How orders flow between Shopify and CanShip

Applies to: All tiers  ·  Last reviewed: 2026-06-23

What this is

The full round trip: how a Shopify order reaches CanShip for picking, and how the fulfillment and tracking get written back so your customer sees a normal Shopify shipping notification. It also covers the most common question we get, "why aren't my orders showing up?"

Orders coming in

No action is needed here. This is what happens automatically.

1. A customer places an order on your Shopify store.
2. Shopify processes payment and creates the order.
3. Within a few seconds, Shopify fires the orders/create webhook to CanShip.
4. CanShip checks whether the order is routed to a CanShip-managed location. If yes, CanShip imports it. If no, CanShip ignores it.
5. CanShip allocates inventory for each line from the warehouse the order is assigned to.
6. The order appears in your CanShip Orders view, ready to pick.

Tracking going back

Also automatic. This is what CanShip does on your behalf.

1. You print a shipping label in CanShip. The carrier issues a tracking number.
2. CanShip captures the tracking number and carrier.
3. Within seconds, CanShip marks the matching Shopify order as fulfilled and attaches the tracking number and carrier.
4. Shopify sends the customer its standard shipping notification, from your store and with your branding.

Customers never get a separate "shipped by CanShip" email, which keeps the experience yours.

Why aren't my orders showing up?

Almost always, the store is not routing orders to CanShip. Orders flow in only when Shopify assigns them to the CanShip-managed location.

• Check Shopify Admin > Settings > Locations and confirm orders route to your CanShip location.
• In CanShip, watch the store card under Channels. If a store had orders that were never routed to CanShip, a "Routing not set" chip appears on its card so you can catch and fix it.

What else can go wrong

• The order is in CanShip but shows "Unallocated" or backordered. CanShip allocates stock at import. If on-hand for a SKU is zero, the order arrives unallocated. Receive inventory or adjust on-hand.
• Shipped in CanShip but not marked fulfilled in Shopify. Usually a delayed webhook on Shopify's side. CanShip retries up to 19 times over 48 hours. After that, check Settings > Channels > Shopify > Recent activity for the specific error.
• Customer did not get a shipping email. That is Shopify's email system. Confirm the email on the order and that the shipping confirmation is enabled in Shopify Admin > Settings > Notifications.