Fulfill and ship an order

Mark orders as shipped, understand the fulfillment stages, and keep customers informed.

Once an order is paid, the next step is getting it to your customer. Fulfilling an order in YNS keeps your records tidy and your dashboard accurate, so you always know what's been sent and what's still waiting.

Before you start

A couple of things make fulfillment go smoothly:

• Confirm the order is paid. Only ship once the payment has cleared – a "Paid" status means the money is in (through Stripe, or you marked a bank transfer paid) and it's safe to send. Cash on delivery orders are the exception: ship them unpaid and the courier collects the money – see Accept bank transfer, e-Transfer, and cash on delivery.
• Have your shipping options set up. If you haven't already, decide how you deliver in Shipping methods.
• Check the shipping address. Open the order detail and read the address before you print a label, so nothing goes to the wrong place.

Mark an order as shipped

To check every item into the box before it goes, use the packing station: scan each item, and for InPost and GLS orders the label downloads as you pack.

When you've packed an order and handed it to your carrier, open the order from the Orders section and mark it as shipped. This updates the order status so your records reflect that the items are on their way.

Tip: Mark an order as shipped at the same time you create the shipping label, so your store always reflects reality.

How the status progresses

An order moves through clear stages so you always know what's left to do:

Working through these in order keeps your dashboard accurate and your fulfillment on track. The simplest routine is to clear your paid orders regularly – pack them, mark them shipped, and let the status do the rest.

Keeping customers informed

If you ship with a carrier connected through Furgonetka, InPost, or GLS, your customers are kept in the loop automatically: the shipping label is generated as soon as the order is paid (Furgonetka), and tracking emails go out as the carrier reports progress. Every scan the carrier reports – picked up, in transit, out for delivery, delivered – is recorded, so the order shows a full timeline with the package's last known location and, when the carrier provides one, an estimated delivery date. You can turn the customer tracking emails off in your shipping settings if you'd rather handle updates yourself.

If you ship in the US with Shippo, you buy the label per order and the tracking number comes back with it – attach it to the order and your customer gets it the usual way. From there, Shippo's own tracking updates feed the same scan-by-scan timeline and estimated delivery date shown for the other carriers.

Customers see this tracker in two places: the order status page a shipping email deep-links to, and their account's order history if they're signed in – so "where's my order?" is answered before they have to ask you.

If you ship without a carrier integration, keep customers posted yourself. A short note with a tracking number does the job nicely and cuts down on "where's my order?" questions. If you run an email or marketing tool alongside your store, you can use that to send shipping updates too.

Partial and multi-item orders

If an order has several items, pack and check them together before you mark it shipped, so it goes out as a complete shipment. If you ever need to handle one item differently – say it's out of stock – let the customer know so you both stay on the same page.

Pack orders at the packing station

If you pack many orders a day, use the packing station instead of working from the order sidebar. It opens the To pack queue full width, oldest order first, and walks you through one order at a time.

1. On the To pack tab of the Orders list, click Start packing. You can also open any unpacked order and click Pack, the first button on the order. Packing happens in the station: the order panel has no Mark packed button of its own, and a packed order offers Unmark packed to undo it.
2. One card sticks to the top of the page with the scan box, your progress (for example 12 / 40 in the box, with a bar) and one main button that does what Enter does next. A status line below it shows your last scan, a red error if a code wasn't recognised, or what Enter will do. The header shows the customer, the shipping method and how many orders are left to pack.
3. Each item appears as a card with its photo, quantity, shelf location, SKU and barcode. If the order has a bundle, set or box, the card shows what goes inside. Items in a set show their own variant's photo and scan by their own barcode.
4. Scan each item with a barcode scanner, or tap + and − to count by hand. For a line of several units, All fills the whole line at once: scan one to check it is the right item, then count the rest into the box. A scanned card scrolls into view and is outlined. Cards turn amber when you've started an item, green when it is complete, and red if you've counted too many. An unknown code or an extra unit plays a low beep.
5. When every item is green, press Enter on the empty scan box (or click the main button). The order is marked packed and the next order opens. If something is short, Enter tells you how many are still to scan, and Pack anyway asks you to confirm first.
6. Use Skip to move past a problem order without packing it. It comes round again at the end of the queue.

The scan box keeps focus: if you press a key anywhere outside a field, focus jumps back to it first, so a stray click never swallows a scan. On screens 1280px or wider, the Columns 3 | 4 switch in the header sets how many cards fit per row. It is remembered on that device.

If your variants have shelf locations, each card shows its shelf and the cards are sorted by it, so you walk the shelves once. Items without a location come last.

The order note, PO number and any personalised items (text and uploaded files) are shown under the toolbar, and personalised cards are labelled.

For orders shipping with InPost or GLS, packing also creates the shipping label and downloads it. The station then waits for you to press Enter to go on, with Download label to fetch it again. If the label is skipped or fails, the order stays packed and Create label lets you retry. See Ship with Polish carriers.

Note: Counting items and the item photos are available on every plan. Marking an order packed, and creating labels from the station, need the Growth plan or above.

Your counts only live on the page, so reloading the station starts the count again.

Create shipping labels in bulk

If you ship with InPost or GLS connected directly (see Ship with Polish carriers), you don't have to open orders one at a time. Select several orders in the Orders list and choose Create labels from the bulk action bar – YNS creates a label for each one and reports how many were created, skipped, or need your attention.

• Orders that are already shipped are skipped automatically.
• An order that's missing something a label needs – a locker or parcel-shop pick, or a package size – is skipped, not failed. Open it, fill in the gap, and create its label individually.
• A failed label means the carrier itself rejected the request; check the order's timeline or Store issues for what went wrong.
• You can select up to 100 orders at once.
• Furgonetka and Shippo labels still go one order at a time, since picking a rate or service is part of creating them.

Note: Bulk actions are available on the Growth plan and up.

Local pickup orders

If a customer chose to collect their order in person, you don't ship it – you prepare it for pickup instead. Get the order ready, set it aside, and have it waiting when they arrive. Learn how to offer this in Set up pickup locations.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Shipping before payment clears. Always check the order is paid first (cash on delivery aside).
• Forgetting to mark it shipped. If you skip this, your records fall out of step and you lose track of what's actually been sent.
• Not double-checking the address. A quick look at the shipping address on the order detail saves costly re-sends.

FAQ

What's next

• Set up your delivery options in Shipping methods.
• Connect a carrier for your country: Shippo for the US, or Furgonetka, InPost and GLS for Poland.
• Offer in-person collection with Pickup locations.
• Track everything from View and manage orders.
• Handle returns when they come up in Issue refunds and handle returns.