In this article, we show you how to connect an external fulfillment provider in Shopify and how these orders look in Shopify and Pickware.

To fulfill orders with an external fulfillment provider, you first need to create a fulfillment service. Go to your Shopify Admin under Settings → Shipping and delivery → Custom order fulfillment → Add fulfillment service. Enter the name and email address of the provider here and click Save.

Now open the product that should be fulfilled externally, select Fulfilled by third-party service under Inventory is stocked at in the Inventory section, and save the product. If you previously fulfilled the product yourself and there are still open orders, these must be completed first before you can switch to external fulfillment.

When an order comes in for the product, you'll see the Request fulfillment option within the order. The light gray label shows you which fulfillment service is set up for the product.

Click Request fulfillment and then in the next window click Send fulfillment request.

The selected fulfillment provider then receives the request by email, and the order receives the fulfillment status Fulfilled in Shopify.

You can find more details on external fulfillment in Shopify here in Shopify's Help Center.

Products that are fulfilled externally are not fulfilled from the Shopify location that is connected to your Pickware Admin.

Once external fulfillment is activated, the stock in Pickware no longer changes when you request fulfillment from the provider. All previous stock movements remain visible. Existing stock levels remain in place and can be manually booked out. Stock management in Pickware can be completely deactivated for the product, in which case the stock no longer flows into the valuated inventory. You'll find this option under General → Shipping → Manage stock in the product properties.

Orders and order line items with external fulfillment still appear in your Pickware Admin, whereby the relevant products are marked as To be fulfilled externally in the order details. They don't reserve any stock, don't appear during picking, and aren't fulfilled in Shopify when shipped in Pickware either.

In the order details, in the Line items section, you can display the corresponding To be fulfilled externally column.

As soon as fulfillment for an order has been requested in Shopify, it's also automatically marked as Shipped in Pickware.

In Shopify, your order is split into two sections in this case: one for the products you ship yourself and another for the externally fulfilled products. For the latter, you can request fulfillment via the corresponding button, as described above. The regular products can also be picked as usual via the WMS App or Pickware Admin.

In Pickware Admin, you see all order line items in one view. The To be fulfilled externally column shows you which order line items are fulfilled by you and which are fulfilled externally. In this case as well, the externally fulfilled products don't reserve any stock, don't appear during picking, and aren't fulfilled in Shopify when shipped in Pickware either.

As soon as part of the order has been processed and fulfilled – for example, once all regular products have been picked with Pickware or fulfillment has been requested for the externally fulfilled products – the order in Pickware automatically receives the delivery status Partially shipped. This status indicates that the order isn't yet fully completed. Once the remaining part has also been fulfilled, the status changes to Shipped.

In Pickware Admin, you can automatically mark products as shipped when an order is received or updated. This function is suitable, for example, for digital products and services, but also for external fulfillment products. For the latter, unlike the Shopify approach described above, you'll need to send the email to the fulfillment provider yourself. That's why we recommend the Shopify approach.

You'll find this setting in Pickware Admin in the product details under General → Shipping.