Order ID not present at order confirmation page

[joeone]

Hi all,

I have an external partner who has an app which links to our account which deals with collecting order information for use in tracking affiliate link conversions.

Earlier this week while we were testing an order we discovered that the order confirmation page was displaying without an order ID present on the page. Also when we were checking the console we could see that the order_ID object was showing a null value. Screenshots below.

Screenshot showing the confirmation page from the test order taken after about 10 minutes, via the backend. The order ID is present at this stage.

This is the order confirmation page screenshot from the order confirmation screen immediately on order replacement, missing the order ID.

And finally a screenshot of the same order confirmation screen with the missing order ID confirmed as missing in data by the console.

I included some research into this subject on the forums and found that Shopify sometimes will delay the generation of this data to maintain a smooth checkout experience when their servers are under high load. Some relevant links included below driving similar issues or affects with delayed data generation at check out.

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-APIs-SDKs/Shopify-global-object-on-thank-you-page/td-p/612810

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-APIs-SDKs/Explanation-of-the-order-number-value-in-the-checkout-script-For/td-p/1010631

What I basically want to know is what is the behaviour of the Shopify system in this circumstance and how is it possible to ensure that every time a customer to checks out that their order ID can be pulled consistently even if the generation of some of this data is delayed an amount of time after the checkout actually completes and how this would relate to an app that needs to track this data.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated because we need to adapt the way that our tracking script triggers at checkout to take into account that this can happen.

Thanks in advance for any help or pointers that my lead to a workable solution.

[Mouhiit_shphy]

Well explained the problem, and we are facing it too.

My experience with the Shopify Tech team for Support is “Pathetic”.

@Support Team - DO you have an answer, how do we proceed further?

[MP7]

Shopify is using the checkout ID more and more in place of the {{order_number}} when their server is under a heavy load. It used to only occur during specific times of day. Now it’s the norm.

I’ve been trying to get a response from Shopify Dev since 2021, when I originally ran into this issue.

[MP7]

Update:

Shopify has confirmed through another party, that Shopify has no intention of resolving this issue.

…I can confirm that during high checkout volumes, our system is designed to provide the best flow to the customers. As such in order to maintain high checkout speeds our system can delay the order number creation and will first show a checkout confirmation ID on the “Thank you” page. Once the order has been generated on the back-end it will show an order ID…> … it is expected for third parties to build integrations that work and connect with Shopify, not the other way around.

Follow-up inquiries should be directed to asking Shopify to just update their documentation, so that this information is available to 3rd party developers, as this is the only location I can find any documentation on the matter.