When managing orders on Shopify, there are many cases where you want to temporarily put shipping on hold. Reasons vary widely, including stock shortages, quality checks, and special shipping schedules, and there may be occasions when you need to set an order's fulfillment status to "on hold."
This article introduces 3 specific ways to put fulfillment status on hold in Shopify. From manual setup to automation, we explain the characteristics and best use cases of each method in detail. We'll cover practical techniques that can handle a variety of situations, such as when a sudden shipping stop is needed or when managing pre-order products.
3 Ways to Put Shipping (Fulfillment Status) on Hold
Change It Manually from Order Management
First, here's how to manually change the status to "on hold" from order management. This is the simplest method, and since it's a native Shopify feature, it can be done for free.
It can be used in cases such as when you suddenly become unable to ship a product.
How to Change to On-Hold Status from Order Management
(1) Open the detail page for the relevant order from the Shopify admin
(2) Click the "⋯ (ellipsis)" for the group of products you want to put on hold
(3) Click "Hold fulfillment"
(4) Check the products you want to hold (and set the quantity)
(5) Select a reason for the hold
(6) Click "Hold fulfillment"
(7) Once switched to on-hold status, the change is complete.
Automate the Change with Shopify Flow
Next is a way to automatically switch to on-hold status using Shopify Flow. Setup is a bit more difficult, but since this is also a native Shopify feature, it can be done for free.
This can be used when you always want to put an order on hold if a specific product or specific condition is met.
How to Switch to On-Hold Status with Shopify Flow
(1) Open the Shopify Flow app
(2) Create a new workflow
(3) Add "Order created" as the trigger
(4) Set the "condition for switching to on-hold status" as the condition
(5) Add "Hold fulfillment order" as the action, and set the reason for the hold in "Reason"
(6) After saving, switch the workflow to "on"
Automate the Change Using a Shopify App
Finally, here's a method using an app. By using the Shopify app "RuffRuff 予約販売," you can automatically set the fulfillment status to on hold only when a specific product (a pre-order product) is present in an order. This can be used when a pre-order product's shipping timing is later than that of regular products.
What Is RuffRuff 予約販売?
"RuffRuff 予約販売" helps reduce lost sales opportunities that occur due to out-of-stock items, timing before a new product launch, and awaiting restock.
It makes it remarkably easy to implement pre-orders on your own Shopify store, allowing you to register an unlimited number of pre-order products and accept an unlimited number of pre-orders. It can also prevent pre-order and regular products from being ordered together, and can send restock notifications when the restock timing is undetermined.
It also has many unique features not found in other pre-order apps, such as a "deferred payment" feature that lets you collect payment before the product ships.
How to Switch to On-Hold Status with RuffRuff 予約販売
You can implement this by selecting "Set fulfillment status to "Hold" at time of order" in the pre-order rule.
The blog article below introduces how to use RuffRuff 予約販売 to make pre-orders put fulfillment status on hold. Please use it as a reference.
Points to Note When Putting Shipping (Fulfillment Status) on Hold
You Cannot Bulk-Change to "Unfulfilled" Status
Due to a Shopify specification, orders whose fulfillment status is "on hold" or "scheduled" cannot be bulk-changed to "unfulfilled" status even using the bulk-edit feature on the order list page.
If you attempt a bulk change to "unfulfilled" status, the alert message "Orders can't be marked as unfulfilled" will appear. We confirmed this with Shopify support, and they said this is working as intended.
To change it to "unfulfilled" status, you can do so by clicking "Release hold" from the order detail page.
May Not Sync to a Centralized Management System
If you're using a system such as an OMS or WMS to centrally manage orders, please note that orders on hold may not be synced.
Conclusion
We introduced 3 methods for setting fulfillment status to on hold in Shopify.
Manual hold configuration is a basic method that lets you respond immediately when a sudden shipping stop is needed. Automation using Shopify Flow is efficient when you always want to apply a hold under certain conditions. And the RuffRuff 予約販売 app can be used as a dedicated tool specialized for managing pre-order products.
However, due to Shopify's specifications, orders with on-hold status cannot be bulk-changed to "unfulfilled," so releasing the hold must be done individually. Also, if you're integrated with an external system such as an OMS or WMS, we recommend checking in advance whether orders on hold will sync correctly.
Choose the best method according to your store's operating style and the characteristics of the products you handle, and achieve efficient order management.
