> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Fulfillment Rate, BigCommerce > Fulfillment Rate for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > The percentage of paid BigCommerce orders that reached `status = Shipped` within the period. The headline operational health metric, customers paid, did the merchant deliver? Industry baseline 92-98%; below 92% means warehouse / fulfilment-process issues. | | | | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders WHERE status = 'Shipped' OR 'Completed' OR 'Partially Shipped' weighted appropriately) ÷ COUNT(paid orders in period) × 100`. The denominator excludes Cancelled, Refunded, Incomplete, and Declined; the card focuses on orders that successfully captured payment. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a (rate metric). | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | Excluded from denominator (those orders had a different lifecycle). | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded from denominator. | | **`Incomplete` / Declined orders** | Excluded from denominator (no payment captured). | | **Currency** | n/a (rate metric). | | **Channels / sources** | All channels combined. Marketplace channels typically have higher fulfilment rates because of pre-fulfilment matching (Amazon FBA orders are by definition fulfilled). | | **`Partially Shipped` weighting** | Counted as 50% fulfilled (one shipment of two completed). Some merchants count `Partially Shipped` as fully fulfilled at first dispatch; we use the conservative 50% to avoid masking partial-shipment problems. | | **What it doesn't measure** | Speed. A 99% fulfilment rate over 14 days is worse than a 96% rate over 2 days; this card doesn't capture latency. Pair with [BC Alert Fulfilment Delay](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-delay-alert) for the speed view. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (default 30D vs the prior 30D) | | **Alert trigger** | `<92% (industry baseline)`, fires when fulfilment health falls below the operations-team threshold. | | **Sentiment key** | `fulfillment_rate` | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation ``` COUNT(status=Shipped) / COUNT(_id) WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Enterprise. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | Order status | Count | Share | In rate calc? | | ----------------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----- | ----------------------------------------- | | `Shipped` | 2,640 | 65.6% | Numerator (full credit) | | `Completed` | 92 | 2.3% | Numerator (full credit) | | `Partially Shipped` | 76 | 1.9% | Numerator (50% credit = 38) | | `Awaiting Shipment` | 88 | 2.2% | Excluded from numerator (still in flight) | | `Awaiting Fulfillment` | 22 | 0.5% | Excluded from numerator | | `Cancelled` | 18 | 0.4% | Excluded from denominator | | `Refunded` | 14 | 0.3% | Excluded from denominator | | `Declined` | 71 | 1.8% | Excluded from denominator | | `Incomplete` | 414 | 10.3% | Excluded from denominator | | Other / in-progress | 590 | 14.7% | Excluded from numerator (still active) | | **Numerator (Shipped + Completed + Partially × 0.5)** | **2,770** | | | | **Denominator (excludes failures and refunds)** | **2,948** | | | | **Fulfilment Rate (this card)** | **94.0%** | | Healthy band | What's interesting: 1. **94.0% sits in healthy band (92-98%) but the prior period was 96.2%, a 2.2pp drop worth investigating.** Trend matters more than the level. If the slip continues another 2 points the alert fires. 2. **The 88 + 22 + 590 = 700 in-flight orders are not yet fulfilled.** A growing in-flight backlog precedes a fulfilment-rate drop by 7-14 days; watch [Unfulfilled Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/unfulfilled-orders) for the leading indicator. 3. **`Partially Shipped` at 1.9% is moderate.** Healthy \<1%. Above 3% suggests inventory-mismatch problems (some line items in the order can't be fulfilled together). 4. **Per-channel breakdown often reveals the issue.** Pair with [BC Channel Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-rate-by-channel), if one channel dragged the rate down, fix that channel; if all channels dropped, the warehouse is the issue. Action priority order: 1. **Walk the warehouse.** Are picks/packs running at normal pace? Any backlog? 2. **Check [BC Alert Fulfilment Delay](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-delay-alert)** for the speed dimension. 3. **Audit the `Partially Shipped` cohort** for line-item inventory issues. 4. **If trend continues**, escalate to ops / 3PL relationship review. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Fulfillment Rate | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | [Unfulfilled Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/unfulfilled-orders) | The leading indicator; growing unfulfilled backlog precedes a rate drop. | | [BC Alert Fulfilment Delay](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-delay-alert) | The speed dimension; rate without speed is incomplete. | | [Fulfillment Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-status) | The status distribution; helps understand what's stuck where. | | [BC Channel Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-rate-by-channel) | Per-channel breakdown; isolates which channel caused a drop. | | [Inventory Alerts](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | OOS items can't be fulfilled; high inventory alerts often correlate with falling fulfilment rate. | | [Cancellation Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/cancellation-rate) | The companion failure metric; if cancellations rise alongside fulfilment falling, customers are pulling out. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refund-rate) | Sometimes correlates: customers refund when fulfilment is slow. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Context; the dollar value at risk if fulfilment fails. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Orders → All orders](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/orders), filter by status `Shipped`, `Completed`, `Partially Shipped` for the period; divide by total non-failed orders. The result should match this card to within ±0.5 percentage points. [Analytics → Orders](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/analytics/in-store-conversion) on Plus / Enterprise plans gives a status-distribution view that approximates this card. **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC Control Panel:** | Reason | Direction | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | **`Partially Shipped` weighting**. We treat as 50% fulfilled; BC's reports may treat as fully fulfilled or fully unfulfilled. | Variable | | **Time zone**. UTC vs store-local. | ±0.5 pp at boundary | | **Multi-shipment orders**. We count at the order level; BC's per-shipment view shows different ratios. | Variable | | **Refunded fulfilled orders**. An order that shipped and was later refunded counts as fulfilled here; some BC reports retroactively un-fulfil refunded orders. | Vortex IQ HIGHER | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | [`amazon_sp.amazon_fulfilment_rate`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amazon_fulfilment_rate) | Amazon-side fulfilment rate; should align with Amazon channel slice. | FBA orders show \~99%; FBM lower. | | [Fulfillment Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-status) | Direct related, breaks down what's in numerator vs denominator. | Direct identity. | ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.fulfillment_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/fulfillment-rate) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.fulfillment_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/fulfillment-rate) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my fulfilment rate so low?** Three usual culprits: (1) Inventory mismatch, orders are taking line items the warehouse can't actually fulfil, leading to `Partially Shipped` or stuck orders. (2) Warehouse capacity, picks/packs aren't keeping up with order volume. (3) 3PL handover issues, BC marks orders as awaiting shipment but the 3PL hasn't acknowledged. Investigate each in turn. **My rate is 99%, can it go higher?** Probably not meaningfully. 99-99.5% is the practical ceiling; the residual is unavoidable (mid-shipment damage, address-validation failures, post-checkout customer cancellation). **Don't chase 100%; protect the 99%.** **Why does the rate drop on weekends?** Most warehouses operate Monday-Friday, so orders placed Friday afternoon through Sunday queue up. The card sees these as "not yet fulfilled" until Monday's batch runs. **Read the 7-day rolling rate**, not the daily, to smooth weekend effects. **Should I count `Partially Shipped` as fully fulfilled?** Not by default. A partially-shipped order means the customer is waiting for at least one line item; that's not a fully-good experience. We use 50% credit. Some merchants want full credit on first dispatch (matches Amazon's metric); configure in Vortex Mind if needed. **Why is my Amazon channel always near 100%?** Amazon FBA orders are by definition fulfilled at the moment Amazon ships from FBA inventory; the BC sync just records the fait accompli. Amazon FBM orders behave like web orders. If your Amazon channel includes FBA, expect a structurally higher fulfilment rate. **My rate dropped 5 percentage points overnight, what happened?** Almost always a 3PL or warehouse incident. Check: (1) 3PL service status pages, (2) any recent integration changes (Shopify-to-BC migrations, ERP cutovers), (3) inventory sync logs for unusual error rates. A sudden drop is usually a system, not a process problem. **Multi-warehouse stores: how does this card work?** We aggregate fulfilment across all warehouses into one rate. Per-warehouse breakdown lives in BC's MLI reports; if you need per-warehouse fulfilment in Vortex IQ, contact Ask Viq to add the dimension. **Why exclude `Refunded` orders from the denominator?** Because refunded orders typically had a different lifecycle (the customer wanted to return, not the merchant failed to fulfil). Including them in the failure denominator would unfairly penalise fulfilment for situations the warehouse couldn't control. **Should I count `Manual Verification Required` orders?** Currently excluded; these orders are still in fraud-review state and haven't actually been *attempted* for fulfilment yet. Including them would corrupt the rate. Once they pass review, they enter the normal flow and start counting. **My rate is dropping but I'm not getting customer complaints, is the data wrong?** Possibly the lag effect, fulfilment slowness produces customer complaints 3-7 days *after* the metric moves. The card is leading the support inbox. Fix the warehouse issue before the complaints arrive. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Fulfillment Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.