Using CSV to Import/Export Fulfillment Tracking Information

You can now use CSV features in Bulk Product Edit to manage tracking information for order fulfillments. This includes both adding tracking details to fulfill orders and editing tracking information for existing fulfillments.

In this article:

Understanding Fulfillment Orders and Shopify Fulfillment Hierarchy
Export Order Fulfillments
Edit Tracking Info for Existing Fulfillments
Add Tracking Info

Understanding Fulfillment Orders and Shopify Fulfillment Hierarchy

Before importing or exporting tracking information, it’s important to understand how fulfillments work in Shopify.

When an order is placed in Shopify, the system automatically organizes the items into one or more FulfillmentOrder objects. A fulfillment order is simply Shopify's internal "work assignment"—it tells a specific location (or fulfillment service) which items it is responsible for shipping.

For example, if items in an order are stocked in different locations, Shopify creates separate fulfillment orders for each location.

Although “fulfillment order” is not explicitly labeled in the admin, you’ll see its effect through item groupings by location on the order page.

Key points:

An order can have multiple fulfillment orders
A fulfillment order can have multiple fulfillments
Each fulfillment can have multiple fulfillment records (though usually only one is used)

Each tracking record may include:

Tracking number or tracking URL (at least one required)
Tracking company (optional)

Export Order Fulfillments

To export order fulfillments to a spreadsheet, simply include “Fulfillments” as a field to export when setting up the CSV export task. The field is also automatically selected when you click “Select all fields.”

The exported spreadsheet includes the following options:

Fulfillment order ID
Fulfillment order assigned location name
Samples of fulfillment order line items,
Fulfillment ID
Fulfillment name
Fulfillment status
Fulfillment tracking company,
Fulfillment tracking number
Fulfillment tracking URL, and
Fulfillment company

In the spreadsheet, you will find the fulfillment exported in the following structure: the top-level columns in the spreadsheet will include all fulfillment orders of the order, followed by their assigned location names and a selection of some line items in each specific fulfillment order to help you identify the fulfillment order from others in the same order.

Next, it lists all fulfillments of the fulfillment order, including their status. The following columns will contain all fulfillment tracking information records of the fulfillment.

The Bulk Product Edit app will only export fulfillment orders that are managed by the merchant and will be fulfilled from one of the warehouses or locations fully managed by your merchandise.

Fulfillment orders assigned to external fulfillment services or third-party apps are not included in the generated spreadsheet.

Edit Tracking Info for Existing Fulfillments

Bulk Product Edit’s CSV Order Import feature can be used to edit tracking information fields for an existing fulfillment.

To set up this task, the spreadsheet must include:

Order locator (Order ID or Name)
Fulfillment ID
One or more tracking fields:
- Tracking company
- Tracking number
- Tracking URL

In the Bulk Product Edit App, go to the “CSV Import” page and select “Order Import”.

Select the column containing your order locator to search for the order, then select the columns for the tracking info fields to edit. Choose “Edit Tracking Info (expand fields)” for the columns.

The form will then prompt you to select the column for the fulfillment ID and indicate whether to notify the customers who placed the orders. This prompt will appear for each of the columns where tracking info is being edited, but the form will ensure that the values remain consistent across all these columns.

The edits will be applied to the first tracking information record for the fulfillment with the matching fulfillment ID. None of the three tracking info fields are required, but you must ensure that the tracking information record does not contain only a tracking company value after the edit.

Add Tracking Info

You can also use Bulk Product Edit’s CSV Order Import feature to add tracking information fields. This addition will be applied to a fulfillment order, and in practice, it will always create a fulfillment for the fulfillment order.

To set up the task, the spreadsheet must include:

Order locator (Order ID or Name)
Fulfillment order ID
At least one:
- Tracking number
- Tracking URL
(Optional) Tracking company

In Bulk Product Edit, go to the “CSV Import” page and select “Order Import.”

Select the column of your order locator to search for the order, and then select the columns for the tracking info fields you want to edit. Choose “Add Tracking Info (expand fields)” for these columns.

The form will then prompt you to select the column for the fulfillment order ID and indicate whether to notify the customers who placed the orders. This prompt will appear for each of the columns selected for editing tracking info, but the form will ensure that the values remain consistent across all these columns.

Bulk Product Edit will then use the values captured in the spreadsheet to create a fulfillment with tracking information for the fulfillment order with the matching ID. To create a fulfillment, you should always provide at least one of the following: the tracking number or the tracking URL.

When you revert a CSV import task that adds tracking information, the reverting process will not delete the fulfillment; instead, it will cancel the fulfillment created by the task. The fulfillment will still be valid and contain the tracking information fields, but it will have a “CANCELLED” status after the reverting process is completed.