How to create a Shopify draft order for a customer with no email

Does a Shopify draft order need an email address?

No. A phone number is enough. A name alone creates the customer, but Shopify’s help asks for an email or phone number before you complete the draft, so add their mobile number. A draft completed without either gets no order confirmation, and you can’t send one after the order is created.

For example, a regular calls to order a US$185.00 hamper and doesn’t use email. Add them by phone:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts, click Create order and add the products.
2. In the Customer section, click Search or create a customer, then Create a new customer.
3. Enter their name and mobile number, then click Save customer.

In Shopify POS, tap Add customer on the cart, enter their first name, last name and phone number, and tap Add customer.

“Customer must have a name, phone number or email address”

Shopify’s Admin API returns this error when an app or integration tries to create a customer with no name, phone number or email. It isn’t asking for an email. Check that the app sends the customer’s name or phone number.

Which ways can a customer with no email pay?

A customer collecting in store pays in Shopify POS. One at home pays through a checkout link you text them. Key their card into the draft to get paid during the call, or mark it paid once cash or a transfer is in. Each route leaves the customer with a different confirmation.

Shopify’s send buttons all use email. Send invoice emails the draft’s checkout link, Send cart in Shopify POS asks for an email address, and a draft saved in POS offers Email to customer. If the customer does have an email but the invoice never arrived, see why a Shopify invoice email wasn’t received.

Text the checkout link

On the draft, use Share > Copy link (or the menu > Share > Copy link in the Shopify app on your phone) and paste it into a text message. The full steps are in how to text a draft’s checkout link. Merchants reported in a November 2024 community thread that shared links stopped taking payment for drafts with no email. If a link won’t go through, take payment in Shopify POS when they collect or key the card, and see why a customer can’t pay a Shopify invoice link.

With no draft at all, a Quick Sale payment link from the Shopify app works without a customer profile (it needs Shopify Payments where that’s available). To check whether it’s been paid, see how to know when a payment link is paid.

Take payment in Shopify POS when they collect

With POS Pro, a customer can pay for their draft order in person when they collect and leave with a texted or printed receipt.

1. Build the order on the POS cart, add the customer by phone, then tap ⋯ > Create draft order.
2. When they arrive, tap ⋯ > Load draft order, find the draft and tap Load to cart.
3. Take payment as usual and offer a receipt on the Payment successful screen.

To book the order before they collect, choose Payment due later > Due on fulfillment on the draft in your Shopify admin, click Save, and record the payment with Collect payment when they pay. Payment reminders are emails, so call them yourself. For holding stock and pickup setup, see pickup orders in Shopify POS.

Key the card into the draft

Open the draft and, in the Payment section, click Collect payment > Credit card. Enter the billing and card details, then click Charge. This needs Shopify Payments. For the trade-offs, see taking a card by phone and whether Shopify has a virtual terminal.

Mark as paid

If they’ve paid by cash or bank transfer, click Collect payment > Mark as paid, check the Amount received and click Create order. Only mark it paid once the money has arrived, because marking it paid stops the draft’s checkout link working.

How do I let customers check out with a phone number instead of an email?

Go to Settings > Checkout, find Customer contact method, choose Phone number or email and click Save. Customers who then enter a phone number instead of an email get one order confirmation by text, at no cost to you, if your business address is in a supported country. Standard message rates may apply to the customer.

The supported countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the US.

Should I use a placeholder email like noemail@ in Shopify?

No. Use their phone number. Shopify sends the order-confirmation text only when there’s no email on the profile, so a fake address stops the one message they’d get, and customers with an email on their profile can’t switch to text.

A placeholder causes other trouble too:

• Shopify’s API describes a customer’s email as unique to that customer, so a single shared noemail@ address isn’t meant to sit on several profiles.
• One person can end up with two Shopify profiles (Shopify has a merge tool for this), for example a placeholder profile and one made when they later check out with their real email.
• Shopify records email marketing consent only once an email address is entered, so a placeholder leaves a consent record attached to an address nobody reads.

Some merchants suggest a placeholder when a texted link won’t take payment. Take payment in Shopify POS or key the card instead.

What receipt does a customer with no email get?

Paying in Shopify POS, they can have the receipt texted or printed. Paying through your checkout link, they get one confirmation text if your checkout accepts phone numbers. Mark the order paid, and Shopify’s confirmation is an email they won’t receive. After keying a card, confirm by phone yourself.

In Shopify POS, on the Payment successful screen, tap Text, enter their number with the area code and tap Send receipt, or tap Print receipt. To print or send it again later, open the order, tap Receipt and choose the payment.

How can a phone customer with no email pay without reading out their card number?

Text them the draft’s checkout link, as in Text the checkout link above. They open Shopify’s checkout on their own phone and type in their card details themselves, so nobody at your store hears, writes down or keys the card number. Shopify creates the order once they’ve paid.

Taking payment by link from the POS cart

Pay Link, from Countermade, turns the order on your Shopify POS cart into a link to Shopify’s own secure checkout, so staff never see or type card details. Staff can see whether the link has been paid, and they see the total up front, with a note when checkout will add shipping. Tapping twice by mistake still makes one link, not two. Pay Link takes full payment and needs Shopify POS Pro; turn on local pickup so the customer can choose to collect at checkout. For the whole phone-order workflow, see taking phone orders without card details.

Next step

Switch checkout to Phone number or email, then put the caller’s mobile number on the draft.

Pay Link isn’t on the Shopify App Store yet. Join early access and we’ll email you when it’s ready to try.