How to Manually Fulfill an Order in Shopify

To manually fulfill an order in Shopify, open the order from your Orders page, click Fulfill item, confirm the products and quantities, add a tracking number and carrier if you have one, then click Fulfill items. Manual fulfillment lets you decide exactly when each order ships instead of marking everything fulfilled the moment a customer pays.

When manual fulfillment makes sense

Most stores ship on their own schedule, so manual fulfillment is the default for a reason. It keeps you in control of when orders go out and lets you check inventory and packing before anything ships. Automatic fulfillment fits a narrower set of cases: digital downloads, products with no pre-orders, or a connected fulfillment service that ships for you. If that is not you, fulfill manually.

Steps to manually fulfill an order

First, make sure automatic fulfillment is off. In your admin, go to Settings, then Checkout, and under order processing confirm you have not selected the option to automatically fulfill every line item.

Then fulfill the order itself. Open Orders from the left side of your admin and click an unfulfilled order. Use the Fulfill item button, check that the products and quantities are right, and choose your carrier. If the shipment has a tracking number, enter it and pick the carrier from the dropdown so Shopify can notify your customer. Click Fulfill items to finish, and turn on the shipment email so the buyer gets tracking automatically.

Fulfilling part of an order

You do not have to ship everything at once. If one item is in stock and another is on backorder, open the order, enter the quantity you can ship now, and fulfill only those line items. Shopify keeps the rest open as unfulfilled so you can ship them when the stock arrives. This is useful for pre-orders, split shipments, or anything you send in stages.

When you outsource fulfillment instead

Once order volume climbs, doing this by hand for every order stops scaling. A 3PL connects to your Shopify store, pulls orders automatically, and ships them for you, so fulfillment status updates without you touching the admin. Simpl Fulfillment does exactly that: we sync with Shopify, pick and pack each order, and ship it same-day. Pricing starts at $7 per order.