Fulfilling your own orders individually

You can fulfill your own orders individually in your Shopify admin. After you fulfill an order, you need to package your items and attach a shipping label to your package. You can drop off your package at a local post office or a drop-off location depending on the shipping carrier that you use. You can also choose to schedule a carrier pickup online, so a shipping carrier comes to you to pick up your package.

Before you fulfill any orders, make sure to set up order fulfillment in your Shopify admin.

Considerations for fulfilling your own orders individually

Before your fulfill your own orders individually, review the following considerations:

• To fulfill your own orders manually or to fulfill part of an order manually, make sure that automatic order fulfillment is deactivated. You can check your order fulfillment settings in the Settings > General > Order processing section of your Shopify admin.
• If you use shipping labels to buy shipping labels, then after you purchase and print a label, your order is marked as fulfilled in your Shopify admin.
• To fulfill your own orders in bulk, refer to Fulfilling your own orders in bulk.
• If an order doesn't have a shipping address, then you can't add a tracking number to an order.
• You can't split or merge a fulfillment using the Shopify mobile app. You need to use a desktop device or the Shopify web version on a mobile device.
• Orders or fulfillments that are on hold can't have their status changed. Release all holds first before marking the order or fulfillment as fulfilled or in progress.
• Orders or fulfillments that are already at the status you're trying to set can't be changed. For example, fulfilled orders can't be marked as fulfilled again, and orders in progress can't be marked as in progress again.
• Orders or fulfillments that are scheduled for future fulfillment can't have their status changed. To fulfill these orders early, go to the individual order details page and change the fulfillment date.
• Orders or fulfillments for in-store pickup or local delivery can't be marked as in progress.
• If an order is assigned to a third-party fulfillment service, you can't manually mark it as fulfilled or in progress. The fulfillment service controls the status and automatically marks the order as in progress when they accept your fulfillment request.
• You can mark an order as delivered only if the fulfillment doesn't have a tracking number. When a tracking number is present, delivery status comes from the shipping carrier.

Mark an order as fulfilled

You can fulfill an order from your Shopify admin. You can add a tracking number during the fulfillment process or after you fulfill an order. The tracking number is displayed in the shipping confirmation email and shipping update emails. After you fulfill an order, the order fulfillment status changes to Fulfilled.

If an order contains products stocked at different locations, then you can fulfill part of the order separately based on the location of your inventory:

• If an order can be fulfilled using the inventory at a single location, then all items in an order are grouped in a single Unfulfilled section.
• If the order can't be fulfilled using the inventory at a single location, then your order is split into multiple Unfulfilled sections, also known as fulfillments, based on location. You need to fulfill each fulfillment separately.

You can set location priorities to specify the priority sequence for order fulfillment.

Steps:

Mark part of an order as fulfilled

You can fulfill part of an order in your Shopify admin. For example, if an item in an order is out of stock or is a preorder item, then you might want to fulfill part of an order, so you can ship the items separately.

Steps:

Add a tracking number to a fulfilled order

If you receive a tracking number after you fulfill an order, then you can still add the tracking number to your order. You can add multiple tracking numbers to an order and you can send a notification email to your customer with a tracking number.

If your carrier isn't fully supported by Shopify or you select Other from the Shipping carrier drop-down menu, then you can enter the tracking URL manually. The URL is used on the order status page to link to the carrier's tracking page. Make sure to enter the complete URL including the digits that your carrier provided to track the shipment.

Steps:

Mark an order as delivered

If you ship an order without a tracking number, then you can manually mark the order as delivered after your customer receives it. Marking an order as delivered updates the customer's order status page and customer account, so that your customer can confirm that their order arrived. If you don't mark the order as delivered, then the order remains in the On its way status.

The Mark as delivered button is displayed only on fulfillments that don't have a tracking number. When a tracking number is added to the fulfillment, delivery status comes from the shipping carrier instead.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

2. Click the order that you want to mark as delivered.

3. In the Fulfilled section, click Mark as delivered.

Mark an order as in progress

You can mark your order as in progress to start preparing your order for fulfillment, such as when picking and packing an order. When your orders is in progress, certain edits that can cause fulfillment errors are locked to protect your workflow. You can also add notes to keep your team aligned on order status. After your order is ready to be fulfilled, you can mark it as fulfilled.

Steps:

Change the location of a fulfillment

You can change the location of a fulfillment for any unfulfilled orders. For example, you might want to change the location of a fulfillment due to stock availability, associated shipping costs, or to expedite a delivery.

You can't change the location of a fulfillment for local delivery and in-store pickup orders.

Steps:

Split a fulfillment

You can split a fulfillment into multiple fulfillments based on line items and quantities. For example, if one of the items in an order is out of stock, then you can remove the item from the order so that the remaining items can be delivered to your customer 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. Click the order that you want to split a fulfillment for.

3. In the Unfulfilled section where you want to split a fulfillment, click …, and then click Split fulfillment.

4. Select the items that you want to split a fulfillment for.

5. Click Split fulfillment.

Merge a fulfillment

You can merge multiple fulfillments from the same location into one fulfillment 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. Click the order that you want to merge a fulfillment for.

3. In the Unfulfilled section where you want to merga a fulfillment, click …, and then click Merge fulfillment.

4. Select the items that you want to merge a fulfillment with.

5. Click Merge fulfillment.

Cancel a fulfillment

When you cancel a fulfillment, the fulfillment status of the order changes to Unfulfilled, and then 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.

Steps:

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.