Shopify Draft Orders: When and How to Use Them
Draft orders let you create orders for phone sales, wholesale buyers, custom quotes and replacements. How they work in Shopify and when to use them.
Most Shopify orders start at checkout. Some do not: a customer calls in an order, a wholesale buyer emails a list of products, or you need to send a free replacement. For those, Shopify has draft orders: orders you build yourself in the admin and then send to the customer or mark as paid.
What a draft order is
A draft order is an order that has not been placed yet. You add products (or custom line items), a customer, shipping and any discount. Then you either:
- Send an invoice. The customer gets an email with a link to a checkout where they pay. Once paid, the draft becomes a normal order.
- Mark as paid or as payment pending. You record payment taken some other way, such as a bank transfer, and the draft becomes an order straight away.
Until one of those happens, a draft order does not reserve stock by default, and it does not appear in your order list. That makes drafts safe to prepare, change and throw away.
When to use draft orders
Phone and email orders
A customer who cannot or will not check out online can still buy. Build the order while you talk, then send the invoice so they pay securely through checkout.
Wholesale and B2B buyers
Trade customers often order by email with large quantities and agreed prices. A draft order lets you apply their price, add payment terms in the notes, and send one invoice for the lot.
Custom quotes
For made-to-order work, add a custom line item with your own description and price. The customer sees exactly what they are paying for before they pay.
Replacements and goodwill orders
Sending a replacement for a damaged item? Create a draft with a 100% discount and mark it as paid. The replacement goes through your normal fulfillment flow and is recorded against the customer.
Pre-sales and reservations
If you take orders before a product is live on the storefront, a draft order lets you sell it to specific customers without publishing it.
Good habits with drafts
- Name the reason. Add a tag or note such as
phone-order,wholesaleorreplacement, so reports can tell these orders apart. - Clean up old drafts. Drafts that were never sent or paid clutter the list. Review them weekly and delete the dead ones.
- Check the price before sending. A custom price or discount on a draft skips the checks your storefront prices go through.
- Watch stock. Because a draft does not hold stock by default, a popular item can sell out before the customer pays the invoice.
- Use the same shipping rules. Pick the shipping rate deliberately rather than leaving it at zero by accident.
Draft orders vs. other options
| Need | Better tool |
|---|---|
| One-off order for a known customer | Draft order |
| Repeat orders at fixed trade prices | B2B features or a wholesale store, plus drafts for exceptions |
| Discount for a group of customers | Discount code or automatic discount |
| Customer changes an existing order | Edit the order instead of creating a new one |
Handling drafts in one place
Storefleet Store Ops lets you create and complete draft orders inside Shopify admin, with returns and your order list beside them. If you run more than one store, link them to one workspace and switch stores in one click; in the web dashboard, draft orders sit next to every store’s orders in one list. It is free for up to 2 stores. If wholesale is part of your business, read how to manage multiple Shopify stores next.