How to place the entire order on hold when one item is a preorder

When customers order both preorder and in-stock products together, you may want to hold the entire order until the preorder items are ready to ship. STOQ's "Hold all fulfillments" setting places the entire order on hold status after checkout, preventing any items from being fulfilled until you manually release them. This ensures customers receive all their items together rather than in multiple shipments.

Why Hold Entire Orders?

There are several reasons you might want to hold all fulfillments when an order contains preorder products.

Ship Everything Together

Customers often prefer receiving their entire order in one package. Holding all fulfillments lets you wait until preorder items are available, then ship everything together. This can improve customer satisfaction and reduce shipping costs.

Simplify Warehouse Operations

Processing orders in a single fulfillment is often easier than managing split shipments. Your warehouse team can pick, pack, and ship all items at once when the preorder products arrive.

Reduce Shipping Costs

Shipping one package instead of multiple packages can significantly reduce your shipping expenses, especially for international orders or heavy items.

Enabling Hold All Fulfillments

Follow these steps to configure STOQ to hold all fulfillments for orders containing preorders.

Step 1: Access Your Preorder Offer

1. From your Shopify admin, open the STOQ app.
2. Click Preorders in the left navigation menu.
3. Click Offers to view your preorder offers.
4. Click Edit on the offer you want to configure.

Step 2: Navigate to Fulfillment Settings

1. In the offer editor, scroll to the Shipping section.
2. This section contains all fulfillment-related settings for your preorder offer.

Step 3: Set your delivery type

1. Under the Settings heading, choose how your preorders will be fulfilled. Select one of the following:

• • As soon as possible -- Preorders will be in Unfulfilled status and available for fulfillment right away.
  • Not sure -- Preorders will be in On hold status. You need to manually release fulfillments.

2. The Fulfillment options section appears below when you select either of these two delivery types.

Step 4: Enable Hold All Fulfillments

1. In the Fulfillment options section, check the box labeled "Hold all fulfillments".
2. The help text confirms: "After checkout, fulfillments for all products (including in-stock) will be held until you manually release them."
3. A Reason note field appears below the checkbox. Enter a note such as "Order contains preorder item" (this is the default placeholder). This note appears in Shopify admin when fulfillments are held.
4. Click Save to apply your changes.

Step 5: Save Your Changes

1. Click Save to apply your changes.
2. All future orders containing products from this preorder offer will have their fulfillments held.

What Happens After Checkout

Understanding how held orders appear in Shopify admin helps you manage fulfillment effectively.

When Delivery Type Is "As Soon as Possible" (Unfulfilled)

1. A customer places an order containing a preorder item and an in-stock item.
2. STOQ places all fulfillment orders on On hold status.
3. In Shopify admin, the order shows a single fulfillment group with an On hold badge and a Release hold button.
4. Both the preorder item and the in-stock item appear together in the held fulfillment group.

When Delivery Type Is "Not Sure" (On Hold)

1. A customer places an order containing a preorder item and an in-stock item.
2. The preorder item is already On hold by default.
3. With Hold all fulfillments enabled, the in-stock item is also placed On hold.
4. Both items appear together in the same On hold fulfillment group with a Release hold button.

Without Hold All Fulfillments Enabled

When Hold all fulfillments is not enabled, in-stock items in the same order are placed in Unfulfilled status and can be fulfilled immediately. Only the preorder item follows the delivery type's default status. This means the order may be split into separate fulfillment groups in Shopify admin.

Releasing Fulfillments

When you're ready to ship the order:

1. Go to the order in your Shopify admin.
2. Click Release fulfillment or change the fulfillment status.
3. Proceed with your normal fulfillment process.
4. All items can now be picked, packed, and shipped together.

Related Setting: Split Fulfillments

STOQ also offers a "Split fulfillments" option that does the opposite—it separates preorder and in-stock items into different fulfillments so you can ship in-stock items immediately.

When to Use Each Option

Hold all fulfillments:

• You want to ship everything together.
• Customers prefer single shipments.
• You want to reduce shipping costs.

Split fulfillments:

• You want to ship in-stock items immediately.
• Customers expect fast delivery for available items.
• Preorder items have long lead times.

Troubleshooting

FAQs

Q: Can I hold fulfillments for some orders but not others?

A: The setting applies to all orders containing products from the configured offer. For selective control, you can use Shopify Flow with custom conditions, or create separate preorder offers with different fulfillment settings for different product groups.

Q: What happens if a customer orders only in-stock products?

A: If an order doesn't contain any products from a preorder offer with "Hold all fulfillments" enabled, the order processes normally. The hold only applies when the order includes at least one product from the configured preorder offer.

Q: Can I automatically release fulfillments when inventory arrives?

A: STOQ doesn't automatically release held fulfillments. You need to manually release them in Shopify admin when you're ready to ship. You could potentially create a Shopify Flow to automate this based on inventory changes, but this requires custom configuration.

Q: Does this work with Shopify's fulfillment services?

A: Yes, the hold status is applied at the Shopify order level, so it works with any fulfillment service or 3PL that integrates with Shopify. The fulfillment service will see the order as "On hold" until you release it.

Q: Can I use both hold and split fulfillments?

A: No, these options are mutually exclusive. Enabling "Hold all fulfillments" automatically disables "Split fulfillments" and vice versa. Choose the option that best fits your fulfillment strategy.

Q: Will customers be notified that their order is on hold?

A: Shopify doesn't automatically notify customers about fulfillment hold status. Consider customizing your order confirmation email or sending a separate communication to set expectations about when the order will ship.

Q: Does the "Reason" note appear for customers?

A: No. The reason note is only visible in Shopify admin. It helps your team understand why the fulfillment is held. Customers do not see this note.

Updated on: 29/04/2026