Draft Orders
Orders created manually in Shopify admin, often used for wholesale orders or custom quotes.
Orders created manually in Shopify admin, often used for wholesale orders or custom quotes.
Why It Matters
Draft orders handle transactions that can't flow through standard checkout: phone orders, custom quotes, wholesale deals with negotiated pricing, replacements, and split payments. They give you flexibility to serve customers however they prefer to buy while still tracking everything in Shopify's order management system.
Practical Example
Scenario
A customer calls wanting to order a custom gift basket with specific items, personalization, and corporate billing. Standard checkout can't handle this.
Calculation
Draft order created: add products, apply custom discount, add personalization as line item, set customer billing address, send invoice.Result
Customer receives professional invoice, pays online, order flows into fulfillment queue like any other order. Custom needs met without leaving Shopify.
Pro Tips
- 1Use draft orders for phone/email sales to maintain order history and inventory accuracy
- 2Create draft order templates for common custom orders to speed up processing
- 3Send payment links instead of taking payment info over the phone—more secure, better customer experience
- 4Use draft orders for B2B quotes before Shopify B2B features are set up