Fulfilling Orders

From the ping in your inbox to handing the parcel to the courier: how to fulfil orders cleanly and start the dispute clock.

What happens after a sale

When a buyer's payment is confirmed, three things happen automatically:

Automatic actions on payment

  • The order moves from PENDING_PAYMENT to PAID.
  • Stock for the items in the order is decremented atomically (if you have inventory tracking on).
  • The escrow hold for the order moves to HOLDING. The money is safe in escrow.

You will be notified by email and inside Vwaza Studio that you have a new order to ship.

Marking the order as Shipped

1

Open the order in Studio

Go to Merchandise -> Orders, find the order, and open its detail page.

2

Pack the order

Confirm the items and the buyer's shipping address. Print or write the address clearly.

3

Hand to your courier

Drop the parcel with your courier of choice (Malawi Post, a private courier, or in-person delivery).

4

Mark as Shipped

Click Mark as Shipped, paste the tracking number from your courier, and pick the carrier.

Adding tracking and a carrier

Whenever possible, attach a tracking number and a carrier name when you mark the order as Shipped. This is shared with the buyer automatically and dramatically reduces "where is my order?" support tickets. Even handwritten tracking from Malawi Post is better than none.

The dispute window starts

The moment you mark the order as Shipped, the 14-day buyer dispute window begins. During these 14 days the buyer can request a refund directly from their order page. After day 14, the escrow hold becomes ELIGIBLE and your share is queued for the next bi-weekly payout. See Fees and payouts for the full timeline.

Do not mark as Shipped until you have actually shipped

Marking an order as Shipped before it has gone is not just dishonest, it also makes disputes harder to win and can lead to your store being suspended.

Best practices

What top sellers do

  • Ship within 3 business days of payment.
  • Take a photo of the packed parcel before you drop it off (helps in dispute cases).
  • Send a short message to the buyer when you mark as shipped (Vwaza gives you a notes field).
  • Use a courier with a real tracking link whenever the order is worth more than a few dollars.
  • Keep boxes and packaging materials handy so you do not delay orders.

Bulk fulfilment

Bulk shipped-status updates and packing slip downloads are not in the launch product. If you have a high-volume drop coming, contact support and we will help.