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.
| What it counts | GROUP BY status over orders in the last 30 days. The status field is BC’s overloaded enum that signals fulfilment state. Each order falls into exactly one bucket. |
| VAT / tax treatment | n/a, this is a count metric. |
| Shipping | n/a. |
| Discounts | n/a. |
| Refunds | Refunded orders show in the Refunded and Partially Refunded buckets explicitly. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | Show in the Cancelled and Declined buckets. |
| Currency | n/a. |
| Channels / sources | All BC channels share the same status vocabulary. Channel-specific patterns: marketplace orders cycle through Awaiting Fulfillment → Awaiting Shipment → Shipped more deterministically than web orders (marketplaces enforce SLA). POS orders typically jump straight to Completed (in-store handover). |
| The full BC status vocabulary | Incomplete, Awaiting Payment, Awaiting Fulfillment, Awaiting Shipment, Awaiting Pickup, Partially Shipped, Completed, Shipped, Cancelled, Declined, Refunded, Disputed, Manual Verification Required, Partially Refunded. 15 states, more granular than Shopify’s 7. That’s a feature, more granular fulfilment signals; and a quirk, the Completed and Shipped distinction is fuzzy in practice. |
Completed vs Shipped | Shipped typically means the consignment has a tracking number; Completed typically means tracking has confirmed delivery (or the merchant manually marked complete). Some BC themes/apps mark orders Completed immediately on shipment label print; behaviour varies. Treat both as terminal-positive states. |
Partially Shipped is the watchout | Multi-line orders where some items have shipped but not others. Healthy at <2% of orders for stores that ship from a single warehouse. Above 5% suggests inventory-availability gaps causing line-by-line splits, expensive in shipping cost and customer-experience friction. |
Manual Verification Required | BC’s secondary fraud / order-review queue, distinct from Held for Review (which is paymentStatus). Items here need a human review action; aging items in this state mean the review team is understaffed. |
| Time window | 30D (rolling 30 days) |
| Alert trigger | None at this card; alerts on the actionable subsets (Unfulfilled Orders, Cancellation Rate, Refund Rate). |
| Roles | owner, operations |
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.| Status | Count | Share | Operational meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
Shipped | 4,820 | 73.8% | Healthy, terminal positive |
Completed | 980 | 15.0% | Healthy, terminal positive (delivered) |
Awaiting Shipment | 240 | 3.7% | Backlog forming |
Awaiting Fulfillment | 95 | 1.5% | Order placed, not yet picked |
Partially Shipped | 78 | 1.2% | Multi-line splits |
Refunded | 145 | 2.2% | Terminal, refunded |
Cancelled | 62 | 0.9% | Terminal, cancelled |
Declined | 50 | 0.8% | Terminal, declined |
Manual Verification Required | 32 | 0.5% | Review queue |
Awaiting Payment | 18 | 0.3% | Net-30 / invoice orders |
Disputed | 10 | 0.2% | Chargeback |
| Total | 6,530 | 100% |
- 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
| Card | Why pair it with Fulfillment Status |
|---|---|
| Fulfillment Rate | The headline ratio (Shipped + Completed) / total. This card decomposes; that one summarises. |
| Fulfillment Rate Over Time | The trend. Rising Awaiting Shipment shows here; the trend version shows whether it’s growing. |
| Unfulfilled Orders | The actionable subset. Sum of Awaiting Fulfillment + Awaiting Shipment + Partially Shipped. |
| Cancellation Rate | Share of Cancelled. |
| Refund Rate | Share of Refunded + Partially Refunded. |
| Financial Status Breakdown | The payment-side complement. Two states (fulfilment + payment) tell the full order story. |
| Line Item Fulfillment Status | Per-line decomposition. Partially Shipped orders disaggregated into shipped vs pending lines. |
| BC Alert Fulfilment Delay | The alert version when Awaiting Shipment exceeds operational SLA. |
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:| Reason | Direction |
|---|---|
State transitions during the window. An order that started Awaiting Shipment and ended Shipped shows in BC as the latest state; we follow the same pattern but boundary effects can shift counts by 0.1-0.5%. | Boundary |
| Time zone. UTC vs store TZ. | Boundary |
3PL sync lag. Orders the 3PL has shipped but hasn’t synced back to BC still read Awaiting Shipment here. The lag is typically 30-90 minutes. | Vortex IQ slightly LAGS reality |
| Custom statuses. Some BC stores have app-installed custom statuses (e.g. “Held for QA”); we count them under “other”. | Mixed |
| Cancelled orders. BC Analytics may exclude cancelled by default; we include. | Vortex IQ HIGHER total |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
shipstation.ss_pending_count | ShipStation pending queue should match Awaiting Shipment here | ShipStation may aggregate multiple BC channels into one queue; counts align modulo channel filter. |
google_analytics.ga_purchases_completed | GA4 purchase completion should match Shipped + Completed shares | GA4 doesn’t track fulfilment; it sees the purchase event regardless. |
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.