Fulfilling orders and tracking

Fulfillment in Sellerlane has two layers, and almost every confusing moment on the order page comes from mixing them up. This page walks each layer end to end — planning who fulfils what, then recording the actual shipment, pickup, or digital grant with packages and tracking.

For order statuses, the Orders list, bulk actions and money handling, start at Orders & fulfillment. This page is the deep dive on doing the work.

The two layers

When an order is placed, Sellerlane builds the plan first and lets you execute against it:

• A fulfillment order is the operational plan — “this location should fulfil these quantities.” On the order page it’s the Fulfillment orders card, described as “Operational plan for what each location should fulfill.” An order can have several, because it’s split per delivery group and location: two items shipping from two warehouses produce two fulfillment orders.
• A fulfillment is the actual execution — the Fulfillments card, “Actual execution: shipment, pickup, service, digital grant, or gift card issue.” You record one (or many, in parts) against a fulfillment order.

So the flow is always fulfillment order → fulfillment. You never create a fulfillment out of thin air; you fulfil a fulfillment order.

Note

A non-shipping-only order (all digital, gift card, or event) may be auto-fulfilled with no shipping fulfillment order at all. The card then reads “No fulfillment orders” with the note that those orders are auto-fulfilled — that’s expected, not a bug. See Auto-fulfillment.

Create a fulfillment

On the Fulfillment orders card, each fulfillment order shows its status badge, its items with planned and remaining quantities, and a row of buttons: Fulfill, Move, Hold, Release, Edit plan, Close, Cancel. The header toolbar also has a Fulfill button that targets the first open fulfillment order.

1. Click Fulfill on the fulfillment order. The Create fulfillment dialog opens with the note “Creates shipment/pickup/service execution” for that record.

2. Choose a Method — Ship, Pickup, Digital, Service, or Gift card. This is the execution channel for this fulfillment.

3. Set quantities per item. Each line shows Available to fulfill: N. Enter how much of each you’re fulfilling now — you can fulfil in parts; the remainder stays on the fulfillment order for a later fulfillment.

4. Optionally set timestamps (Packed at, Shipped at, Delivered at, Completed at) and Notes, then confirm.

The new fulfillment appears on the Fulfillments card with a status badge and a method badge.

Tip

Fulfilling a quantity commits and consumes inventory for it. If you only ship part of a line, the rest stays unfulfilled — the order shows partially_fulfilled until everything is fulfilled or cancelled.

Add tracking and packages

Tracking lives on packages, which you attach to a shipped fulfillment with Add package. A fulfillment can carry several packages.

1. On the fulfillment, click Add package.

2. Enter a Tracking number — this field is required; the dialog warns “Tracking number is required” if you leave it blank.

3. Optionally add Carrier name, Carrier code, Tracking URL, and Weight grams.

4. Save. The package shows on the fulfillment as Package #1: Carrier · tracking number.

Caution

A clickable tracking link only appears where you supplied a Tracking URL (or a carrier code the storefront can map to one). A tracking number on its own renders as text. If a buyer reports a missing tracking link, edit the package and add the full URL.

Tracking statuses

Each package carries a tracking status that moves through:

Pre-transit → In transit → Out for delivery → Delivered, with two exception states: Failed (a delivery attempt failed) and Returned (the parcel is on its way back to you).

When the package’s carrier is one of your connected carrier accounts, Sellerlane syncs tracking automatically and advances the status for you — statuses only move forward, so a late or out-of-order carrier update never regresses a delivered package. Packages with manually entered tracking keep whatever status you set.

Print packing slips

Use Print packing slip on a fulfillment (or a not-yet-shipped fulfillment order, as a pick list) to open a print-ready slip for that shipment — partial shipments list only their own items with “N of M” quantities. You can also print slips in bulk from the Orders list. The slip template is fully customizable with HTML, CSS, and Liquid — see Packing slips & documents for printing, customization, and the complete variable reference.

Packed, shipped, completed

Each fulfillment moves through its own status flow using the row buttons:

1. Packed — mark the items packed. The dialog accepts a Packed at time and a note.

2. Shipped — mark it shipped. You can set a Shipped at time and add tracking right here (tracking number, carrier name, carrier code, tracking URL) without opening Add package separately.

3. Complete — mark the fulfillment completed. This is the renamed, type-agnostic finisher: the same Complete action covers physical, digital, service, and gift-card fulfillments.

You don’t have to step through all three — you can jump straight to Complete for a pickup or a digital grant. The steps are there for shipped goods that move through a packing then dispatch workflow.

Cancel a fulfillment

Cancel on a fulfillment reverses that execution. A cancelled fulfillment locks all its actions — its buttons disable. Cancelling a fulfillment is distinct from cancelling a fulfillment order (the plan) or Cancel items (unfulfilled line quantities) — see below.

Holds: pause a fulfillment order

A hold pauses a fulfillment order with a reason so it won’t be fulfilled until you release it.

Place a hold

Click Hold on an open fulfillment order (the button is disabled unless the status is open). Enter a Hold reason (required) and an optional note. The fulfillment order flips to on_hold and shows a Hold badge whose tooltip is the reason you typed.

Release a hold

Click Release on an on-hold fulfillment order (disabled unless the status is on_hold). The record returns to open and is fulfillable again.

Note

Auto-fulfillment holds look the same but are placed for you. When your policy holds a non-shipping item — a type set to Hold for manual, an Always manual product pin, or an exhausted license-key pool — the item sits on its fulfillment order with a hold. Release it (or fulfil it) when you’re ready. The order won’t reach fulfilled until held items are handled. The full policy is in Auto-fulfillment.

Multi-location: move work and edit the plan

Because fulfillment orders are scoped to a location, multi-location stores split an order by where stock lives — and the location on each fulfillment order is its shipping origin. If stock isn’t where you expected, move the work before you fulfil.

Move items between locations

Click Move on a fulfillment order to open Move fulfillment work. It “moves unfulfilled planned quantity” from the source — for tracked items the backend also reallocates committed inventory.

1. Choose a destination mode: Existing fulfillment order (merge into another open or on-hold record on the same order) or New destination location.

2. For a new location, pick a Destination location — only active locations are listed — and optionally a Fulfill at time and a Hold reason.

3. Set how much of each item to move (only unfulfilled quantity is offered), then confirm.

Edit the fulfillment plan

Click Edit plan (the Edit fulfillment plan dialog) to re-plan quantities on a fulfillment order without moving them to a different location — useful when you want to split or rebalance what a single location is expected to fulfil. Edit plan, Close, and Cancel are all blocked once the fulfillment order is already closed or canceled.

Close and cancel a fulfillment order

• Close finishes a fulfillment order with no further fulfilment expected.
• Cancel cancels the plan (only while open or on_hold).

Both differ from cancelling an individual fulfillment, and from Cancel items which only releases still-unfulfilled line quantities — see Orders & fulfillment.

Pickup and POS

The Pickup method is for buyer collection rather than carrier shipping — there’s no package or tracking to enter, so fulfil and then Complete the fulfillment when the buyer collects.

POS orders fulfil at the selling location stamped on the order and typically carry out at the counter with no shipping at all. You’ll often fulfil and complete a POS order in one step using the Pickup (or relevant non-ship) method.

Customer pickup orders

An online order where the customer chose Pick up at checkout arrives planned at the pickup location and has two dedicated actions on the order page: Mark as ready for pickup — which emails the customer that their order is waiting, with the address, hours, and your pickup instructions — and Mark as picked up (with an optional customer notification), which fulfils the items and completes the order. The full flow, including enabling pickup per location and what customers see at checkout, is in Pickup in store.

Fulfillment services

When a fulfillment order is planned at a custom fulfillment service’s location, use Request fulfillment on it to email your partner the items, quantities, SKUs, and the customer’s shipping address. When they confirm dispatch, add the tracking they give you and mark the fulfillment shipped as usual. Setting up services and the request flow are covered in Custom fulfillment services.

Note

When you mark a Ship fulfillment as shipped, Sellerlane sends the customer a shipping confirmation email with the items and any tracking details you added (one email per shipment — editing tracking afterwards doesn’t re-send it). If estimated delivery dates are enabled, the email includes the delivery estimate. You can turn this email off in your store’s notification settings. Digital items instead use the digital delivery email (download links and license keys), and pickup orders use the ready-for-pickup emails.

Digital, event and gift-card fulfillment

For non-physical items the fulfillment method is Digital, Service (events), or Gift card, and Complete is the natural finisher — there are no packages. Most of these are handled automatically:

• Digital downloads and license keys deliver download links and keys on payment when auto-fulfilment is on, and surface on the order’s Digital delivery card where you can Resend, Reveal a key, Replace (reassign) a key, or Revoke a grant. See Digital products.
• Gift cards issue on fulfilment; scheduled gift cards can be sent now, rescheduled, or cancelled. See Gift cards.
• Event bookings complete on payment; join links, reschedules and regeneration are managed from the Events dashboard, not the order page.

Bulk fulfillment-order actions

From the Orders list, tick rows (or Select page) and open the Bulk actions menu. The fulfillment-order actions are:

• Hold fulfillment orders — hold open fulfillment orders; you’re prompted for a reason.
• Release fulfillment holds — return on-hold fulfillment orders to open.
• Close fulfillment orders — close open or on-hold fulfillment orders.
• Cancel fulfillment orders — cancel fulfillment orders with nothing fulfilled yet.

Each action only touches the records that qualify (the menu items disable when nothing in your selection is eligible), and returns a summary toast such as “7 of 10 succeeded.” Every bulk call carries an idempotency key, so a double-click won’t apply the action twice. The payment actions (capture, void, mark manual paid) share the same menu — see Orders & fulfillment.

Prerequisites

• At least one active location — fulfilments and destination transfers resolve against active locations only. See Locations & inventory.
• The order’s payment should be settled before you fulfil paid goods. Capture or mark manual payments paid first if needed — see Payments.

Troubleshooting

• An item is stuck on hold. Your auto-fulfillment policy held it (a type set to Hold for manual, an Always manual pin, or an empty license-key pool). Open the order and Release or fulfil it.
• A partially-fulfilled order won’t reach fulfilled. Some quantity is still unfulfilled — fulfil the remainder, or Cancel items for what won’t ship. Held items keep an order partial until released.
• The tracking link is missing. Add a Tracking URL (or a mappable carrier code) to the package — a tracking number alone renders as plain text.
• The Hold / Release / Close / Cancel button is disabled. These are status-gated: Hold needs open, Release needs on_hold, and Edit plan / Close / Cancel are blocked once closed or canceled. Check the status badge.
• The Fulfillment orders card is empty. A non-shipping-only order can be auto-fulfilled with no shipping fulfillment order — check the Fulfillments card instead.

Next steps

Orders & fulfillment

Statuses, the Orders list, and money handling in Orders & fulfillment.

Auto-fulfillment

Tune when non-shipping items fulfil automatically in Auto-fulfillment.

Shipping & checkout

How location groups drive rates and origins in Shipping & checkout.

Returns

Reverse fulfilled items with Returns and Refunds & returns.