Currently, the “Submit fulfillment request” action in Shopify Flow only works with app-based (third-party) fulfillment services. It does not support custom fulfillment services (email-based).
For stores that use multiple custom fulfillment services — for example, my gift shop with dozens of individual suppliers each set up as a custom fulfillment service — there is no way to automate the fulfillment request process via Flow. This means every order has to be manually actioned.
The workaround is to use a “Send internal email” action as a prompt to manually press “Request fulfillment”, which partially solves the problem but still requires manual intervention for every order.
Requested improvement: Allow the “Submit fulfillment request” action in Shopify Flow to work with custom (email-based) fulfillment services, so that workflows can automatically trigger fulfillment requests without manual steps.
This would be particularly valuable for stores managing many individual suppliers or makers, where automation would save significant time.
I personally think it’s a good suggestion but your request will likely get buried under the hundreds of feature suggestions already posted on this forum, the Shopify Staff and product team doesn’t really monitor here. You’ll have a much better shot getting it seen on community.shopify.dev where Shopify staff and the Flow team actually engage with feature requests. Post it there with the same context. Also worth submitting via in-app feedback (? icon in admin > Send feedback) since that goes directly to the product team.
I realize this is from a while ago, but I’m curious if there have been any updates on this feature request? Automating custom fulfillment services in Shopify Flow would be incredibly helpful for merchants juggling multiple suppliers. If anyone has contacted Shopify support recently, did they share any progress or alternatives for this issue? Let’s keep the conversation going.
I’d still keep this request alive because the use case hasn’t really gone away, especially for stores working with multiple suppliers or 3PLs.
One workaround I’d look at in the meantime is separating the logic into two parts:
Shopify Flow → determine which fulfillment path the order needs → fulfillment app/service handles the actual submission.
For example, you can use product/vendor/location/order conditions in Flow to identify which supplier should handle the order, then let the fulfillment integration take care of sending it to that provider.
The limitation is that Flow doesn’t necessarily give you a simple native action of “send this order to Custom Fulfillment Service X” for every custom service, which is exactly where this feature request becomes useful.
If the fulfillment provider has its own Shopify app, API, or Flow-compatible action, that can sometimes bridge the gap. Otherwise, a small middleware/API workflow may be needed.
So before assuming the feature is still completely blocked, I’d check the current capabilities of the specific fulfillment service you’re using. If you share which custom fulfillment service(s) you’re trying to automate, I can map out what can be done with Flow today versus where the actual limitation is.
