The "Shipping Schedule" setting defines when new orders containing products from this plan will be shipped. Shopify automatically assigns an order fulfillment status based on the selected option. Below is a breakdown of how each choice affects fulfillment.
Shipping Schedule Options
1. Ship Immediately
- Orders are marked as Unfulfilled immediately.
- Merchants can start the shipping process right away.
2. Ship on Exact Date
- If the selected date is in the future, orders are set to Scheduled and will automatically move to Unfulfilled on that date.
- If the selected date is today, orders skip Scheduled and move directly to Unfulfilled.
3. Ship Date to be Finalized
- Orders remain On Hold until a shipping date is assigned.
- Once updated, they follow the applicable fulfillment process.
4. Days After Checkout
- Orders are set to Scheduled and will automatically move to Unfulfilled on that date, which you have mentioned.
- If the selected date is today, orders skip Scheduled and move directly to Unfulfilled.
Disclaimer: For ship on exact date, days after checkout, and shipping dates to be finalized, this order may be created as multiple fulfillments when bought with regular items. If you rely on any other downstream tools for shipment, try testing the full workflow in advance.
Note: Existing orders are NOT impacted by changes to this field. If you modify the shipping schedule for a plan, only new orders will follow the updated rules. Merchants must manually update the fulfillment status of previously placed orders if needed.
An in-stock item and a preorder item purchased in the same order
Depending on the shipping schedule selected for the preorder product, the order fulfillment will appear differently in Shopify:
1. In-stock item + Preorder item with "Ship Immediately"
With this setting, if an order contains both an in-stock (regular) product and a preorder product, both items will be included in the same fulfillment with the Unfulfilled fulfillment status.
To help distinguish the preorder item, the preorder product will have its (preorder plan name) displayed beneath the product title. This allows you to easily identify which item in the mixed order is a preorder while the regular in-stock product remains a standard item.
2. In-stock item + Preorder item with "Ship on Exact Date" or "Number of Days from Checkout"
With this setting, if an order contains both an in-stock (regular) product and a preorder product, the preorder item will have the Scheduled fulfillment status, while the in-stock (non-preorder) product will remain Unfulfilled.
The preorder item's fulfillment status will automatically change from Scheduled to Unfulfilled once the shipping date configured in the Dibs Shipping Schedule is reached.
If you wish to ship the preorder item before the scheduled date, you can simply click the Fulfill Early option on the order and proceed with fulfillment.
If the preorder is delayed and needs to be shipped after the configured date, you can reschedule the fulfillment date to a future date.
3. In-stock item + Preorder item with "Shipping Date to Be Finalized"
With this setting, if an order contains both an in-stock (regular) product and a preorder product, the preorder item will have the On Hold fulfillment status, while the in-stock (regular) product will remain Unfulfilled.
When you're ready to ship the preorder item, you can manually release the hold for that specific fulfillment. If you have multiple preorder orders ready to be shipped, you can also use the Bulk Release Hold option to release multiple fulfillments at once. Once the hold has been released, the fulfillment status will change to Unfulfilled, and you can proceed with fulfilling the preorder item.