Quick answer: When an order can’t be fully fulfilled due to a stockout, Fulfyld can either ship the available items immediately and hold the rest until inventory is replenished, or hold the entire order until all items are available.
How to Configure Your Partial Fulfillment Rules: What to Do Step by Step
Follow these steps to make sure your account is set up to handle partial fulfillment and backorders in a way that fits your business.
Step 1: Assess Your Catalog and Customer Expectations
For brands where delivery speed is a priority, consumables, time-sensitive products, subscription replenishments, and shipping available items immediately usually make more sense.
For brands where order completeness matters more, gift sets, bundled products, apparel with coordinated pieces, and holding until fully available often produce a better customer experience.
Step 2: Connect with Your Account Manager
Once you have a clear preference, share it with your dedicated account manager. They will configure your fulfillment rules in Shipedge to reflect your chosen approach and confirm the setup before it goes live.
Step 3: Set Reorder Points for Your Top SKUs
Partial fulfillment and backorders are symptoms of a stockout; the root cause is inventory running lower than anticipated. Work with your account manager to set reorder point thresholds for your top SKUs in the Fulfyld system.
Step 4: Monitor Backordered Items in the Portal
Once you’re live, check the Fulfyld client portal regularly for any orders flagged with backorder or partial fulfillment statuses. Each backordered item shows the quantity needed to release it.
If multiple orders are waiting on the same SKU, the portal will give you a clear picture of how much inventory you need to replenish to clear the backlog .
Step 5: Submit Replenishments Promptly
As soon as you’re aware of a stockout or an approaching reorder point, submit a replenishment in Shipedge and notify your account manager of the expected delivery date. The sooner replenishment inventory arrives and is processed, the sooner backordered orders can be released.
During peak season, move faster than usual, replenishment lead times extend, and backorder queues grow quickly if inventory gaps aren’t addressed early.
What to Communicate to Your Customers
How you handle customer communication around partial shipments and backorders is up to you, but transparency consistently produces better outcomes than silence. If an order is going to ship in two parts, a proactive heads up reduces support tickets and increases customer trust.
If an item is backordered with a clear restock date, communicating that date and following up when it ships keeps the customer informed rather than frustrated.
Your eCommerce platform’s automated notification settings are the most efficient way to manage this. Make sure your shipping confirmation emails reflect what actually shipped, not the full order, so customers aren’t waiting for items that aren’t in the first package.
Still Have Questions?
To configure your partial fulfillment rules or discuss how backorders are handled on your specific account, reach out to your dedicated account manager or contact Fulfyld at hey@fulfyld.com or (256) 716-8241.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Fulfyld automatically notify me when an order goes to backorder status?
Order status changes are visible in real time through the Fulfyld client portal, and your account manager will flag significant backorder situations, particularly if multiple orders are affected by the same stockout.
Will my customer be charged twice for shipping if their order ships in two separate packages?
Fulfyld will generate a separate shipment and tracking number for each partial fulfillment, and each shipment incurs its own carrier cost on your invoice.
Can I cancel the backordered portion of an order if the customer requests it?
Yes. If a customer contacts you to cancel the backordered items rather than wait for replenishment, you can instruct your account manager to cancel the pending portion of the order.
How long will Fulfyld hold a backordered order before it needs action?
Fulfyld will hold backordered orders in the queue indefinitely until inventory is replenished or you take a manual action. There is no automatic expiry on a backordered order.
What happens if a replenishment arrives but only partially covers the backorder queue?
Fulfyld will release fulfillment for as many backordered orders as the replenishment covers, in the order they were received.