How do I ship all my unfulfilled Shopify orders in one place?
The Unfulfilled tab on the Orders page is the list, and Shopify's own bulk action can mark that selection fulfilled. It does not take tracking numbers, and orders on hold or scheduled for a future date are left out of bulk status changes. Buying the labels from one queue puts the tracking on each order as it goes.
Start from the Unfulfilled tab
Shopify's bulk fulfillment help says to click the Unfulfilled tab to filter orders that need to be fulfilled. That single filter is the whole day's work, in order, with nothing already shipped in it. Save a view of it rather than rebuilding the filter each morning.
Go to Orders in the Shopify admin.
Click the Unfulfilled tab.
Sort oldest first so the orders closest to their promise ship first.
Work down the list, packing and buying a label per box.
Fulfill each order with the tracking number so the confirmation carries it.
What the tab quietly leaves out
| Case | Why it is not in the run | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Orders on hold | Held fulfillments cannot be changed in bulk | Release the hold first |
| Scheduled orders | Waiting on a future fulfillment date | They arrive when the date does |
| Partly fulfilled orders | One box gone, the rest still owed | They stay listed until every line ships |
| Very large selections | Some bulk features drop out | Work in smaller passes |
Shopify states plainly that orders or fulfillments on hold cannot have their status changed using bulk actions and that holds have to be released first, and the same is true of orders scheduled for future fulfillment.
Bulk fulfilled is not bulk tracked
Shopify's help page for bulk fulfillment says that after you mark your orders as fulfilled, you can add tracking numbers to your orders manually. That is the trap in shipping everything from the Orders page: the status moves for the whole selection, and then the tracking has to be typed order by order anyway.
Marking fulfilled with no tracking sends a shipping confirmation with nothing to follow, and the later tracking triggers a second email, the shipping update.
Multiple locations do not mean multiple queues
An order with stock in two locations splits into separate fulfillment orders, one per assigned location, so a single order can show two Unfulfilled sections. That is the model working, not a bug. What you want is one list that shows the work per location rather than one browser tab per location.
The shape of a one pass day
Pull the whole Unfulfilled list once.
Release any holds you intend to ship today.
Print one pick list for the run, then the packing slips.
Pack, weigh and buy a label per box.
Let each purchase create the fulfillment with its tracking number.
Key takeaways
- The Unfulfilled tab is the queue, not a report.
- Held and scheduled orders are excluded from bulk status changes.
- Shopify's bulk fulfillment adds no tracking numbers.
- One queue that buys labels writes tracking as a side effect.
One queue that buys the labels
The Shopify connection is in early access. Unfulfilled orders sync into The Workbench, which is part of Pro, with the assigned location carried through, so orders from two locations sit in one list instead of two screens.
Rate USPS and UPS against each package, buy, and the fulfillment is created against the right fulfillment order with the tracking number on it. Pick lists and packing slips print from the same run.
Related questions
Holds and scheduled fulfillment dates are the two usual reasons. A hold placed by you or by an app keeps the fulfillment out of the working list until it is released, and a scheduled order waits for its date. Neither is a fault, and both are visible on the order itself.
You can, and it costs you two customer emails instead of one. The fulfillment sends a shipping confirmation with nothing to track, and adding the number afterwards sends a shipping update. Doing both in one action keeps the buyer's first email useful.
Yes, because work is still owed. Shopify tracks fulfillment per fulfillment order, so an order with one box gone and one box outstanding still has unfulfilled work and still needs to be in your queue until the last line ships.
Work it once a day at a fixed time rather than in bursts. A single pass means one pick, one print run and one label session, and the queue is either empty at the end of it or contains only the orders you consciously held.