What is a Draft Order in Shopify?
A draft order is an order done for customers by the store owners without any payment.
If you have an order from outside channels, like chats, social media, or in-person, you can create a draft order as a merchant on Shopify.
Draft orders don’t charge any customer without their permission or they aren’t converted until the payment is made.
How to Create a Draft Order in Shopify
Creating a draft order in Shopify takes only four steps to manage.
Follow the steps below to create your draft order practically.
Step 1- Log Into Your Shopify Store.
You should start by reaching out to your Shopify Store Admin Panel.
Step 2- Choose “Orders” on the Left Sidebar.
On the left sidebar, there is an ‘Orders’ tab under the Home tab.
Step 3- Click “Create order” on the Orders Tab.
There is an explicit button at the center of the page to create an order; click it.
Step 4- Customize Your Draft Order.
On the page you view, you can edit the draft order details.
The details you can customize are as follows:
✅ Products: You can choose, add, or delete products. Or determining their quantity is available.
✅ Discount: If you provide a discount for your customers, you can edit the discount by deciding on the discount type, discount value, and its reason.
✅ Shipping or Delivery: It is possible to customize the shipping name and price based on your certain order.
✅ Estimated Tax: Choosing to include charging all taxes or not depends on you.
✅ Payment due later: When you activate it, you need to determine payment terms
✅ Notes: For keeping records and notes, the ‘Notes’ part is beneficial to use for distinguishing.
✅ Customer: You can choose your customer directly or create a new customer with their personal information.
✅ Market: Market is where you can change the currency of your draft order.
✅ Tags: Depending on your customers’ actions and your order, you can add new Shopify tags on your store or choose among the current ones.
✅ Sending Invoice: After you create your order, you can send invoices on your orders by customizing the necessary fields.
✅ Collect Payment: For collecting payment, you can either enter a credit card or mark it as paid if your order is already paid.
With details and important information, you can create your draft order and finalize it by clicking “Collect payment” and choosing the format you want.
Sending Invoice for a Draft Order
To send an invoice for a draft order is easier than creating the draft order itself.
By following the steps of ‘how to create a draft order’, you will reach the end.
➤ Then, you should click “Send invoice” at the bottom of the order.
➤ Next, you need to fill in the details for the invoice that you will send to your customers.
Here is a sample modal for you to customize related fields.
When you complete all of them, you need to click Review invoice.
➤ You need to Send invoice after you review your invoice.
The invoice is composed of your message and the order summary with the details of your draft order.
If you are sure about all, you are ready to send it.
While sending invoices to your customers, you can share your draft order checkout at the same time.
Since the invoice includes the order summary and a CTA to complete the purchase, they can reach the checkout page.
- If you want to send the invoice with a different currency, you can change the currency of your draft order on the “Market” section of it and save it on the related draft order.
Why Use Draft Orders in Shopify?
The importance of draft orders depends on various factors:
- Sending invoice with a secure checkout link using draft order
- Collecting payment for pre-orders and in-person orders
- Creating manual existing orders for customers
- Saving incompleted orders
- Selling extra products not displayed on inventory
- Selling products with a discount or wholesale rate
- Arranging changes that customers demand from you, like address or personal information
How to Convert Shopify Draft Order to Order
If you have created your draft order in Shopify, you might be into converting your Shopify draft order to a real order.
Check how you can convert Shopify draft order to order!
➤ First, click “Collect payment” once you have created your draft order.
➤ If one chooses “Enter credit card”, you or your customers need to fill in the card details to charge.
Once you are done with the details, click “Charge …”.
As we mentioned before, when you share the checkout link of your draft order, your customers will be able to enter their own credit card details.
When they demand the checkout for a draft order on Shopify, you can directly share it with them for the process.
➤ Or, if you choose “Mark as paid”, a modal will appear for determining the type of payment received.
Please know that if you choose this option, your customers cannot fill in their credit card details.
Lastly, don’t forget to click “Create order” to make your Shopify draft order an order.
And your draft order is an order now!
To Wrap Up
A draft order is an order process without any payment as a part of pre-purchase.
It encourages your customers to come shopping.
Because it encourages your customers to shop, you improve a customer loyalty program for your business.
As you know how to do it, create your own Shopify draft orders and ease their shopping experience!
Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ part will answer the most necessary questions in your mind.
How Can I Duplicate the Draft Order That I Created?
After creating a draft order, you should check them on the Orders tab. Since you have created a draft order, it can be duplicated. To duplicate your draft order, you need to click “Duplicate” at the right top of the page.
Can I Change the Currency of the Draft Order in Shopify?
Yes, you can. If you choose the Market section on your draft order, it is available to change the currency. You can search and choose or scroll among the choices based on the currency of your store or your customers’ preferences.
Can I Edit the Draft Order After I Finalize It?
Yes, it is always possible to edit it on the same Drafts section of your Shopify Admin dashboard. When you view Drafts and choose your order, it is open to be customized and ready to send to your customers.
Do I Notify My Customer If I Create a Draft Order?
No. If you create a draft order, it only affects the list on your dashboard. Therefore, no notification is sent to your customer. To notify your customer, you need to send an invoice or create a real order for them.
How Can I Share the Draft Order with Customers?
To share the draft order, you need to complete creating your draft order and check it on your “Drafts”. When you find the target draft order, you need to click “Share” at the right top of the draft order page and copy the link to send to your customers.
Recommended Shopify Blog Posts
Check out the other Shopify posts that you might show interest!
- How to Do a Test Order on Shopify with Effective Techniques
- How to Create a Shipping Label on Shopify Without an Order
- How to Increase Shopify Sales Fast: Your Ultimate Playbook
Frequently Asked Questions
How do draft orders work in Shopify?
1) Draft orders in Shopify work as merchant-created orders that start in a “draft” state, meaning nothing is charged automatically and the order isn’t finalized until you collect payment or mark it as paid. You create the draft from your Shopify admin when an order comes in through channels like DMs, email, phone, or in-person, then add products and quantities, apply discounts, set shipping or delivery charges, choose whether taxes apply, attach a customer (or create one), and add notes/tags for internal tracking. Once the details are correct, you can either send an invoice to the customer, which includes a secure checkout link they can use to pay online, or you can take payment yourself (for example, by entering a credit card if your setup allows) and then complete the order. After payment is captured (or the order is marked as paid), Shopify converts the draft into a regular order so it appears in your standard order workflow for fulfillment, notifications, and reporting.
How to find draft orders on Shopify?
2) To find draft orders on Shopify, go to your Shopify admin and open Orders from the left-hand menu, then select Drafts (often shown as a tab or filter within Orders). This section lists all draft orders that haven’t been completed yet, and you can click any draft to review or edit its products, discounts, shipping, taxes, customer details, notes, and tags. If you have many drafts, use the search bar and filters to locate them by customer name, email, order notes, tags, or draft number; this is especially helpful if you create drafts from multiple channels like social media and phone orders. From the same Drafts area, you can also click Create order to start a new draft order.
Does Shopify charge for draft orders?
3) Shopify doesn’t charge you simply for creating draft orders, but fees can apply depending on how you collect payment and which payment provider you use. If the customer pays through Shopify Payments (for example, via the invoice’s secure checkout link), you’ll generally pay the normal Shopify Payments credit card processing fees, and you typically avoid additional third-party transaction fees. If you use an external payment gateway, Shopify may charge third-party transaction fees based on your plan, on top of whatever fees your gateway charges. Also note that draft orders don’t “charge” the customer until they actually complete payment (or you capture/record payment), so creating a draft is risk-free from a customer-charging perspective—no money moves until you intentionally collect it.
How to turn a draft order into an order on Shopify?
4) To turn a draft order into a regular order on Shopify, open the draft order from Shopify admin by going to Orders > Drafts, review and finalize the details (items, discounts, shipping, taxes, customer, and any notes), and then complete it by collecting payment. The most common method is to click Send invoice so the customer can pay through a secure checkout link; once payment is completed, Shopify automatically converts the draft into an order. If you’re taking payment manually (depending on your store’s setup), you can record or capture payment from the draft order, and then choose the option to complete/mark it as paid—this also converts it into a standard order. After conversion, the order moves into your normal Orders list where you can fulfill items, buy shipping labels, and manage returns/refunds like any other order.
How to use draft orders in shopify?
5) You use draft orders in Shopify whenever you need to build an order for a customer instead of having them place it directly through your online store—common examples include phone orders, wholesale requests, social media DMs, custom bundles, edited quantities, special pricing, or adding a one-off shipping fee. Start a draft from Orders > Create order, add the products and quantities, apply a discount (like a percentage off for VIP customers), set shipping/delivery charges (such as a custom local delivery fee), decide whether taxes should be included, and attach the customer profile so their address and contact info carry through. Then either send an invoice so they can pay online using a secure checkout link, or take/record payment and complete the draft. Draft orders are also useful internally for documenting special agreements (using notes and tags), setting payment terms (payment due later), and keeping everything centralized in Shopify instead of tracking off-platform orders in spreadsheets.
What is Shopify draft order API?
6) The Shopify Draft Order API is a set of endpoints (available through Shopify’s Admin API) that lets developers create, read, update, and complete draft orders programmatically, instead of doing it manually in the Shopify admin. It’s commonly used to automate workflows like generating invoices from a CRM, creating draft orders from support tickets or B2B/wholesale portals, applying custom pricing rules, adding shipping lines, attaching customers, and then sending invoice links or converting drafts into completed orders when payment is confirmed. In practice, an app can use the API to build a draft with line items, discounts, taxes, shipping, and customer data, then trigger an invoice or mark the draft as completed—helpful for stores that receive high volumes of custom or off-site orders. Exact capabilities and required permissions depend on whether you’re using REST or GraphQL Admin API and your app’s access scopes, so developers should follow Shopify’s official API documentation for the current fields, mutations, and rate limits.
How to create a draft order in Shopify?
7) To create a draft order in Shopify, log in to your Shopify admin, go to Orders from the left sidebar, and click Create order, which opens a draft order screen where you can customize everything before requesting payment. Add products and set quantities, apply discounts (choose type and value and optionally note the reason), set shipping or delivery charges (including custom rates if needed), decide whether to include taxes, and optionally enable “payment due later” by setting payment terms. Next, select an existing customer or create a new one with their contact and shipping details, choose the market/currency if relevant, and add notes or tags for internal tracking (for example, “Instagram order” or “Wholesale”). When the draft is ready, send an invoice so the customer receives a secure checkout link to pay online, or collect/record payment and complete the order—once paid, Shopify converts the draft into a standard order for fulfillment and reporting.
