How to take a special order in Shopify POS

Which Shopify POS route should I use for a special order?

Choose by when the customer pays and how they get the item. Paid in full and collecting: a pickup order, or a normal sale with Mark as fulfilled off. Paid in full and shipped: ship and carry out. Part paid: mark the sale partially paid. Nothing paid yet: a draft order. Pickup, shipping and drafts need POS Pro rather than Lite.

If the item is already on your shelf, hold it for the customer instead, and for scheduled production runs take pre-orders at the counter.

If you don’t stock the product at all, ring it up as a custom sale, or add a custom item to a draft. A custom sale needs the Add custom sales permission, and custom items show differently in reports.

Can Shopify POS sell an item that’s out of stock?

Yes. Shopify’s “Continue selling when out of stock” setting doesn’t apply to orders placed from Shopify POS, so staff can sell an item even when stock is at zero or below. That lets you ring up the special-order item before it arrives. POS warns staff before they sell an item that’s not available.

How do I take payment now and keep the order open until it arrives?

Use a pickup order. Since POS v11.3 (March 2026), staff can sell items that are “in stock now or expected to be available later”, and Shopify holds the order until the customer collects. If pickup isn’t set up for your location, keep a normal sale unfulfilled instead.

Take a pickup order (POS Pro)

1. Add the items to the cart and tap the Pickup all items tile. If it’s missing, add it from Add tile > Action.
2. Tap Add customer, search for or create the customer, then tap Checkout.
3. When the item arrives, tap the Order icon, open the order and tap Ready for pickup. Set the item aside and tap Send notification.
4. When the customer collects, tap Mark as picked up.

First turn on Pickup in store for the location and give staff the Fulfill shipping, pickup, and delivery orders permission. Setting up pickup orders walks through both, plus pickup slips.

How do I turn off Mark as fulfilled for a special order?

Before checkout, tap the menu in the Cart section and make sure Mark as fulfilled is off, or turn off Mark in-store order as fulfilled under the POS menu > Settings > Orders. That’s the store-wide default, so use the cart toggle for a one-off. You can’t change an order to Unfulfilled after it’s placed, and you fulfill it later in the Shopify admin.

How do I sell in-stock items and a special-order item in the same sale?

If you’ll ship the special-order item, use ship and carry out. Shopify’s help page lists this as one use for it: a customer buying items that are out of stock at your location. The order is created as Partially fulfilled: carry-out items fulfilled, the shipped item unfulfilled. If the customer will collect it instead, ring it up as a separate pickup order or draft.

1. In the cart, tap the item you’re ordering in, then tap Ship. Everything else stays on carry out.
2. Tap Add customer and add their address.
3. Tap Shipping method, choose one, then tap Checkout.

Later, ship it with Ship from store in POS or fulfill it in the admin. Beyond the table’s requirements, you need complete shipping settings, and staff need the Checkout > Ship to customer and Manage customers permissions set to Allowed.

You can’t split one variant between carry out and ship. For example, a shoe-shop customer taking one pair in size 9 and ordering a second in the same size needs two transactions.

Can the customer pay a deposit now and the rest later?

Yes. On the Select payments screen, tap Split payment, enter what the customer is paying now and complete it, then tap Mark as partially paid and Mark as partial. When they come back, open the order, which shows a Partially paid label, and tap Collect payment.

Some EU locations can’t do this at checkout (see the table). For other ways to take a deposit, see deposit options on each Shopify plan.

How do I hold a special order as a draft until it comes in?

Ring up the items, add the customer and a note, then tap the cart’s ⋯ menu > Create draft order. Nothing is charged, and the sale waits as a draft order. When the item arrives, tap the cart’s ⋯ menu > Load draft order > Load to cart and check out as normal.

If you’ll send the draft’s own checkout link, add the stock and reserve it first, in the admin under Orders > Drafts > the draft > ⋯ > Reserve inventory, so no one else can buy it. A zero-stock item stops the customer paying the draft link with an out-of-stock error, unless the product allows overselling. Don’t mark the draft Paid before the customer pays, or the link stops working.

Drafts made since April 2025 are deleted after a year untouched. Any edit resets the clock. If the link sits unpaid once the item is in, chase the invoice.

How do I keep track of what to order in for each customer?

Before checkout, tap the cart’s ⋯ menu > Add note (how notes work on Shopify POS orders and items) and write down the item, size or edition, supplier and expected date. Tag drafts in the Shopify admin (for example, special-order) so every open one is easy to find, and print a copy to clip to the supplier order or tape to the shelf, with one of the native ways to print a draft or a price-free prep ticket.

Prep Ticket, from Countermade (the Shopify POS apps from Invenire Studios), prints that ticket from the draft in Shopify POS: item names, quantities, customer and notes, no prices, so whoever orders and shelves the item sees exactly what to get. It prints by AirPrint to a printer the iPad can reach, works with drafts made in POS or the Shopify admin, and needs POS Pro.

How do I get paid when the special order arrives?

When the customer comes back in, load the draft and check out, or open the part-paid order and tap Collect payment. To let them pay before collecting, send the draft’s checkout link: in POS, tap the Order icon > Drafts, then ⋮ next to the draft > Email to customer. Or text the draft’s link from your phone and check when it’s been paid.

Turn on pickup at the location first so the customer can choose pickup at checkout.

For a special order nobody has paid for yet, Pay Link, also from Countermade, makes the payment link from the POS cart once the stock is in. Before anything is sent, it shows staff the total up front, with a note when checkout will add shipping. Later, staff can see whether the link has been paid.

If staff tap twice by accident, there’s still only one link. The customer pays on Shopify’s own secure checkout, so staff never see or type card details. Pay Link needs POS Pro.

Next time a customer asks for something you don’t have, start with the table and ring it up before they leave.

Get early access to Prep Ticket and Pay Link

Prep Ticket and Pay Link aren’t on the Shopify App Store yet. Get early access and we’ll email you when they’re ready to try.