At a glance
Order count grouped by BC’sstatusfield, the fulfilment-state distribution. Healthy stores see 90%+ in terminal states (Shipped / Completed / Refunded). Stores with rising shares inAwaiting ShipmentorPartially Shippedhave warehouse / 3PL backlogs that snowball into refund spikes if not addressed.
Calculation
Worked example
A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro shipping from a single 3PL, last 30 days from 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26.
What’s interesting:
- Terminal-positive (Shipped + Completed) is 88.8%. Healthy. Most BC stores aim for 90%+; the 1-2 pp gap here is the
Awaiting Shipmentbacklog. Awaiting Shipmentat 3.7% is concerning. That’s 240 orders waiting for shipment. Healthy is <2% (which means orders flow through toShippedwithin 24-48 hours). At 3.7%, the 3PL or warehouse has a 3-5 day backlog. Pair with BC Alert Fulfilment Delay for the alert version.Partially Shippedat 1.2% is on the edge of healthy. Multi-warehouse stores typically run 2-4%; single-warehouse should be under 1%. At 1.2% there’s likely a small inventory-allocation gap, some line items going short and getting back-ordered.Manual Verification Requiredat 32 orders is 0.5%. Healthy if the review team clears them within 4-8 hours. Aging items in this state cost customer goodwill: each customer is checking back to see whether their order shipped. Pair with the ops SLA dashboard.- 18 orders in
Awaiting Paymentare likely B2B Net-30 invoices. B2B Edition stores often have 1-3% in this state structurally because the buyer pays after the goods ship. Healthy if the count is stable; rising count means invoices aging.
- For rising
Awaiting Shipment: pair with BC Alert Fulfilment Delay. The 3PL is the bottleneck 80% of the time. Direct contact with the 3PL operations lead is the fastest path. - For rising
Partially Shipped: drill into BC Inventory Distribution. Likely an inventory-availability cause; one or two SKUs going short and the system splitting orders. - For rising
Manual Verification Required: review the fraud review queue staffing. Each aging item costs ~$0.50-2 in customer goodwill; understaffing review costs more than the staff salary. - For rising
Refunded: drill via Refund Rate and BC Refunded Products. Single-SKU refund spikes are the most common cause. - For rising
Disputed: gateway dashboard review (see Financial Status Breakdown FAQ).
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel: Orders → All orders supports a “Order status” filter that lists orders by status. Filter to last 30 days and group by status to get the distribution. Analytics → Orders (Plus / Pro / Enterprise) has a “Order status mix” tile. For per-channel decomposition, Channel Manager shows status counts per channel. For 3PL integration health, the integration’s own dashboard (ShipStation, ShipBob, Deliverr, etc.) shows the warehouse-side queue. Why our number may legitimately differ from BC Orders view:
Cross-connector reconciliation:
Same-metric documentation cross-reference:
shopify.fulfillment_breakdown(planned)adobe_commerce.fulfillment_breakdown(planned)
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What’s the difference betweenShipped and Completed?
Subtle and varies by setup. Shipped = consignment has a tracking number and has left the warehouse. Completed = tracking shows delivered, OR the merchant manually marked the order complete. Some BC themes/apps mark orders Completed at label-print time (incorrect but common); some move from Shipped → Completed automatically when the carrier reports delivery. Treat both as terminal-positive states for headline reporting.
My Awaiting Shipment is rising, what’s the threshold for action?
3% is the watch level; 5% is the action level. At 5%+ you have a 5+ day backlog. Pair with the alert card and contact the warehouse / 3PL before customer complaints spike. Most spikes resolve with a 2-3 day overtime push at the warehouse.
Why does my B2B store have a permanent Awaiting Payment share?
Because B2B Edition supports Net-30 / invoice payment terms. Orders ship before payment is collected, so they sit in Awaiting Payment until the invoice clears. Healthy if stable; rising count means invoices are aging beyond terms (chase up via your AR team).
My Manual Verification Required queue is growing, who clears it?
Whoever’s responsible for fraud review on your team. Each item needs a human looking at the order, customer history, payment method, billing-vs-shipping mismatch, etc. Most stores allocate 0.5-1 FTE for fraud review; under-staffed teams get a growing queue and angry customers.
Should Disputed ever be zero?
No, every store has occasional chargebacks. 0% means either no orders or you’re missing the dispute signal (gateway not reporting back to BC). Healthy is 0.1-0.4% of orders; over 0.5% triggers risk-program intake from card networks.
My status distribution looks healthy but customers are complaining about delays, why?
Several possibilities. (1) Shipped doesn’t mean delivered; the carrier is the delay. (2) Multi-line orders may have one item shipped (status Shipped) and another back-ordered, customer sees the partial delivery as a problem. (3) Tracking numbers are stale (carrier hasn’t scanned). Use google_analytics.ga_help_searches or your CSAT vendor to identify the specific complaint pattern.
Can I customise the BC status vocabulary?
Limited. BC has the 15 canonical states plus an “Other” bucket for custom states from apps. Most stores stick with canonical states; agencies sometimes add custom states for B2B-specific workflows. Custom states are app-managed and may not propagate to all reports.
What does Incomplete mean and why is it not in my distribution?
Incomplete is BC’s “customer started but never finished checkout” state. It’s typically excluded from the headline distribution because it represents abandoned carts, not orders. Pair with BC Incomplete Rate for the abandoned-cart view.
My multi-warehouse store sees high Partially Shipped, is that normal?
2-4% is typical for multi-warehouse setups; line items ship from different locations on different days. Above 6% suggests the inventory-allocation engine is splitting orders unnecessarily. Audit your warehouse routing rules; some stores benefit from “ship from one warehouse if possible” rules even if it’s not the closest one.
Do refunded orders eventually drop out of Refunded status?
No. Refunded is a terminal state; the order stays in this status indefinitely. Same for Cancelled, Declined, Disputed. The distribution shows the cumulative state of the period regardless of when the transition happened.