> ## 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. # Unfulfilled Orders, BigCommerce > Unfulfilled Orders 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 current count of paid BigCommerce orders that are awaiting fulfilment. Real-time operations dashboard, paid customers waiting on the warehouse. Fires alert when the aged-over-48h cohort grows; stale unfulfilled orders are the leading indicator of customer-experience deterioration. | | | | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders WHERE status IN ('Awaiting Payment', 'Awaiting Fulfillment', 'Awaiting Shipment', 'Awaiting Pickup'))`. Orders that have reached payment-captured state but not yet shipped or delivered. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, count metric. The dollar value of the backlog uses `total_inc_tax` (tax-inclusive). | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | n/a (excluded by status filter). | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded (`Cancelled` is its own status). | | **`Incomplete` / Declined orders** | Excluded (no payment captured; not a fulfilment problem). | | **Currency** | n/a (count metric). | | **Channels / sources** | All channels combined. Marketplace channels (Amazon FBA) typically have very few unfulfilled orders because Amazon ships from FBA inventory automatically. | | **Aging dimension** | The card surfaces total count plus an "aged >48h" sub-count. The aged cohort is the urgent priority; recent unfulfilled orders are normal in-flight work. | | **What it's not** | This is current backlog, not a rate. A store with 50 unfulfilled orders shipping 1,000/month is healthy; a store with 50 unfulfilled orders shipping 50/month has a 30-day backlog and is in crisis. Read in the context of order volume. | | **Time window** | `RT` (real-time) | | **Alert trigger** | `>10 orders aged >48h`, fires when the aged backlog exceeds the threshold. The 48h cutoff matches industry "ship-by-2-business-days" expectations. | | **Sentiment key** | `unfulfilled_count` | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your BigCommerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Enterprise. Snapshot at 09:00 UTC on 13 Apr 26. | Status | Count | Aged >48h | Dollar value | | ----------------------------- | ------- | --------- | ------------ | | Awaiting Fulfillment | 22 | 4 | \$2,580 | | Awaiting Shipment | 88 | 18 | \$11,440 | | Awaiting Pickup | 6 | 1 | \$620 | | Awaiting Payment (Net-30 B2B) | 12 | 12 | \$8,400 | | **Total Unfulfilled** | **128** | **35** | **\$23,040** | What's interesting: 1. **35 orders aged >48h triggers the alert.** The threshold of 10 is exceeded by 3.5x. The warehouse has fallen behind by roughly 2-3 days of normal output. **Investigate immediately**, this kind of backlog drives customer-service inquiries and potential refund requests within 24-48 hours. 2. **`Awaiting Shipment` at 88 dominates the backlog.** Picks/packs are happening but shipping label / carrier handover is delayed. Common causes: carrier (UPS, FedEx) rate-limit; printer down; staff shortage; bulk-shipment batch process running late. 3. **The Net-30 B2B "Awaiting Payment" at 12 is misleading**, those aren't fulfilment problems, they're invoiced orders awaiting payment-on-terms. **Filter B2B Net-30 orders out** of the alert; they appear in this status legitimately for 30 days. 4. **\$23k of customer money is "in flight".** This isn't lost revenue, but it's customer trust capital. Slipping by 1-2 days is forgivable; slipping by a week causes refunds, returns, and bad reviews that don't fully recover. Action priority order: 1. **Walk the warehouse.** Where is the bottleneck, picking, packing, label printing, carrier handover? 2. **Address the 18 aged `Awaiting Shipment` orders first.** These are the customer-experience emergencies; ship today regardless of normal batch rules. 3. **If carrier handover is the issue**, escalate to the carrier account manager. Most carrier delays resolve within 12-24 hours of escalation. 4. **Configure B2B Net-30 status filtering** so this card stops false-flagging on invoiced orders. 5. **Monitor the aged-cohort trend daily**; if it stays above threshold for 3+ days, the warehouse has structural capacity issues, not just an acute backlog. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Unfulfilled Orders | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | [Fulfillment Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-rate) | The lagging indicator; growing unfulfilled backlog precedes a fulfilment-rate drop by 7-14 days. | | [BC Alert Fulfilment Delay](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-delay-alert) | The speed alert; co-fires with this card during warehouse incidents. | | [Fulfillment Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-status) | Status distribution; helps understand what's stuck where. | | [Inventory Alerts](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | Negative-stock items drive `Awaiting Fulfillment` indefinitely. | | [BC Channel Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-rate-by-channel) | Per-channel view; isolates marketplace vs web backlog. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refund-rate) | Refunds rise when fulfilment delays persist. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Volume context; same backlog count means different things at different volumes. | | [Cancellation Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/cancellation-rate) | Customers cancel when waits get long. | ## 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 `Awaiting Fulfillment`, `Awaiting Shipment`, `Awaiting Pickup`, `Awaiting Payment`. The result count should match this card. For aging, sort orders by Date ascending; orders older than 48h relative to current time are the aged cohort. **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC Control Panel:** | Reason | Direction | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- | | **Status inclusion**. We count four statuses; some merchants count only `Awaiting Shipment` as the "actionable" backlog. | Variable | | **B2B Net-30 inclusion**. We count `Awaiting Payment` by default; merchants with B2B portals may want to exclude these. | Vortex IQ HIGHER for B2B-heavy stores | | **Time zone**. UTC vs store-local. | Marginal | | **Sync lag**. New paid orders take 5-15 minutes to appear in our index. | Vortex IQ slightly LOWER for very recent orders | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | [`amazon_sp.amazon_unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amazon_unfulfilled_orders) | Amazon-side awaiting-shipment list. | Should align with Amazon channel slice. | | [Fulfillment Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-rate) | Inverse correlation, growing unfulfilled count predicts a fulfilment-rate drop. | Direct lead-lag relationship. | ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/unfulfilled-orders) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is this card always non-zero, can it ever read zero?** Practically, no, every active store has some orders in flight at all times. The question is whether the count is *normal* for your volume. A store shipping 100 orders/day will always have 100-300 in-flight at any moment. **Read the aged-cohort, not the total**: aged-over-48h is the actionable signal. **My count is high but most are recent, am I fine?** Probably yes. Recent orders (within 48h) are normal in-flight work; only the aged cohort is concerning. **Threshold the alert on aged count, not total count**, which is exactly how this card's alert is configured. **Why include `Awaiting Payment`?** Because some stores use this status for orders genuinely awaiting customer action (Net-30 invoicing, manual bank-transfer payments). For B2B-heavy stores, exclude this status from the alert; for retail-only stores, include it. **My warehouse can't keep up, what's the fix?** Three options in priority order: (1) **3PL outsourcing**, hand pick/pack to a third-party logistics provider; ramps up immediately. (2) **Same-day pickup options**, customers can collect from a local fulfilment hub for same-day orders. (3) **Capacity expansion**, hire/train more warehouse staff; takes weeks. The first two are emergency responses; the third is structural. **Why does the aged cohort spike on Mondays?** Weekends. Most warehouses run 5 days/week; orders placed Friday afternoon through Sunday evening accumulate without movement. Monday morning shows 2-3 days of delayed orders all at once. **Read the rolling 7-day picture rather than daily snapshot** to smooth weekend effects. **Should I prioritise oldest or highest-value unfulfilled orders?** **Oldest first** for customer-experience reasons; **highest-value first** for revenue-protection reasons. Most ops teams compromise: ship the aged cohort first by age within each value tier. The Vortex Mind aged-orders report has a per-order priority score combining age and value. **My Channel Manager (Amazon) channel shows zero unfulfilled, is that correct?** Yes if you're FBA. Amazon ships from FBA inventory automatically; orders flow into BC already fulfilled. If you're FBM (Fulfilled-By-Merchant), Amazon orders behave like web orders, expect a normal in-flight count. **Why do I see orders aged >7 days in the list?** These are usually one of: (1) Out-of-stock orders waiting for restock (back-orders). (2) Custom / made-to-order items with intentional long lead times. (3) Genuinely stuck orders that need manual intervention. The first two should be communicated clearly to the customer; the third requires fix or refund. **Should I cancel orders that age past 14 days?** Often yes, especially if you have no visibility into when they'll ship. Aged-stuck orders generate refund requests, chargebacks, and bad reviews. **Proactive refund + apology email + restock-notify** signup converts better than letting customers churn cold. **My count drops sharply each evening, why?** End-of-day batch fulfilment. Most warehouses process pending orders in a daily cutoff (typically 3-5 PM local). The card reflects the post-batch state correctly. The pre-batch view is the worry; the post-batch view shows the residual that didn't get processed. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Unfulfilled Orders* 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.