How ShipNoDrama works.

ShipNoDrama helps orders ship on the right day, and customers know the day. It keeps each order on hold in Shopify until the day it can really ship, then releases it, so nobody packs a preorder or a made-to-order piece too early. The same day shows on your product pages before people buy, on the thank-you and order pages after, and a Shopify Flow trigger lets you tell customers when it moves. If your Shopify plan lets apps set checkout rates, it can also price shipping.

Setting up

Before anything reaches your orders, checkout or store, someone on your store agrees to the Terms of service in the box at the top of the app.

It takes a few minutes. The menu on the left lists five numbered steps. Each one turns into a tick when it's done, or a ! when something in it looks wrong, with a short status underneath ("Mon to Fri · until 2:00 PM", "Not tried yet"). Its Save and continue button saves and takes you to the next step.

1. Ship days. Tick the days your parcels get picked up, or you take them to the post office, and set your last order time: orders that come in later count as the next day's orders. Times are in your store's time zone; change it if your warehouse is somewhere else. Upcoming holidays are offered as one-click days off. Under the settings you see what they mean for a real order, for example "An order placed now ships tomorrow, Thursday, Oct 22."
2. Product groups. Do some products need longer before they can ship? If not, press No, every product ships on my ship days. If yes, add a group, say what's different about it and pick its products:
   • They're made or packed after the order: how many working days they take.
   • They're preorders: the day they come in.
   • They can only ship on some days: for example frozen food Monday to Wednesday.
   • Someone checks each order first: those orders wait until you release them.
   Press Pick products to choose them in Shopify's product picker, or give a tag so every product with that tag, now and later, is included. If you can only finish so many a day, say how many: once a day is full, new orders get the next day with room.
3. What customers see. Where the ship day shows: product pages, the thank-you and order status pages, holiday deadlines. ShipNoDrama asks Shopify which of its blocks your theme and checkout really use, and says which are still missing.
4. Try a cart. Pick products and when the order is placed, and see the ship day it would get, step by step.
5. Go live. Sums up what will happen and names any step that isn't done yet. Press Start holding orders. From then on each new order that can't ship yet is held in Shopify until its ship day. Stop holding orders is on this page too.

Where things stand

Home shows how many steps are done, one What to do next card with a button that takes you there, today's numbers, and Everything we checked: all your settings read together as problems (orders may ship on the wrong day, fix these first), warnings (probably a mistake, such as a product in two groups or a group that catches no products) and notes (what will happen). Each has a Show me link to the setting. While a problem is open, every other page shows a red bar that leads back to Home.

Whatever you save is used straight away. A green message confirms it, with an Undo button that puts your earlier settings back.

Examples

Made to order: 7 working days

Group Made to order: picked products, 7 working days. You ship Monday to Friday, last order time 2:00 PM.

A customer orders a bowl on Tuesday, October 20 at 11:00 AM. That's before 2:00 PM, so the order counts from that day. Seven working days later is Thursday, October 29. ShipNoDrama holds the order in Shopify with the note "ShipNoDrama: ships Thursday, Oct 29" and releases it that morning.

Frozen food ships Monday to Wednesday

Group Frozen: products tagged frozen, can only ship Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

An order placed on Wednesday at 3:30 PM is after the last order time, so it counts from Thursday. Thursday and Friday aren't frozen ship days, so it's held until Monday. A cart with frozen food and a mug ships together, so the mug waits too.

Preorders

Group Preorder: the day they come in, for example December 1. Orders wait until then and go out on your next ship day. Products coming in on different days go in separate preorder groups. A cart with two preorders ships on the later day.

Orders that need a person

Group Engraving: Someone checks each order first. Those orders stay on hold until someone presses Release now on Orders.

A promise stays a promise

Once an order has its ship day, it keeps it. Lowering a daily limit, more orders arriving, or changing how many days a group takes doesn't move orders already placed: those changes apply to new orders. An order moves only when its day can't happen any more: you added that day as a day off, its group no longer ships that weekday, or a preorder's date moved later. Then it goes to the nearest possible later day, never earlier. The note on its hold in Shopify changes to the new day too.

When a customer's day moves later, ShipNoDrama waits 15 minutes in case you undo or change it again, then tells Shopify Flow (see What customers see). The order page always shows the current day.

Daily limits

Give a group a number under How many can you finish a day? and ShipNoDrama books each day up to it. With 20 a day, the 21st order of a day gets the next day with room, and the product page already says so before people buy. The Orders page shows how full the next days are. A single order bigger than a whole day gets an empty day to itself.

Orders with products ready on different days

On Product groups, choose what happens when an order mixes something that can ship now with something that waits:

• Wait, and ship everything together (the default): one parcel, on the later day.
• Send what's ready now, and the rest later: ShipNoDrama splits the order in Shopify when it arrives. The ready part ships now, and the rest waits in its own parcel. That's two shipments, so it costs you twice. Shopify only allows splits for orders shipped from your own locations.

What customers see

• Product page. Press Add it to your product page to open your theme editor with ShipNoDrama's Ship date block ready, put it under the price, and press Save. It says "Ships Friday", or "Order within 2 h to ship today" when ordering before your last order time really ships sooner, or "Only 3 spots left to ship Friday" for a group with a daily limit. Which lines show is set in ShipNoDrama. How they look is set on the block in the theme editor: text and highlight colors, a box, text size, alignment, icon and spacing. Under Lines: one under another, all on one line, or only the first; on one line, whether they wrap like a sentence or move down whole when they don't fit, and what goes between them (a dot, bullet, bar, dash, slash or just a space).
• Holiday deadlines. Say how long delivery takes (for example 2 to 5 working days) and add dates like Christmas, must arrive by Dec 24. From 75 days before, the product page says "Order by Thursday, Dec 17 for Christmas", worked out for each product (made-to-order products get an earlier date). The dates move earlier by themselves as days fill up.
• Holiday bar. Add the holiday bar to every page opens your theme editor's App embeds with the bar switched on; press Save there. From 75 days before a date until the last day to order, every page can show "Order by Thursday, Dec 17 for Christmas delivery". Its settings change the wording, add a link, and choose where it sits: Top of the page (it scrolls away), Top, stays while scrolling, Under the header, stays while scrolling, or Bottom of the screen. If your theme's header also stays at the top, the bar never covers it.
• On-time badge. Shows the share of orders that shipped on the day they were promised, counted over the last 90 days against the first day each order was given. Orders you moved or released by hand don't count. It shows only after 20 orders, and hides itself below the minimum you set.
• After the order. Add ShipNoDrama's block to the thank-you page and the order status page (Open the checkout and accounts editor). It shows the order's ship day and, for products with a daily limit, its place in line: "You're #7 in line for Made to order (we finish 20 a day)".
• When a day moves. ShipNoDrama starts the Ship date changed trigger in Shopify Flow with the order, the old and new days and why (more triggers under Shopify Flow). Build a workflow from it that emails or texts the customer through your email app. Shopify Flow can't email customers about an order on its own, and ShipNoDrama never contacts customers itself. Telling them is up to you, and some laws require it: in the US, the FTC's Mail Order Rule says that when you can't ship on time you must tell the customer and offer to cancel with a refund.

Orders

ShipNoDrama only ever touches its own hold. Holds from Shopify's fraud check, other apps or your staff stay as they are. If someone releases ShipNoDrama's hold in Shopify, ShipNoDrama leaves that order alone from then on.

ShipNoDrama can't hold orders that are already being packed, orders a separate warehouse or shipping service packs for you, or local pickup.

Shopify Flow

ShipNoDrama works with Shopify Flow (Apps > Flow in your admin). When you pick a trigger or an action in a workflow, search for ShipNoDrama.

Triggers (Growth and Pro; an order counts on the plan it was taken on):

Each starts once for an order and day. Pressing Wait for me yourself doesn't start Order held for review.

Actions (every plan, like the buttons on Orders):

An action can run before ShipNoDrama has seen a new order. Then ShipNoDrama takes the order on first, as it would when Shopify tells it about the order, and only if it's holding new orders. Orders a separate warehouse or shipping service packs can't be held.

Asking Sidekick

Where Shopify's Sidekick is in your admin, it can answer from ShipNoDrama: "When does order #1001 ship?", "What ships today?", "When would the walnut bowl ship if ordered now?", "What's the last day to order for Christmas?" or "Why isn't my holiday bar showing?". It only reads. To change a setting, release an order or move its day, use the link in its answer: it opens the right page in ShipNoDrama. Answers never include customer names or contact details.

Checkout rates (optional)

Shopify only lets apps set checkout rates on the Advanced plan or higher, the Shopify plan billed yearly, or with Shopify's paid add-on. Everything above works without them.

1. Checkout rates: set the currency and weight unit, then the zones (the places you ship to) and their prices. Zones are checked from the top, and the first that covers an address prices it, so put narrow zones (Alaska and Hawaii, remote postcodes) above broad ones. Each method is priced one of four ways, in the table below. Save, then Turn checkout rates on (it needs at least one zone with a price). In Shopify go to Settings > Shipping and delivery, open each shipping zone and add the ShipNoDrama rates.
2. A product group can add a handling fee, count each item as several (a six-pack as 6) or only ride on some methods: open the group and look under Checkout rates.
3. Rate rules (shown once rates are on), for example Free shipping over $100: cart total at least $100, action Free shipping, on Standard. A $99.96 cart pays and a $100.00 cart is free.

When checkout rates are on and a save changes a price, the green message lists the test carts whose prices moved, so you can undo straight away. Save test carts on Try a cart to have them checked every time.

Keep a sensible backup rate in each Shopify zone: if ShipNoDrama can't answer in time, Shopify charges that. Shopify doesn't tell apps who the customer is when it asks for rates, so rates can't depend on the customer.

How rules combine, in order: Hide, then the highest Set price, then % changes, then group handling fees, then surcharges, then Free (which makes the method $0, fees included). To keep a fee, use Set the price to $0 instead of Free shipping.

Plans

Everything can be set up and tried for free on the Free Sandbox: every page, Try a cart, previews. Nothing reaches your orders, your store or your checkout until you choose a plan on Shopify's plan page (Plan in the sidebar). Paid plans start with a 14-day free trial.

• Starter, $9.99 a month: ship days, up to 3 product groups, holding orders until their day, the ship day on your product and order pages, basic checkout rates (up to 5 rules).
• Growth, $29.99 a month: everything, including daily limits, sending what's ready first, countdowns and holiday deadlines, the Shopify Flow triggers, every rate option, reports. Up to 25 groups and 30 rules.
• Pro, $59.99 a month: Growth with no practical limits, 13 months of reports, the activity log and each order's timeline, and priority support.

Plans are sized by the orders ShipNoDrama manages a month (about 100, 500 and 2,500). Going over never stops anything and is never charged; you'll see a note suggesting a bigger plan.

Settings are never deleted for a plan: anything your plan doesn't cover is kept, marked as not active, and switches on when you upgrade. If your plan ends or you move to a smaller one, every order already on hold keeps its ship day and is released on it, and checkout rates carry on for 14 days, then stop only once every shipping zone has another rate. Leaving? Press Release them all on Orders before uninstalling, so nothing stays on hold.

What ShipNoDrama keeps

Your settings and every earlier version, your saved test carts, your products' types, tags and IDs, and for each order ShipNoDrama saw: its order number, the day it was promised, the day it ships now, the last day the customer was told, how many items of each group it has, and the day it shipped. No customer names, emails or addresses. Order records, ship-date updates, checkout counts and the activity log of who changed what (on History) are deleted after 13 months; orders still on hold stay until they're released. Uninstalling stops everything. Shopify asks ShipNoDrama to delete your data 48 hours later, and it does; backups follow within 5 days. The record that someone on your store agreed to the Terms of service is kept for 3 years from that day, as proof of the agreement. The full privacy policy is also linked at the bottom of Home in the app.

Something not covered here? Email [email protected].