If a customer wants to purchase an out-of-stock product or purchase products and have them delivered or return to pick them up later, you can process an unfulfilled sale. With unfulfilled sales, you can process the sale, order the required stock if applicable, pick and pack products, and manage the status of the fulfillment process on the Inventory > Fulfillment page in Retail POS.

If you have multiple locations, you can enable cross-location fulfillment. This allows you to sell items from a location without stock, then fulfill the order from a location with stock.

Understanding unfulfilled sales and fulfillment

• Order fulfillment: Picking and packing items purchased during an unfulfilled sale and preparing them for customer delivery or pickup. This includes unfulfilled sales placed in-store and online sales for pickup or delivery.

• Unfulfilled sale (in-stock products): Products purchased by a customer that were physically in stock but were not taken with them at the time of the sale. The order can be fulfilled from your existing inventory and will be delivered to the customer or picked up in store at a later date.

  For items being delivered, you must record the delivery address and details in the sales note.

• Special order (out-of-stock and specialty order products): Products purchased by a customer that were not in stock at the time of the sale. You may need to order additional stock to fulfill the customer’s order before preparing for delivery or pickup.

  If you have multiple stores, you can enable cross-location fulfillment to fulfill out-of-stock orders from another location with stock.

• Combination unfulfilled sale: Products purchased by a customer where some items were taken with them at the time of the sale, and others will be delivered or picked up at a later date.

  In combination unfulfilled sales, you can add all the products to the same sale and mark individual items as unfulfilled. The cart will sort the items into Deliver (or Pick up later) and Take now sections. These sections are also viewable on receipts and in the Sales history to clarify fulfillment needs.

• Fulfillment tab (cart): Manage the fulfillment requirements for each product in the Fulfillment tab under each item in the cart on the Sell screen.
• Inventory > Fulfillment page: View all unfulfilled sales and manage the fulfillment status of individual items in an order.

Creating an unfulfilled sale

To create an unfulfilled sale for an out-of-stock product:

1. In the Sell screen, add your out-of-stock product.

2. A pop-up message will appear notifying you that 0 of this product is in stock. Select Fulfill later.

   

3. Click Continue.

4. Use the Add a customer field to select a customer.

   • (Optional) Click + Add "X" as a new customer to create a new customer profile.

   

5. Click Continue.

6. Choose Delivery or Pickup as your fulfillment method.

   

7. (Optional) Add a Fulfillment note to the sale.
8. Click Continue.

Adding an address for delivery

Adding a delivery address is only available on Retail POS on a computer.

If you selected Delivery as the fulfillment method, you'll need to ensure your customer's shipping and billing addresses are added to the sale. To do this:

1. Click the Fulfillment tab.

   

2. Click + Add address.

3. Enter the address details.

   

4. Click Save changes.

Changes made to a customer's address using this method apply only to the sale and are not reflected in the customer's profile.

A record of the unfulfilled sale will be added to the Inventory > Fulfillments page, where you can manage fulfillment statuses for the sale items.

Marking all items in the sale for fulfillment

If all the items in a cart are for delivery or pickup, you can mark the whole sale for fulfillment at once instead of per item, regardless of whether the items are in stock or not.

1. Navigate to Sell > Sell.
2. Add all the items to the cart. This can include in-stock and out-of-stock items. When adding a product that is out of stock, you can dismiss the notification flag by clicking anywhere on the screen or by adding another item.
3. Add or select a customer and click Continue.

4. Click More actions > Mark all items for fulfillment.

   

5. Choose Delivery or Pickup.

   Choosing to Use another outlet's stock is available for merchants with selling across stores enabled.

   

6. Click Next.

7. Add a customer or confirm your customer's contact information.

   You must enter at least one contact method for the customer.

   

8. Click Next.

9. Add or confirm the shipping and billing addresses.

   

10. (Optional) Add a Fulfillment note to the sale.

11. Click Mark items for fulfillment. This will mark all items in the cart for delivery or pickup.

    Items added after this action are not automatically added to the fulfillment.

A record of the unfulfilled sale will be added to the Inventory > Fulfillments page, where you can manage fulfillment statuses for the sale items.

Modifying unfulfilled sales during the sale

Any additional items added to the sale will be automatically sorted into the Take now section of the cart. You can update this as needed.

Adding more products for the customer to Take now

If your customer wants to take the additional items with them at the time of purchase, you can take payment for the sale, and the sales receipt will note which items were taken and which items need to be fulfilled. A record of the unfulfilled portion of the sale will be available in Inventory > Fulfillments.

Adding more products for fulfillment

If your customer wants to add more items for fulfillment, you can update the details for each product in the cart:

1. Add more items to the sale.
2. Click on the arrow beside the item to expand its details.
3. Click the Fulfillment tab.

4. Switch the fulfillment method to Delivery or Pickup. The item will move into the Deliver / Pick up later section of the cart.

   All unfulfilled items must have the same fulfillment method for the sale. Changing the fulfillment method for one unfulfilled item will automatically change the fulfillment method for all unfulfilled items in the cart.

5. Create or modify the fulfillment note, including all relevant details for the sale and fulfillment. All unfulfilled items in the sale share this note.
6. Once all items are marked for fulfillment or to take at the time of purchase, you can take payment for the sale.

A record of the unfulfilled sale will be added to the Inventory > Fulfillments page, where you can manage fulfillment statuses for the sale items.

Taking payment for an unfulfilled sale

Once the sale has been marked as unfulfilled, you can choose to take full, partial (deposit), or no payment, depending on your store policy. Unfulfilled sales can be paid for using most payment types, including Loyalty, store credit, and On account.

If the sale contains items to Take now and Deliver / Pickup later, the left side of the payment screen will show the total amount to Pay now and Pay later, as well as a banner on the right side clarifying how much payment is still required for the Take now items in the sale.

Taking full payment for an unfulfilled sale

1. Click Pay.
2. Select your desired payment type.
3. Once the payment has been processed, click Complete sale.

Taking a deposit for an unfulfilled sale

1. Click Pay.
2. Enter the deposit amount into the Amount to Pay field.

3. Select the payment type.

   A deposit will be recorded as revenue received in advance. Once the order has been paid in full, the revenue received in advance will switch to revenue in your accounting and closure reports.

4. Click Save sale.

Taking no payment for an unfulfilled sale

Sales with only unfulfilled items do not require a payment or deposit to be created. If you do not need to take payment or deposit, click Pay, then click Save sale.

Once payment for an unfulfilled sale has been paid in full, you can pick and pack it for delivery or pickup and update the fulfillment statuses on the Inventory > Fulfillments page to keep track of the status of the fulfillment.

What's next?