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Avoid Fulfillment Issues with Post-Purchase Upsell

Make sure your fulfillment system respects Shopify’s hold logic so you don’t miss or double-ship upsell items.

Katharina Andres avatar
Written by Katharina Andres
Updated today

Why This Matters

When a customer accepts a Post-Purchase Upsell offer, Shopify briefly places the order on hold to allow for updates. This ensures the upsell item is added and paid before fulfillment begins.

If your system ignores this hold, issues may occur:

  • Upsell items may be missed or unfulfilled

  • Orders may split into multiple shipments

  • Customers may get incomplete or duplicated deliveries

None of this affects the checkout experience, but it can create operational issues unless your fulfillment flow handles it correctly.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

Here’s how Shopify’s Post-Purchase process works:

  1. Checkout completes → order is created and placed on hold

  2. Upsell is shown inside the Shopify checkout

  3. Based on customer action:

    1. If accepted → upsell product is added and charged

    2. If declined or ignored → no changes are made

  4. Shopify lifts the hold once:

    1. The customer reaches the Thank You page

    2. Or 1 hour passes (if the tab was closed)

While the order is on hold:

  • Shopify sets fulfillable_quantity = 0 for all items

  • Your system should wait until the hold is released

What You Should Do

✅ Step 1: Respect the Hold

Ensure your fulfillment flow:

  • waits until the order status is no longer on hold

  • checks that fulfillable_quantity > 0 before triggering shipment

If your system ignores this (or uses older logic), you may accidentally process an incomplete order.

✅ Step 2: Add a Delay (if needed)

If your fulfillment system doesn’t support hold logic:

  • Add a short delay before syncing orders (e.g. 120sec with Nosto timer set to 60sec)

  • This buffer allows Shopify to finish the upsell logic before fulfillment starts

This is especially helpful for:

  • External WMS/ERP systems

  • Auto-fulfillment setups with no manual review

✅ Step 3: Test Your Setup

Before going live:

  • Place test orders with and without accepting the upsell

  • Monitor how your fulfillment system handles each case

  • Check if the upsell item is included and the hold is respected

Final Tip

Post-Purchase Upsell is frictionless for your customers, but your backend needs to play along. A small check on fulfillment timing can prevent big operational headaches.

See also:

📚 See Shopify’s documentation (Fulfillment holds)

📚 Shopify Changelog

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