Automatically defer orders using automation rules

You can create an Automation Rule to automatically defer orders that match specific criteria.

For example, if you sell a pre-order product, you can automatically defer orders containing that product for 14 days.

Deferred orders are removed from any Shipping Run and moved to the Deferred tab until their defer date.

Go to Settings > Automation and click New Rule.

Enter a Title for the rule.

For example: Defer PREORDER items for 14 days

For Type, select:

If you're creating an Automatic rule, you can leave Active turned off until you've tested it.

Click Add Condition Group.

For this example, we want to defer orders containing the SKU PREORDER-001.

Set the condition to: SKU Equals PREORDER-001

You can use other order details as your Trigger depending on which orders you need to defer.

Click Add Action and select Defer Order.

Choose whether matching orders should be deferred:

For this example, enter 14 days.

Click Save.

Use Dry run to check which orders match the rule before making an Automatic rule Active.

Once you're happy with the results, set the rule to Active.

Now, when an order containing PREORDER-001 is imported, ReadyToShip will automatically defer it for 14 days.

⚠️ Important: If deferred orders should not have any other Automatic rules applied to them, place this rule above those rules and turn on Stop after this rule.

See Set the priority of Automation Rules for more information.

When the rule runs, the matching order:

If you no longer want an Automatic rule to run, go to Settings > Automation and set it to Inactive, or change it to a Manual rule. You don't need to delete it.