> ## 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, Shopify > Orders fully fulfilled / total orders. <90% means the merchant is breaking shipping promises. 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) > Orders fully fulfilled / total orders. \<90% means the merchant is breaking shipping promises. ## At a glance > The percentage of orders in the period whose `displayFulfillmentStatus` resolved to `FULFILLED`. The single ops health number, are we shipping the orders we promised, on time? | | | | ------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders WHERE displayFulfillmentStatus = FULFILLED) ÷ COUNT(orders) × 100`. Each order is 1 in the denominator regardless of value. | | **What "FULFILLED" means in Shopify** | Every line item on the order has a `Fulfillment` record marked complete. `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED` (some items shipped, others pending) does NOT count toward the numerator, even if 90% of the order value has shipped. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Not applicable (count metric). | | **Shipping** | Not applicable (count metric). The metric measures whether goods physically went out, not the £ paid for shipping. | | **Discounts** | Not applicable (count metric). | | **Refunds** | A refunded order can still be `FULFILLED` (you shipped it, then refunded later). Both states are independent in Shopify. So a refunded order CAN count toward this rate's numerator. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Excluded from numerator (`VOIDED` is a separate status), but they sit in the denominator, dragging the rate down. To exclude voids from the denominator, use the *fulfilled / non-voided* view in Shopify Admin. | | **Pending / open / scheduled** | NOT in the numerator. `OPEN`, `IN_PROGRESS`, `PENDING_FULFILLMENT`, `SCHEDULED` orders all suppress the rate, the metric only credits orders that actually shipped. | | **Currency** | Multi-currency safe (count ratio, no FX). | | **Channels / sources** | **Not filtered.** Online Store, POS (which auto-marks fulfilled at checkout), Buy Button, B2B, marketplace channels all contribute. POS orders push the rate UP because they fulfil instantly at the till. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (default 30D vs the prior 30D) | | **Alert trigger** | `<90%`, sustained fulfillment rate below 90% triggers the `fulfillment_rate` sentiment key | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation ``` COUNT(displayFulfillmentStatus=FULFILLED) / COUNT(_id) WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A UK skincare DTC brand on Shopify Plus, single 3PL warehouse in Northamptonshire. Period: 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | `displayFulfillmentStatus` | Order count | Share | Note | | ------------------------------ | ----------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | `FULFILLED` | 1,612 | 84.5% | Shipped and tracking-confirmed, this is the numerator | | `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED` | 78 | 4.1% | Backordered serum SKU, foam cleanser shipped | | `IN_PROGRESS` | 96 | 5.0% | Pick-and-pack in flight (yesterday's orders mostly) | | `OPEN` / `UNFULFILLED` | 102 | 5.3% | Sat for >24h, the ops red flag | | `RESTOCKED` | 12 | 0.6% | Customer cancelled before pick | | `VOIDED` | 8 | 0.4% | Payment voided pre-fulfilment | | **Total orders (denominator)** | **1,908** | **100%** | | ```text theme={null} Fulfillment Rate = 1,612 ÷ 1,908 × 100 = 84.49% ``` vs the prior 30D where the rate was 92.7%. The card flags an **8.2 ppt drop** and trips the `<90%` sentiment threshold. Five things to notice: 1. **The 5.3% `OPEN` bucket is the operational fire.** 102 orders that haven't even started picking after 24h+. That's the number a COO can act on tonight, the headline rate is the symptom, not the cause. 2. **Partials matter even though they're "almost done".** 78 partially fulfilled orders represent customers waiting for the second half of their bundle. Each is a brand promise still in limbo. Pair this card with [Line Item Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/line-item-fulfillment-status) for the SKU-level view. 3. **The cause is usually inventory, not labour.** 84% of merchants who breach `<90%` for >5 days have a stockout on a high-velocity SKU. Cross-reference [Products with Zero/Negative Stock](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-with-zero-negative-stock), if the breach SKU is one of the top-50 by revenue, it explains both the partials and the opens. 4. **POS orders flatter the rate.** If this brand had a retail outlet on Shop POS doing 200 orders / month auto-fulfilled at the till, the headline would have read closer to 88%. The DTC-only rate is harsher than the blended one. To see the e-commerce-only view, filter by sales channel in Shopify Admin. 5. **vsP is doing the alerting work.** Some categories (made-to-order furniture, monogrammed gifts, drop-ship) operate at structural 60 to 75% rates and that's healthy for them. Vortex IQ Nerve Centre alerts on the *change* (8.2 ppt), not the absolute level. The threshold is configurable per workspace. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Fulfillment Rate is the headline. The cause lives in these: | Card | Why pair it with Fulfillment Rate | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Unfulfilled Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) | The numerator-failure count, in real time. The number ops should clear by EOD. If this list is climbing day-on-day, the rate will follow within a week. | | [Fulfillment Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/fulfillment-status) | Segments by status (`OPEN`, `IN_PROGRESS`, `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED`, etc). Tells you which bucket is bleeding. | | [Fulfillment Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/fulfillment-rate-over-time) | Daily / weekly trend. Catches step-changes (a 3PL outage on a specific date) the 30D average smooths out. | | [Products with Zero/Negative Stock](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | The single most common cause of a fulfillment-rate drop is a stockout on a high-velocity SKU. Pair these and the bottleneck SKU usually surfaces. | | [Cancellation Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/cancellation-rate) | When stockouts persist, customers cancel rather than wait. A simultaneous fulfillment-rate drop and cancellation-rate rise is a classic backlog-induced churn signal. | | [Line Item Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/line-item-fulfillment-status) | Drills below the order to the line item. Useful when partials dominate and you need to know *which* line is stuck. | | [Total Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-orders) | The denominator. A spike in orders (sale, viral moment) can crash the rate without anything in ops actually breaking; sanity-check the denominator first. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Shopify Admin:** [Orders](https://admin.shopify.com/orders) → filter by **Fulfillment status: Fulfilled** and a date range matching this card. The count of matching orders divided by the total orders in the same date range gives Shopify's view of fulfillment rate. There isn't a single dedicated "Fulfillment Rate" tile in Shopify reports; merchants reconstruct it from the Orders list. Other Shopify Admin views that *look* like the same number but aren't: * **Settings → Shipping & delivery → Performance**: Shopify Plus only. Reports on-time delivery against the *promised* date, a stricter metric than this card. Will read lower. * **Reports → Sales by fulfillment status**: a £-revenue split, not a count rate. Useful for understanding £ at risk in unfulfilled, but not directly comparable to this percentage. * **Apps like ShipStation / ShipBob dashboards**: those measure 3PL pick-and-pack speed (label-printed-to-shipped). Not the same as Shopify's `displayFulfillmentStatus`, which flips on the *Fulfillment* record being created. * **Home → "Orders to fulfill" widget**: a real-time backlog count, not a rate. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Shopify Admin:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Time zone** | Boundary days | Shopify Admin runs in shop time zone; Vortex IQ uses UTC for window boundaries. Orders placed near midnight on the boundary days fall on different sides. | | **Status mapping** | Theirs higher | Shopify's Orders list "Fulfilled" filter typically also catches `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED` if you've enabled the *show partials* toggle. Vortex IQ counts only fully `FULFILLED`. To match, use the strict-fulfilled view. | | **Multi-location stores** | Either | Shops with multiple fulfillment locations may flip `FULFILLED` only when the *last* location ships. If one location is slow and the order is fulfilled-from-multiple, the rate looks worse than the operational reality. | | **Draft / test orders** | Ours slightly higher | Shopify Admin can hide test orders. Vortex IQ does not yet filter `Order.test`. | | **Sync lag** | Ours lower for "today" | The index is updated by Shopify webhooks; the most recent 5 to 15 minutes of fulfillment events may not be in yet. Yesterday and earlier are fully caught up. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** Fulfillment Rate is a Shopify-internal operational metric. It does not have direct counterparts on payment connectors (Stripe, PayPal) because those processors don't see fulfillment events. The closest cross-connector signal is incident data: | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`datadog.dd_incident_count`](/nerve-centre/datadog/dd_incident_count) | Indirect, when 3PL or warehouse systems alert in Datadog, fulfillment rate drops within 24 to 72h | If you've connected your warehouse / 3PL monitoring to Datadog, an incident there is a leading indicator for this card. | | [`shopify_xc_revenue_at_risk_from_incident`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/revenue-at-risk) | Composite, an open incident at a fulfillment partner correlates with a drop in this rate | Pair them on the same dashboard during ops outages. | ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) The same definition of Fulfillment Rate lives on other commerce platforms. This is **not a reconciliation**, your Shopify store doesn't have a parallel store on BigCommerce or Adobe Commerce to compare numbers against. These cross-links exist so agencies running multi-platform client books can navigate between identical metrics across the docs. * [`bigcommerce.fulfillment_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfillment-rate) * [`adobe_commerce.fulfillment_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/fulfillment-rate)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my Fulfillment Rate dropping?** Three usual causes, in order of likelihood: 1. **Stockout on a high-velocity SKU.** New orders pile up in `OPEN` while waiting for inventory, the rate falls a few days later. Cross-reference [Products with Zero/Negative Stock](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-with-zero-negative-stock). If one of your top-50 SKUs is on the list, that's almost certainly the cause. 2. **3PL or warehouse incident.** A staffing shortage, a system outage, a holiday backup. Look at [Fulfillment Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/fulfillment-rate-over-time) for the day-of-week step-change. A weekday drop to 70% then recovery to 92% over 5 days is a classic 3PL-staffing signature. 3. **Order volume spike.** Sale weeks and viral moments crash the rate even if ops did everything right; pick-and-pack throughput is fixed in the short term. Sanity-check [Total Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-orders), if the denominator is up 50%, the rate dropping 5 to 10 ppt is mechanical not a problem. **Action:** before "fixing" the rate, identify which of the three it is. Each has a different remedy (reorder stock, engage 3PL ops, accept temporary degradation and protect customer comms). **Does this card include partial fulfillments?** **No.** Only orders fully `FULFILLED` count toward the numerator. An order with 3 line items where 2 have shipped and 1 is backordered sits in `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED` and DOESN'T count, even though most of the value is out the door. Use [Line Item Fulfillment](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/line-item-fulfillment-status) for the line-level view. **Why does the rate drop on Mondays?** Backlog. Most 3PLs and in-house warehouses don't pick on Sunday, so all weekend orders move into the `IN_PROGRESS` bucket on Monday morning. The denominator (orders in window) caught Friday-Sunday volume; the numerator (fulfilled) didn't catch up until Monday-Tuesday. The Mon-Tue effect is structural and not actionable. The 30D window mostly absorbs it. **Are POS orders counted?** Yes, and they boost the rate. Shop POS orders are `FULFILLED` at the till (the customer walks out with the goods, the order auto-marks fulfilled). Hybrid retail brands with strong POS volume show artificially high blended rates. The DTC-only view (e-commerce sales channel filter) is the harsher and more operationally useful number. **My subscription store, do recurring billings count?** Yes. Each Shopify Subscriptions order is a separate row with its own fulfillment lifecycle. A monthly box subscription where the box ships within the cycle counts as `FULFILLED`. A subscription billing where the customer cancels mid-cycle and the box never ships will sit in `OPEN` then transition to `RESTOCKED`, dragging the rate down. Subscription-heavy brands typically run 95%+ rates because the goods are pre-packed and ready to go. **B2B / wholesale orders, how do they affect the rate?** Big effect, in both directions. B2B orders are usually scheduled (`SCHEDULED` status) so they sit in the denominator without contributing to the numerator until they actually ship; this drags the rate down. Conversely, wholesale orders typically ship in batches and flip from `OPEN` to `FULFILLED` cleanly, so once a batch goes out the rate jumps. A small number of large B2B orders can move the headline rate by several ppt on their own. **Why is my Shopify Admin "Orders to fulfill" count higher than the unfulfilled-order share implied by this card?** Shopify Admin's *Orders to fulfill* widget is a real-time backlog (every order ever placed that isn't fulfilled, all-time). This card's denominator is bounded to the 30-day window. So your all-time backlog can be 500 orders while the 30D `OPEN`/`IN_PROGRESS` share is only 5%. They measure different things, the widget is for ops urgency, this card is for trend. **Is "FULFILLED" the same as "Delivered"?** **No.** `FULFILLED` means a fulfillment record exists in Shopify, typically when the warehouse prints a label and marks the order picked. The parcel may not arrive at the customer for another 1 to 7 days. Carrier-delivery tracking is a separate signal, ShipStation / ShipBob / Royal Mail tracking webhooks. Vortex IQ doesn't yet ingest delivery confirmations, but they're on the connector roadmap. **Action playbook when this card alerts:** 1. Open [Unfulfilled Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders). The list is your real-time queue. 2. Open [Fulfillment Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/fulfillment-status). Find which bucket is bleeding (`OPEN` vs `IN_PROGRESS` vs `PARTIALLY_FULFILLED`). 3. Open [Products with Zero/Negative Stock](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-with-zero-negative-stock). If any high-velocity SKU is OOS, that's almost certainly the cause. 4. Pull the fulfillment-location split in Shopify Admin. If one location is responsible, escalate to that 3PL / warehouse manager. 5. If the cause is volume (sale week), email customer-service to extend SLA messaging proactively. 6. If the cause is a stockout, decide: ship-partial, hold-and-wait, or refund-and-relist. Each affects [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate) differently. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Fulfillment Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Shopify 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.