How to create a ready-to-ship workflow in Shopify

Unfulfilled is a wide net. Ready to ship is a short list. Custom shops get in trouble when those two are treated as the same.

One practical production sequence

This is an example. Your names can differ.

During production, the Shopify order (website or imported Etsy) moves through stages such as:

Working on Art → Proof Sent → Approved → In Production → Ready to Ship

Nothing in that list is a Shopify fulfillment. Fulfillment is what you do after Ready to Ship, when the object can leave.

Then use Shopify as the shipping desk

When the order reaches Ready to Ship in your production tool, you want Shopify Orders to show that without opening a second app for every row.

If you change the status in Orderflow, Orderflow writes status-Ready to Ship (or whatever you named the status). In Shopify, save a view filtered to that tag. When it is time to print today’s labels, open that view. Work only those orders.

Exact tag text follows the status name you configured. Spaces and capitalization matter. Look at one order after a status change if the filter comes up empty.

Why this split helps

Orderflow (or any production board) answers: what stage of making is this?

Shopify answers: which orders am I fulfilling and shipping right now?

You can fulfill from Shopify, buy labels in Shopify, and let your marketplace connector send tracking to Etsy if it supports that. The production board should already have said the job was ready.

Using Orderflow

Statuses are yours to name. Orderflow does not print labels. It holds the sequence, then tags the Shopify order when you save a status change in Update Order.

See how Orderflow works on the product page.

Related: How to print shipping labels only for orders that are ready, How to organize Etsy orders with Shopify tags.