# 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.

- Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/unfulfilled-order/
- Updated: 2026-08-14
- Author: Marcus Ilori, Support lead, Store Standards

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Perfectly normal for a few hours. A problem when it is a few weeks.

## What it is doing to your numbers

Those units are committed. On hand still counts them, and
[available inventory](https://storestandards.com/glossary/available-inventory/) does not.

So a line with 40 on the shelf and 12 sitting in old unfulfilled orders sells
as though it has 28. Nothing is wrong with the shelf. Something is wrong with
the list.

## Work the oldest first

Sort by date, not by value. The oldest unfulfilled orders are the ones that
are either forgotten, stuck behind a
[backorder](https://storestandards.com/glossary/backorder/), or shipped and never marked as
[fulfilled](https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment/).

Anything over a week wants an answer today: send it, cancel it, or fulfil the
part you can.

## Where it goes wrong

The list is treated as a queue rather than a report. Nobody reads it from the
bottom, so a handful of orders sit there for months quietly holding stock, and
the store keeps reordering a line it already has.

The other one is cancelling to clear the list without restocking. Shopify asks
whether to return the units to inventory and the default is easy to click
past. Say yes, or you have written the stock off and it will turn up again at
the next count.

## Related terms

- [Fulfillment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment/): Fulfillment is the step where you tell Shopify an order has been picked, packed and sent, which closes it and releases the stock.
- [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.
- [Partial fulfillment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/partial-fulfillment/): Partial fulfillment is sending some line items of an order now and the rest later, leaving the order open in between.