Right now all of my orders are fulfilled by a fulfillment center and I am hands off. What i want to do is introduce a 1 hour ‘lag’ of data between when an order is placed and when it’s synced to the fulfillment center. This lag will allow me to make any edits to an order before it’s sent off to them…I have a few questions.
(1) I was told that in the flows app I could set up a flow to delay the order from being communicated to them, is this possible? If so, how?
(2) I was told it is by delaying the ‘fulfillment’ flow but is this right? I want to confirm.
Yes, you can set up a delay in the order fulfillment flow using Shopify Flow (if you’re on Shopify Plus) to give you that one-hour window for making edits. Here’s how you can approach it:
First, create a new Flow that’s triggered when an order is created. Then add a “Delay” action and set it to 1 hour. Once the delay is over, the flow should trigger your fulfillment action (or send the order details to your fulfillment center). Essentially, you’re delaying the “fulfillment” part of the flow so that your order isn’t sent out immediately.
To map it out:
Trigger: Order Created
Action: Delay (set to 1 hour)
Action: Fulfillment (or a custom action that communicates with your fulfillment center)
This way, orders will wait for an hour after being placed before being passed on for fulfillment, giving you time to review or modify them as needed.
you can introduce a 1-hour delay using Shopify Flow, but it depends on how your fulfillment center receives orders.
it’s possible in Shopify Flow by adding a “Wait” action before the fulfillment request is sent. However, this only works if your fulfillment process is triggered through Shopify and not an external app that instantly syncs orders
You’re delaying the fulfillment request, not just the fulfillment itself. If your fulfillment center automatically pulls orders via API or an app, you may need a middleware solution like Order Automator to intercept and delay it.
To set this up in Shopify Flow:
Trigger: “Order Created”
Action: “Wait” (set delay to 1 hour)
Condition (Optional): Check order criteria (e.g., payment status)
Action: “Send fulfillment request” (or mark as ready for fulfillment)
If your fulfillment provider doesn’t allow delays, check if they support a manual hold feature or use a third-party automation tool to manage the delay.
The issue is described in the error and links to a help doc. An order has a list of fulfillments orders (not just a single one) and those actions take a single one. So you need to add a for each action before them.
It should run fine. You may not want to submit a fulfillment request for
every fulfillment order. For example if the items don’t require fulfillment
like a digital thing or gift card.
