An order seems stuck

A Ship Later order that sits in Shipping Pending for a while is usually not a problem. The order is waiting for the customer to decide when to ship, and that is exactly what it is supposed to do. This article explains when to act and when to wait.

Pending is normal

Every Ship Later order starts as Shipping Pending and stays there until the customer visits their Order Summary page and requests a shipment. There is no timer and no automatic expiry. If a customer placed an order last week and has not shipped it yet, that is fine.

Check the item status in the order

Open Operations, Orders (in Addora ↗) and click the order to open the drawer. Each line item shows its own readiness status: Holding, Available, Released, or Shipped. If an item shows Available, it means it is ready to be included in the next shipment request and no action is needed on your part. If an item shows Holding, there may be a condition preventing it from being included yet, such as a release date that has not passed. See Item status explained.

Mark items as ready if needed

If a pre-order becomes ready earlier than scheduled, open the order in Operations, Orders (in Addora ↗) and use Mark ready for the relevant item. This lets the customer add it to a shipment; it does not ship automatically. See Mark held items ready for the full steps.

Send the customer a reminder

If a customer has held items but has not shipped them in a while, Addora can send automated reminder emails. You can configure these in Settings, Customer experience (in Addora ↗). See Reminder emails to customers.

When something genuinely looks wrong

Contact support if you see any of these situations:

• An order shows as Shipping Pending but the customer says they already paid for shipping and it should be dispatching.
• An order has not moved in days and the customer reports an error on the Order Summary page.
• An item is stuck on Holding but you do not have a release date set and there is no obvious reason.