# Draft order

> A draft order is an order you create yourself in the Shopify admin, usually to invoice a customer who cannot check out normally.

- Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/draft-order/
- Updated: 2026-08-14
- Author: Nia Chambers, Product, Store Standards

---

You build the basket, Shopify emails an invoice, and the customer pays the
link.

## What it is good for

- Wholesale and trade, at agreed prices
- A phone or email order
- Quoting a custom price without a discount code
- Taking payment later, on terms

It is the closest thing the core admin has to a sales order, which is why
small wholesale operations lean on it.

## Watch what it reserves

A draft can hold stock before anyone has paid. That is useful for a genuine
order and expensive for a speculative quote, because it takes units out of
[available inventory](https://storestandards.com/glossary/available-inventory/) that a paying customer
could have had.

Check the setting before you start quoting from drafts.

## Where it goes wrong

Drafts pile up. Quotes that went nowhere sit there for months holding stock,
and unlike an [unfulfilled order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/unfulfilled-order/) nothing on the
orders screen nags anyone about them.

Read the list monthly and delete the dead ones. The other fault is using
drafts as a wholesale system for a real trade business. Once you are managing
prices per customer and orders in the hundreds, this is a workaround, and
[Shopify Plus](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-plus/) or a proper B2B app is the tool.

## Related terms

- [Unfulfilled order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/unfulfilled-order/): An unfulfilled order is one that has been paid for but not yet sent. Its stock is committed and cannot be sold to anyone else.
- [Available inventory](https://storestandards.com/glossary/available-inventory/): Available inventory is the stock a customer can still buy. It is what you hold on hand, minus what is already promised to other orders.
- [Shopify POS](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-pos/): Shopify POS is Shopify's till app for selling in person, sharing one product catalogue and one stock count with the online store.