Draft orders are an excellent way to send a quote or allow customers to place an order over the phone with a staff member. This builds increased trust and a feeling of security for your customers, as they won't be verbally sharing their credit card details during phone orders.
Draft orders are created through the manual order process. When a manual order is saved as a draft, a unique cart URL is generated. This URL stores the customer's cart, their shipping details, and contact information for up to 29 days.
Try the new draft order experience. The new experience has a streamlined, single-page design, supports multi-storefront, and draft orders for guests. See Draft Orders.
Requirements
In order to create and delete draft orders in the control panel, you must have the following permissions enabled in your user account:
- Manage Orders
- Add Orders
- Manage Customers
- Manage Channels
- Manage Products
- Manage Categories
- Add a Customer
In addition to the above permissions, your user account must have the Edit Orders permission enabled in order to edit existing draft orders.
Creating a Draft Order
Go to Orders › Add and create a manual order by adding products to the cart and entering the customer's billing and shipping details. When finalizing the order, select Create Draft Order. Then click Save & Create Draft Order.
A draft of the order will be saved, and a unique cart URL will be generated. For security and privacy reasons, customers will need to log into their storefront account before they can view the cart. Once logged in, the draft order URL will take customers directly to the storefront cart page, with their cart pre-populated and ready for checkout.
Cart URLs will not be sent automatically. They must be sent via email or through other means to your customers. This can be a great opportunity to reach out to customers with a personalized touch.
When a draft order is paid for, it will be removed from the list of draft orders and be displayed as a storefront order on the View Order screen.
Note about completed draft orders: If you complete a draft order as a manual order, be sure to delete the draft order in the control panel, as the customer will still be able to use the cart URL and may duplicate their order on the storefront.
Pro Tip! Customize your draft order links in your email client before sending them to your customers. For example, in Gmail, you can highlight a word or image and use the Insert Link tool to convert it into a clickable link. Doing so will not only make your Draft Order URLs easier to manage, but also make your emails easier to read.
Editing a Draft Order
Since draft orders are not completed until the customer checks out on the storefront, the order information and cart contents can be adjusted to suit the customer's needs.
To edit a draft order, go to Orders › Draft Orders. Click the action icon to the right of the draft order you want to edit and select Edit draft order.
Then follow the normal process for editing a manual order. When you are ready to save your changes, click Save & Create Draft Order to keep the order as a draft or click Save & Process Payment if you have chosen to complete the order as a manual order.
Deleting a Draft Order
To delete a draft order, go to Orders › Draft Orders. Click the action icon to the right of the draft order you want to delete and select Delete draft order.
FAQ
What happens to the cart when an item goes out of stock before the customer has a chance to use the cart URL?
The item will still be in the cart when they visit the cart page. However, they will be notified that the item is out of stock when trying to check out.
Will cart URLs expire?
The URL will be valid for 29 days from time of creation. Customers will not be able to check out once it has expired and it cannot be refreshed by editing the draft. You will need to create a new draft order to generate a new cart URL.
Can a customer use an expired cart URL?
If a customer uses an expired cart URL, they will receive a warning that the link is expired or invalid when they visit the cart page.
Can I create draft orders for guest customers?
To create a draft order for a customer without a storefront account, select New Customer in the Customer Information step and enter the customer's email address and billing information. Be sure to leave the password fields blank.
After sending the cart URL to your customer, they will be taken directly to the draft cart instead of being prompted to log in.
Are products reserved or removed from stock when a draft order is created?
A product's stock level is adjusted only when the order has been completed.
Can I add a custom shipping method to a draft order?
No, custom shipping methods will not work with draft orders. However, you can add a custom shipping method to a manual order.
Can I use multiple coupon codes on a draft order?
If your store is on an Enterprise plan, you can add multiple coupon codes .
Are invoices sent automatically when a draft order is created?
An invoice will be sent to the customer once the order has been completed, either by the customer or as a manual order.
Can you edit gift certificates already applied to an order?
Yes, you can edit a gift certificate applied to a draft order before the customer completes checkout. However, once the customer completes checkout on a draft order, the gift certificate on the order cannot be edited.
Can I use draft orders with my headless storefront?
Draft orders for headless storefronts are not supported at this time.
