How to take phone orders on Shopify without asking for card details

Why a checkout link instead of a card number

Shopify counts cards typed in by staff as card-not-present payments that “carry additional fraud risk.” A link moves the typing to the customer, on Shopify’s checkout, where supported cards can use 3D Secure. Shopify’s chargeback advice says: “For telephone or mail orders, consider sending a draft-order invoice.” Full comparison: manual card entry vs payment links.

Set up once, before the first phone order

1. Check the location is on Shopify POS Pro. Send cart and saving a draft in POS both need it. On most plans it’s a paid add-on for each location (Shopify’s POS pricing); the Retail plan includes one POS Pro location, and Shopify Plus includes its first 20.
2. Turn on Pickup in store. In the admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery, click Pickup in store, choose your location and turn on Let customers pick up orders directly at this location.
3. Have staff sign in to POS with their email, not just a PIN, or Shopify can’t credit their Send cart sales to them.
4. Optional: turn off manual card entry on POS devices that never take a typed card.

Route 1: email the cart from Shopify POS

1. Build the cart and add the customer; their email fills in.
2. Tap ⋯ (More actions) at the top of the cart, then Send cart.
3. Check the email address, add a message if you want, and tap Send.

The customer gets an email with a checkout link. The order stays a draft until they pay, then is credited to the POS channel, your store and the staff member who sent it (see setup step 3).

Send cart collects the full amount. Shopify’s help doesn’t say whether a Send cart checkout offers pickup, so send yourself a test cart before relying on it for a collecting customer. If there’s no pickup option, use Route 2.

Route 2: text or invoice a draft order

Use this route to text the link, or when you’re at a desk or without POS Pro. For a collecting customer, set pickup on the draft before you send it (step 4), or checkout may charge shipping.

1. Create the draft. In Shopify POS, tap ⋯ on the cart, then Create draft order. Or, in the Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts, click Create order and add the products and customer.
2. Open it where you’ll finish it. To set pickup, use the Shopify admin in a browser (Orders > Drafts, then the draft), ideally on the phone you text from. Otherwise use the Shopify app (the admin app, not POS): tap Menu, the arrow by Orders, then Draft orders.
3. Check the details. Match the total to your quote, and add the customer’s email or phone number for the order confirmation.
4. Set pickup if they’re collecting. Before you send the link, click Add shipping or delivery, select Pickup in store and your location, then Apply. Otherwise checkout may ask for an address and add shipping. Once you set a method, Shopify says the customer can’t change it at checkout.
5. Hold stock if it’s tight. From the draft’s ⋯ menu, choose Reserve inventory (Reserve items in the app) and set when the hold ends. Otherwise other buyers can take the items, and if they sell out, the customer can’t check out.
6. Send it. Click Share, then Copy link (in the app, tap the menu icon first), and paste it into a text. Or click Send invoice in the Payments section to email it.

Sharing the link or sending the invoice needs an admin login that can edit draft orders, so PIN-only POS staff need a colleague for it. Product prices on a shared or invoiced draft are locked by default, so they stay as quoted (bundle prices can’t be locked). More on texting it: sending a draft order payment link by text. See also phone orders for florists and remote payments for trade counters.

Quick Sale in the Shopify app also makes payment links, without using POS. Shopify payment links explained covers where each kind of link’s order lands and whether a link expires.

Confirm payment and follow up on unpaid links

• In the Shopify admin: a paid Send cart or draft order becomes an order on the Orders page, marked Paid.
• In Shopify POS: Orders shows only POS sales at your location by default. For a draft paid by its link, set Sale type to Online and check the location filter. For a Send cart order, check the admin.
• In Quick Sale: a paid link moves from Pending links to Paid in its history.

Don’t mark a draft Paid early: the link stops working. An unpaid draft stays under Orders > Drafts, where you can copy the link again or resend the invoice; if you reserved items, check the hold before you chase the customer.

Where the native routes get awkward

• Texting or pickup means leaving POS mid-call. Send cart is email only. For a draft saved in POS, Shopify’s help lists just Email to customer, and gives the pickup step only for the admin in a browser.
• Confirming payment is a separate check after the call, in the admin or, for a draft paid by its link, POS Orders filtered to Online.
• A deposit on the order by link needs Shopify Plus, where an admin draft can require a percentage deposit; Send cart can’t take one.

Where Pay Link fits

Pay Link, from Countermade (the Shopify POS apps from Invenire Studios), is for POS Pro stores that take orders by phone. Staff start a payment link from the POS cart, where they already build the order, and the customer pays on Shopify’s own secure checkout, so staff never see or type card details.

• Staff can see whether a link has been paid.
• Staff see the total before the link goes out, with a note when shipping will be added at checkout.
• A double tap makes one payment link, not two.

Checkout asks for a delivery address and may add shipping, so turn on Pickup in store (setup step 2) and the customer can choose pickup.

For a side-by-side, see native POS payment link options vs Pay Link or the Pay Link page.

Next step

Before the next phone order, pick the route that fits your customers and walk whoever answers the phone through it once. If you want the link made from the POS cart, join early access and we’ll email you when Pay Link is ready for your store.