Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published May 31, 2021.
It’s common for customers to place orders incorrectly, request updates, or need additional information. Often, they contact you to change the size or quantity of the product they’ve ordered.
But how simple is it to change their order? Is it possible, or do you have to cancel the incorrect order and ask them to place it again?
Here’s what you need to know about the best way to change a customer’s order in your Shopify store.
What you can change in a customer’s order
You can edit the following aspects of a customer’s order in Shopify:
- Apply discounts
- Adjust quantities
- Remove items
- Add items (including custom items)
You can only change the order if it has not already been fulfilled. If it has been fulfilled, you will not be able to adjust quantities or remove/add a product. Only unfulfilled line items can be edited in Shopify.
If you need to change the products on an order, you’ll need to add the correct product and remove the unwanted one. When you edit an order, the order total is updated automatically to reflect these changes, and the order will display whether a refund is owed to the customer or a balance is owed to you.
How to add new products to the customer’s order
- Go to the admin page and click on Orders
- Select the order that needs to be edited and click on Edit
- Click + Add product and search for the name of the item that has to be added
- Select the product and click Done
- You may also add a custom item by clicking + Add Custom Item and entering the item name, price, and quantity
- Although optional, it’s handy to add a Reason for edit. This note is only visible to store admins and isn’t displayed to your customer
- Lastly, review and update the order to finish the process
How to remove unwanted products from the customer’s order
Follow the initial steps from the previous procedure and go to Edit. Hover over the product you want to remove and click the × button. When you remove an item from an order, it will automatically be restocked to its original location. If you don’t want it to restock, deselect Restock units before finalizing the edit.
Again, you can add a Reason for Edit. This can only be seen by the store’s admin users and not the customer. After making your changes, review and update the order to complete the process.
How to apply discounts to the customer’s order
Under the Edit section, you can apply discounts to line items. Discounts are available for custom items and new products added to the order. You can enter the discount value, select whether it’s a percentage or fixed amount, add a reason for the discount, and apply it. Keep in mind that some order-level discounts may be recalculated when you edit an order, so always check the total carefully.
Conclusion
We’ve tried to make it easy to understand how you can change a customer’s order in Shopify. The method is straightforward and achieves what you need for making changes to an order. The key is to remember that you can only edit unfulfilled orders, and all changes are applied directly to the original order.
Being able to easily edit customer orders can improve your customer experience and potentially reduce your abandoned cart rate. Sometimes customers abandon checkouts if they’re completely unsure about the product they are ordering. Being able to edit a customer’s order means that the customer can feel secure dealing with your store, knowing that mistakes can be corrected without having to place a new order entirely.
If you need more advanced order editing capabilities beyond what Shopify offers natively—such as allowing customers to self-edit their orders, editing billing addresses, or making changes after fulfillment—you may want to consider third-party apps from the Shopify App Store that specialize in order editing functionality.
