Shopify-Specific

Draft Orders

Orders created manually in Shopify admin, often used for wholesale orders or custom quotes.

1 min readLast updated Apr 2026
Reviewed by Golden Digital·Operator-reviewed ecommerce reference

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

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Processing phone orders outside Shopify—inventory gets out of sync, order history is incomplete
Not using discount reasons field—document why custom pricing was applied for future reference
Forgetting to reserve inventory—draft orders can optionally reserve stock before payment

Frequently asked questions

Use draft orders when: payment isn't immediate, pricing is negotiated, you need to invoice instead of direct payment, or the order requires manual configuration that checkout can't handle. Regular checkout is faster for standard purchases.

You can choose whether draft orders reserve inventory before payment. For quotes, often you don't reserve. For confirmed phone orders awaiting payment, you typically do reserve.

Once a draft order is paid (via invoice link or manual payment marking), it becomes a regular order in your Orders list with all the same fulfillment and tracking capabilities.

Put it to work

Related Terms

Wholesale

Selling products in bulk to retailers who resell to end consumers.

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