Automatic fulfillment settings

Physical products get packed and shipped. Non-shipping items — digital downloads, license keys, gift cards, and event bookings — don’t, so Sellerlane can deliver them for you the moment an order is paid: download links, license keys, gift-card codes, and event tickets all go out without you lifting a finger. The Auto-fulfillment settings decide exactly which of those items deliver automatically and which wait for you to release by hand.

Open it at Settings → Auto-fulfillment.

Note

Physical products that need shipping are never auto-shipped — they follow the normal pack-and-ship flow. A physical item explicitly configured as does not require shipping, including a paid POS carry-out item, can complete through the same no-shipping policy so it is not stranded without a fulfillment order.

When it runs

Auto-fulfillment runs only when the order is both open and paid in full. For a card or UPI order that’s normally after confirmed capture; for an order taken on a manual payment method, nothing auto-fulfills until you mark the order paid. Pending COD/manual, authorized, partially paid, voided, canceled, and closed orders cannot automatically receive a key, link, gift card, event seat, meeting, or no-ship fulfillment.

The decision is made per item. Items the policy delivers are fulfilled instantly; items it holds back stay on the order with a hold until you fulfill them manually.

Store default

The Store default is the single switch that governs everything non-shipping. The shipped default is Auto-fulfill everything, so a brand-new store delivers digital goods, keys, gift cards, and tickets automatically with no setup.

Set Auto-fulfill to one of:

Store default	What auto-fulfils on payment
Auto-fulfill everything (default)	Every non-shipping item
Only digital & gift cards	Digital products and gift cards
Only gift cards	Gift cards only
Nothing — fulfill manually	Nothing; every item waits for you

This is the floor that the more specific rules below build on.

By product type

Each non-shipping type can override the store default independently. Under By product type you’ll find a row for each:

• Digital downloads
• License keys
• Gift cards
• Event bookings

For each row, pick:

1. Use store default — inherit whatever the Store default decided for this type. This is the starting value for every type.

2. Always auto-fulfill — deliver this type automatically, even if the store default wouldn’t.

3. Hold for manual fulfillment — never auto-deliver this type; always hold it for you to release by hand.

Tip

License keys are a sub-case of digital products. When License keys is left on Use store default, license-key-backed downloads follow your Digital downloads setting. Set License keys explicitly only when you want keyed products to behave differently from your other digital files.

License-key pool exhaustion

License keys are handed out from a pool you’ve stocked. If a buyer orders a keyed product but the pool has run dry at fulfillment time, the License keys policy decides what happens. Under that section, set If the pool is empty to:

• Hold the item & alert me (default) — leave the item unfulfilled and email you so you can top up the pool and fulfill it manually. The buyer never gets a keyless delivery.
• Fail the fulfillment — fail the fulfillment outright rather than holding.

The default is deliberately the safe one: a buyer is never handed a download without its key.

Caution

When the pool runs out and the item is held, you’ll get an Action needed: license key pool exhausted email naming the order and item. Add keys to the pool, then fulfill the item from the order.

Online events

For online event bookings you can withhold the meeting join link from the buyer’s delivery page until shortly before the event begins. Under Online events, set Reveal meeting link (hours before start) to the number of hours ahead you want the link to appear. Leave it empty to reveal the link immediately on fulfillment, which is the historical behaviour.

This only changes when the link becomes visible — the event itself still fulfils per the rules above.

Per-product overrides

Sometimes one specific product needs to behave differently from everything else of its type. Per-product overrides let you pin a single item to always auto-fulfill or always hold, no matter what the type and store rules say.

1. In Per-product overrides, type at least two characters into the Search digital, gift card or event products box. Matching non-shipping products appear with a small type badge (Digital, Gift card, or Event). Physical products never appear here — they aren’t deliverables.

2. On the product you want, click Always auto or Always manual. The product moves into your pinned list.

3. To change a pin later, use the dropdown next to it in the pinned list and pick Always auto or Always manual. To remove a pin entirely, click the × beside it — the product then falls back to the type and store rules.

A pin always wins. Sellerlane resolves each item in this order: per-product pin → per-type override → store default. So an Always manual pin holds an item even when its type and the store default would auto-fulfill, and an Always auto pin delivers it even when the store default is Nothing — fulfill manually.

Note

Pins are remembered by product. If you later edit that product, the pin stays in place until you remove it here.

How held items appear, and how to release them

When the policy holds an item, it stays on the order with a hold on its fulfillment record. The order will not reach the fulfilled state until every held deliverable has been handled, so a half-held order never falsely tells the buyer it’s complete.

To deliver a held item, open the order and use the manual fulfill now action: you can release a single deliverable or all of the order’s remaining deliverables at once. This runs the exact same delivery path auto-fulfillment would have — links, keys, codes, and tickets all go out — so the buyer gets a normal delivery. Items already fulfilled are skipped automatically.

See Orders & fulfillment for the full order workflow, the digital-delivery cards, and where the hold and fulfill controls live on the order.

For the complete payment, COD, self-service, and reward decision matrix, see Order & rewards lifecycle.

Troubleshooting

• A paid online order didn’t deliver anything. Check the Store default — if it’s Nothing — fulfill manually, every item is held by design. Also check the item’s type row and any per-product pin, since both can override the default.
• A manual-payment order isn’t delivering. Auto-fulfillment only runs after payment is captured. Mark the order paid and it will run.
• A keyed product is stuck unfulfilled. Its license-key pool is probably empty. With Hold the item & alert me set, the item waits and you get an email — add keys to the pool, then fulfill the item from the order.
• One product behaves differently from the rest of its type. It almost certainly has a per-product pin. Find it in the Per-product overrides list and change or remove the pin.

Next steps

Orders & fulfillment

Work the order: holds, fulfill now, and digital-delivery cards. See Orders & fulfillment.

Digital products

Set up downloads and license-key pools that auto-fulfillment delivers. See Digital products.

Gift cards

How gift-card codes are issued and delivered. See Gift cards.

Event bookings

Sell tickets and online events. See Event bookings.