A customer messages you on WhatsApp: "I want 3 of the blue ones, size L, shipped to Lahore." You write down the details, open Shopify, and... wait. How do you turn a chat message into a trackable Shopify draft order with inventory updates, payment tracking, and a proper invoice?
Shopify draft orders are the built-in tool for creating orders manually — from phone calls, WhatsApp messages, in-person requests, or wholesale negotiations. If you're not using them, you're either losing track of manual sales or entering them in a way that breaks your reporting. This guide covers everything from creating your first draft order to organizing B2B quotes and processing COD phone orders.
What Is a Shopify Draft Order?
A Shopify draft order is an unpaid order you build from the admin on behalf of your customer. You add products, set the price, choose the shipping method, and then either mark it as paid or send the customer a checkout link to pay themselves.
Once paid, the draft order converts into a regular order. It shows up in your order list, updates inventory, triggers fulfillment workflows, and counts in your sales reports — just like any order placed through your storefront.
One important detail: draft orders created after April 1, 2025 are automatically deleted after one year of inactivity. Any edit resets the timer, but if you leave a draft sitting untouched, Shopify will clean it up.
How to Create a Draft Order (Step by Step)
The process takes under two minutes once you've done it a few times.
- Go to Orders → Drafts in your Shopify admin
- Click Create draft order
- Search for products and add them to the order — adjust quantities as needed
- Add customer details (name, email, phone, shipping address) or select an existing customer
- Choose a shipping method or add a custom shipping rate
- Apply any discounts — percentage, fixed amount, or a specific price override
- Add notes or tags for internal tracking
- Choose how to complete it: Mark as paid, Mark as pending, or Send invoice
If you're on Shopify mobile, the same flow works from the Shopify app. Tap Orders → Drafts → + and build the order from your phone. This is especially useful for merchants who take orders at markets, trade shows, or from their couch at 11 PM.
Mark as Paid vs. Send Invoice: When to Use Each
Mark as paid is for orders where you've already collected payment — cash in hand, bank transfer received, or a COD order you're confirming. The order converts immediately and enters your fulfillment queue.
For COD merchants, this is the option you'll use most. When a customer confirms their cash-on-delivery order via WhatsApp or phone, create the draft and mark it as paid with "Cash on Delivery" as the payment method.
Send invoice generates a secure checkout link and emails it to the customer. They click, enter payment, and the draft converts to a paid order. This works well for custom quotes, wholesale orders, or any situation where the customer needs to review the order before paying.
Mark as pending sits between the two. The draft converts to an order but shows as unpaid. Use this for net-30 B2B terms or situations where you'll collect payment later.
Add Custom Items for Products Not in Your Catalog
Draft orders aren't limited to products in your store. Click Add custom item to create a line item with any name, price, and quantity. This is useful for:
- Rush processing fees or handling charges
- Custom or made-to-order products that don't have a listing
- Service fees, consultations, or setup charges
- Bundled pricing that doesn't match any existing product
Custom items won't affect inventory since they're not tied to a product listing. If you need inventory tracking, create the product in your catalog first, even if it's hidden from your storefront.
Lock Pricing on Wholesale and B2B Quotes
When you negotiate a price with a wholesale buyer, the last thing you want is for a product price change to break the deal. Draft orders let you lock the price at the time of creation — even if you update the product price later, the draft keeps the original quoted amount.
Since April 2026, Shopify opened its native B2B features to every paid plan, not just Plus. You can now create company profiles, set customer-specific catalogs, and offer volume pricing on any plan. But for merchants handling a handful of wholesale orders per month, draft orders are still the fastest path. No catalog setup required — just build the order, apply the negotiated discount, and send the invoice.
For recurring wholesale customers, save time by duplicating a previous draft order. Open any completed order, click More actions → Duplicate, adjust the quantities, and send. It's not automation, but it beats rebuilding from scratch every time.
Use Draft Orders for WhatsApp and Phone Sales
Social commerce is projected to surpass $1.6 trillion globally in 2026. A growing share of that comes through messaging apps — especially in COD markets across MENA, South Asia, and Latin America, where customers message a store on WhatsApp, negotiate, and place orders through chat.
The problem: those orders often live in a spreadsheet or a notebook. They don't sync with Shopify inventory, don't trigger confirmation emails, and don't show up in your sales analytics.
Draft orders fix this. When a customer confirms an order via WhatsApp or phone:
- Create a draft order in Shopify with the products and shipping details
- For COD orders, mark it as paid with the COD payment method
- For prepaid orders, send the invoice link via WhatsApp — the customer pays through Shopify's secure checkout
- The order enters your regular fulfillment flow
If you're processing more than 10-15 WhatsApp orders per day, manual draft creation gets slow. At that volume, consider automating with Zapier or Make — a WhatsApp message can trigger a draft order creation via Shopify's API. For COD-heavy stores, EasySell's order form can handle phone and messaging-based orders with built-in COD verification and order tracking, skipping the manual draft step entirely.
What Are the Limitations of Shopify Draft Orders?
Draft orders are flexible, but they have gaps:
- No dedicated report. Shopify doesn't offer a draft-order-specific report. Draft orders that convert to paid orders appear in your regular sales reports, but you can't easily filter to see how many orders originated as drafts. Use order tags (like "phone-order" or "whatsapp") to track manually.
- No automatic discount codes. You can apply manual discounts to draft orders, but automatic discounts (like "10% off orders over $50") don't trigger. You'll need to calculate and apply them yourself.
- Limited Shopify Flow support. Some Flow triggers and actions don't work with draft orders the same way they work with regular orders. Test your automations before relying on them.
- No abandoned checkout recovery. If you send an invoice and the customer doesn't pay, Shopify won't send abandoned checkout emails. You'll need to follow up manually.
Tag and Organize Your Draft Orders
Without tagging, your draft orders blend into your regular order list and you lose visibility into which sales channels actually drive revenue. Set up a simple tagging system:
- Source tag: "phone-order", "whatsapp-order", "wholesale", "in-person"
- Status tag: "quote-sent", "awaiting-payment", "confirmed"
- Customer type: "b2b", "vip", "repeat-buyer"
Tags let you filter orders in Shopify admin, segment customers, and build Shopify Flow automations that treat manual orders differently from storefront orders. A 5-second habit per order that saves hours of confusion at month-end.
Your Next Step
If you're taking orders by phone, WhatsApp, or email and entering them into a spreadsheet — stop. Create your first draft order today. Add the products, attach the customer, tag the source, and mark it as paid or send the invoice. Every order that goes through Shopify instead of a spreadsheet is an order that updates your inventory, feeds your reports, and triggers your fulfillment workflow. The setup takes zero configuration. The feature is already in your admin, waiting under Orders → Drafts.