Order Management

What is order management?

Order management refers to the processes and systems used to handle customer orders after checkout. This includes order confirmation, inventory allocation, fulfillment routing, shipping updates, cancellations, and issue resolution.

In Shopify, order management often spans multiple tools and workflows rather than a single platform.

Why order management matters for small brands

As order volume increases, small inefficiencies quickly turn into delays, errors, and customer dissatisfaction. Strong order management improves reliability, reduces manual work, and protects customer trust.

When you should care (and when you shouldn’t)

Order management becomes important when:

• Order volume increases

• Multiple fulfillment methods are used

• Customer inquiries relate to order status

At very low volume, simple manual handling is often sufficient.

How order management is typically handled

Most brands start with Shopify’s native order tools and add workflows, integrations, or automations as complexity grows. The goal is visibility and consistency, not sophistication.

Common mistakes or misconceptions

• Treating order management as a single tool

• Adding systems before defining workflows

• Separating order handling from customer communication

FAQs

What does order management include?
Order management includes order processing, fulfillment coordination, shipping updates, and handling cancellations, returns, or issues.

Is order management the same as fulfillment?
No. Fulfillment is one part of order management, which also includes communication, inventory coordination, and exception handling.

When do brands need order management tools?
Tools become useful when manual workflows can no longer reliably handle order volume or complexity.