Multi-store6 min read
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, payment options and pitfalls.
In this guide
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, charge, or mark as paid.
This guide covers how draft orders work, the ways to collect payment, when to use them, how stock behaves, and the habits that keep a list of drafts from turning into a mess.
What a draft order is
A draft order is an order that has not been placed yet. You add products (or custom items), a customer, shipping and any discount. While it is a draft it sits under Orders > Drafts, not in your order list, so you can prepare it, change it and throw it away safely. When it is paid, or created with payment due later, it becomes a regular order.
How to create one
- In Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts and click Create order.
- Add products from your catalog, or a custom item for anything that is not in it.
- Add or create the customer.
- Apply any discount and choose the shipping rate.
- Add tags and notes so the order explains itself later.
- Choose how to collect payment (below).
You can also duplicate an existing order or draft to start from it. Shopify copies products, custom items, customer, addresses, notes and tags, but not discounts or shipping rates, so set those again (create a draft order).
Ways to collect payment
| Option | What happens | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Send invoice | The customer gets an email with a link to a checkout to pay | Phone and email orders, quotes |
| Pay by credit card | You enter the card yourself | The customer gives card details by phone |
| Mark as paid | The order is created as paid | Payment already received another way, such as bank transfer |
| Payment due later | The order is created with payment terms and shows as payment pending | Trade customers on terms |
Payment terms on a draft can be due on receipt, due on fulfillment, net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 days, or a fixed date. If the balance is not paid by the due date, the order shows as overdue (deferred payments).
Two pitfalls:
- Do not mark a draft as paid before the customer pays. It breaks the invoice’s checkout link, so the customer cannot complete payment.
- Other currencies. If the draft is in a currency other than your store’s, you can only collect payment by credit card or by marking it paid; you cannot send an invoice.
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, set payment terms, and send one invoice for the lot. If trade sales are a regular part of your business, look at Shopify’s B2B draft orders as well.
Custom quotes
For made-to-order work, add a custom item with your own description and price. The customer sees exactly what they are paying for before they pay. Note the limits: Shopify says custom items are not tracked as inventory, do not appear in product sales reports and cannot be used with automated fulfillment or shipping apps. If you sell the same thing repeatedly, make it a product. When the buyer wants a quote as a PDF before you build the draft, the free Shopify invoice generator makes one from what you type, with VAT per line.
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. Tag it so it does not count as a sale in your own reports.
Holding stock for a specific customer
If you promise a customer units before they pay, reserve them on the draft (below), so other customers cannot buy them in the meantime.
Draft orders and stock
By default a draft order does not hold stock: the quantities stay Available and other customers can buy them. You can choose Reserve inventory on the draft and set an expiry date and time; reserved units move to the Committed state until then. Inventory tracking has to be on for the product (inventory states).
That matters in two directions:
- Unreserved, a popular item can sell out before the customer pays the invoice.
- Reserved, units are held even if the customer never pays, until the reservation expires. Set the expiry to match how long you will wait.
Ahead of Black Friday (November 27, 2026) and Cyber Monday (November 30), check for long reservations on your promoted products, so stock is not held for a quote nobody paid.
Good habits with drafts
- Name the reason. Add a tag such as
phone-order,wholesaleorreplacement, so reports can tell these orders apart. Order tags are limited to 40 characters each. - Clean up old drafts. Drafts that were never sent or paid clutter the list. Review them weekly and delete the dead ones. Shopify also deletes drafts created on or after April 1, 2025 after one year of inactivity; any edit resets that timer.
- Check the price before sending. A custom price or discount on a draft skips the checks your storefront prices go through.
- Use the same shipping rules. Pick the shipping rate deliberately rather than leaving it at zero by accident, especially on a duplicated draft.
- Watch automations. In Shopify Flow, the Order created trigger also fires when a draft is paid and becomes an order, so workflows built for storefront orders will run on these too.
For tagging and fulfilling the orders once they exist, see how to bulk fulfill and tag Shopify orders. If you need orders exported with their line item details, read exporting Shopify orders with line item properties.
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 |
Draft orders when you run several stores
Draft orders are a Shopify feature, and on one store Shopify admin is all you need for them. With several stores, the work around them spreads out: phone orders, quotes and replacements sit in separate admins, and the refunds, cancellations and payment captures that follow are made by whoever has access to each store. Decide who may mark drafts as paid in each store (it is a separate staff permission) and who may refund afterwards; approval workflows for live Shopify stores covers how.
FAQ
Do Shopify draft orders reserve inventory?
Not by default. You can reserve inventory on a draft and set an expiry; until then the units are Committed and cannot be bought by other customers.
How long do draft orders stay in Shopify?
Drafts created on or after April 1, 2025 are deleted automatically after one year of inactivity. Editing a draft resets the timer, and deleting a completed draft does not delete the order created from it.
Can a customer pay a draft order later?
Yes. Choose payment due later and set payment terms, such as net 30. The order is created with payment pending, and you collect payment when it arrives.
Why can’t I send an invoice for a draft order?
If the draft is in a currency other than your store’s, Shopify only lets you collect by credit card or by marking it paid. Marking a draft paid before payment also breaks an invoice link already sent.