure your shipping and fulfillment settings in the Shopify admin.

Here are the main approaches:

• Fulfilling orders yourself: This is a hands-on method where you or your team personally pick and pack products, buy shipping labels, and hand the packages over to carriers. (Fulfilling orders) You can buy and print shipping labels directly from your Shopify admin.
• Using a fulfillment service: You can partner with a separate company that stores your inventory and ships orders on your behalf. This can be Shopify's own network or a third-party service connected via an app or a custom integration. When an order is assigned to a fulfillment service, they control the fulfillment status.

You can also use a mix of these methods. For example, you might fulfill most products yourself but use a service for specific items. (Fulfilling orders)

How to fulfill a complete order

When all items in an order are in stock at a single location, they are grouped together in one Unfulfilled section on the order details page. You can fulfill these orders in a single action. If you use Shopify Shipping to buy your labels, the order is automatically marked as fulfilled when you purchase the label. (Shopify Help Center)

Here are the steps to manually mark a complete order as fulfilled.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders. (Shopify Help Center)
2. Click the number of the order you want to fulfill.
3. In the Unfulfilled section, click Mark as fulfilled.
4. In the Tracking number field, you can enter the tracking number provided by your shipping carrier. Shopify may recognize the format and suggest a carrier.
5. If the wrong shipping carrier is selected, or none is chosen, select the correct one from the Shipping carrier dropdown menu.
6. If you want to notify the customer by email that their order has shipped, check the box for Send a notification to the customer. This option is only available if you have the customer's email address.
7. Click Mark as fulfilled to complete the process. The order's status will change to Fulfilled.

How to fulfill part of an order

Sometimes you may need to ship items in an order separately. This is known as a partial fulfillment. An order might arrive already split into multiple fulfillments if items are stocked in different locations or have different shipping profiles (like a pre-order item and an in-stock item). (Shopify Help Center) You can also choose to split a fulfillment yourself if an item is temporarily out of stock.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders and click the order you need to partially fulfill. (Shopify Help Center)
2. In the Unfulfilled section, click Mark as fulfilled.
3. By default, all items are set to be fulfilled. Adjust the quantity of each item to reflect only what you are shipping in this package. Set the quantity to zero for any items you are not shipping yet.
4. Optionally, add a Tracking number for the shipment.
5. Ensure the correct Shipping carrier is selected.
6. Check Send a notification to the customer if you want to send a shipping confirmation for these specific items.
7. Click Mark as fulfilled. The order will now show which items are Fulfilled and which remain Unfulfilled.

How to manage an existing fulfillment

After an order is fulfilled, you might still need to make changes, such as adding a tracking number you received late or canceling the fulfillment.

Common mistakes when fulfilling orders

Fulfilling orders is a routine task, but small errors can cause confusion for customers and your team. Here are a few common issues to watch for.

• Manually fulfilling an order handled by a service. If an order is assigned to a third-party fulfillment service, you cannot manually mark it as in progress or fulfilled. The fulfillment service manages the order's status and updates it automatically when they accept the request. (Shopify Help Center)
• Canceling a fulfillment in Shopify but not with the carrier. When you cancel a fulfillment in your admin, it does not stop a fulfillment that is already in progress with a shipping carrier or fulfillment service. If the package is already with a carrier, you need to contact them to stop the shipment. If you use a fulfillment service, you must contact them directly.
• Tracking number shows old or incorrect information. Carriers sometimes reuse tracking numbers, especially during busy periods. This can cause a tracking page to show details from a previous shipment. This issue usually resolves itself once the carrier scans your new label. If the wrong carrier is detected automatically, you can manually select the correct one from the dropdown menu during fulfillment.
• Trying to fulfill an order that is on hold. An order or fulfillment that has a On hold status cannot be fulfilled. You must release any holds on the order before you can change its fulfillment status.

A worked example: Fulfilling a pre-order

Imagine a customer orders two products: a T-shirt that is in stock and a new hat that is on pre-order and won't be available to ship for a few weeks. Because the items have different availability, you decide to ship the T-shirt now and the hat later.

You would navigate to the order in your Shopify admin and click Mark as fulfilled. In the fulfillment screen, you would change the quantity of the hat to 0 and leave the T-shirt quantity at 1. You add the tracking number for the T-shirt's package and check the box to notify the customer.

After clicking Mark as fulfilled, the order status page updates. It now shows one Fulfilled section containing the T-shirt and one Unfulfilled section with the hat. (Shopify Help Center) The customer receives a shipping notification for the T-shirt. When the hat is back in stock, you can return to the same order page and fulfill the remaining item, generating a second shipment and notification.

Read next

• Best Shopify inventory management apps compared

Written by Odera Joseph Echendu Founder of Actorly

Odera Joseph Echendu is the founder of Actorly, a Shopify app from ONDUTYOPS LLC that keeps a searchable history of the changes it can see in a store. He spent seven years leading customer support and technical support inside high-growth SaaS and e-commerce companies.

All posts by Odera Joseph Echendu