Auto-fulfilment: what it does, and whether to turn it on
It is off by default. Here is why to turn it on.
What it does
Auto-fulfilment on: an order arrives from your store and moves into fulfilment on its own. Sourced if needed, packed, shipped, tracking pushed back to Shopify. You do nothing.
Auto-fulfilment off: the order arrives and waits for you to release it. Nothing moves until you act.
It is off by default, which is the single most important sentence on this page. If you have just connected a store and an order has arrived, it is waiting for you.
Turn it on
- Open Orders.
- Find the Auto-fulfillment toggle above the table.
- Switch it on.
Should you
For almost everyone, yes.
The instinct to leave it off is understandable. It reads as letting someone spend your money without asking each time. But look at what you are actually approving: an order your customer has already paid for, at a price you already agreed, for a product you already listed. There is no decision in it. You are adding a delay, not a control.
Meanwhile the cost of leaving it off is real:
- Every order waits for you. Overnight orders wait until morning. Weekend orders can wait until Monday.
- You become the bottleneck. Fine at five orders a day, impossible at fifty.
- You will miss one. Not maybe. One order slips past on a busy day, and you find out from the customer.
Turn it on once you have run a couple of orders through by hand and seen the flow work.
Reasons to leave it off, and they are narrower than people think: you are testing a brand new product and want to see the first orders land before committing, or you have unusually high-value orders where a manual look is worth the delay.
What it does not do
Worth being precise, because the fear is usually about money.
It does not spend beyond the order. Funds are held against that specific order, at the cost of that order. See Available and Occupied.
It does not ship without funds. If your available balance is short, the order will not fund. Keeping your balance topped up matters more once auto-fulfilment is on, because you are no longer looking at each order as it lands.
It does not skip problems. An order with a bad address or an item we cannot source still goes to Abnormal and waits for a human. Automatic does not mean unsupervised.
It does not stop you cancelling. Orders can still be cancelled, and the faster you do it the more likely we catch it before the item is bought.
What to watch instead
Once it is on, your job changes from processing orders to watching for the ones that need you.
- The Abnormal tab. The only orders that need a decision. Check it daily.
- Your Available balance. Multiply your average cost per order, on the Billing screen, by the orders you expect this week.
- The Fulfilment health card on your dashboard, as a smoke alarm.
That is a two-minute morning check rather than an order-by-order queue.
Frequently asked
Is it on by default? No. Off. Switch it on.
Can I still cancel an order after it auto-fulfils? You can ask, and the sooner the better. Once the item has been bought, cancelling gets harder.
What if my balance runs out overnight? Orders will not fund. Keep the balance ahead of your volume and keep low balance notifications on.
Will it fulfil an order for something out of stock? No. It goes to Abnormal for a human.
Do I still need to check Orders every day? Check the Abnormal tab. Skip the rest.
Still need help?
Real humans on every reply. Average response under 2 hours during business hours.