You can cancel, archive, and delete orders. Canceling an order means that you're stopping an order that's in process. Archiving an order means that you're done with the order and want to remove it from your open orders list. Deleting an order means that you are removing it from your Shopify admin.
Cancel an order
Canceling an order indicates that you are halting order processing. For example, if a customer requests a cancellation or you suspect the order is fraudulent, then you can cancel the order to help prevent staff or fulfillment services from continuing work on the order. You can also cancel an order if an item was ordered and isn't available.
Depending on the state of the order when you cancel it, you might need to do follow-up actions.
| State of the order | Follow-up actions |
|---|---|
| Paid for but no items are fulfilled | When you cancel the order, there are two refund options:
|
| Fulfilled but payment isn't collected | Canceling an order prevents you from collecting payment. To get items returned, use the returns process. |
| Not paid and not fulfilled | Archive the order if it isn't automatically archived. |
After you cancel an order, the details about what items are restocked and refunded is stored in the order's Timeline.
When you cancel an order, the payment status changes as follows:
- If the payment wasn't captured, then the payment status changes to Voided.
- If the payment was fully refunded, then the payment status changes to Refunded.
Later, if you issue a partial refund for a canceled order, then the payment status changes to Partially refunded.
If an order is in Pending payment status, then you might be unable to cancel it. Learn more about orders with pending payments.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that you want to cancel.
Click More actions > Cancel order.
In the Refund payment section, choose how you want to refund the payment:
- To issue a full refund now, select Now.
- To issue a refund later, select Later.
In the Reason for cancellation drop-down menu, select the reason of order cancellation.
Optional: In the Staff note field, enter an internal note about the order cancellation.
Optional: To restock the refunded items to your inventory, select Restock inventory.
Optional: To notify your customer about the order cancellation, select Send a notification to the customer.
Click Cancel order.
Archive orders manually
Most orders that you're done with are automatically archived, but you can archive orders manually if you need to. If you deactivated automatic archiving, then you can keep your open orders view tidy by manually archiving orders.
By default, the following orders are automatically archived:
- orders that are paid for and fulfilled
- orders that are fully refunded
- orders that are partially refunded, fulfilled, and have no balance owing
Archived orders are displayed on the Closed order view.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
From the Orders page, click the number of the order that you want to archive.
Click More actions, and then click Archive orders.
The order status is Archived.
You can also perform a bulk action to archive or unarchive multiple orders.
Delete an order
Deleted orders are removed from your Shopify admin and are no longer tracked in reports. Only the following order types can be deleted:
- orders that were paid with a manual payment method
- orders that started as a draft and were then marked as paid
- test orders that were paid with the Bogus Gateway, or with Shopify Payments in test mode
- orders that were imported through the Shopify API
- draft orders
Before you can delete an order, it must be archived or canceled. Orders where payment has been paid for with a gift card can be archived, but not deleted.
If you purchased a shipping label for the order but didn't use it, then void the label before deleting the order.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click an archived or canceled order.
Click Delete order, and then click Delete order to confirm.
