When an order changes in Shopify
What Parcello does when an order's address, items or shipping change in Shopify, or the order is cancelled, before and after labels.
Updated October 7, 2026
Orders change after they arrive: a customer moves the delivery address, you edit the order to remove an item, a line is refunded, or the order is cancelled. Parcello picks up these changes from Shopify and updates the order page. The rule behind every case is the same: anything without a label follows the order, and anything with a label stays as it was shipped.
How changes reach Parcello
Shopify tells Parcello about each change as it happens. If one of those messages is lost, Parcello also checks every store with Shopify every 6 hours for orders that changed, and applies anything it missed, including orders that never arrived.
Changes can arrive out of order. Parcello keeps the newest version of the order and ignores an older update that arrives late, so an item you removed doesn’t come back.
The shipping address changes
When the order’s shipping address changes in Shopify, each shipment is handled on its own:
| Shipment | What happens |
|---|---|
| No label yet, still going to the old order address | Takes the new address |
| Label voided | Takes the new address, so a new label goes to the right place |
| No address yet | Takes the new address |
| Label created | Keeps its address. The label already printed can’t change. |
| Address you edited yourself, to somewhere other than the old address | Keeps your address |
| Recipient shipment from Ship to multiple recipients | Keeps the recipient’s address |
| Return | Keeps going to your location |
When a shipment takes a new address, its address check and its rates are cleared, since they were for the old address. Click Validate Address & Get Rates again before you create labels.
If the shipment already has a label and the new address matters, void the label, which lets the shipment take the order’s current address, then check the address and create the label again. See Create and void labels and Addresses: checks, suggestions and edits.
Items are removed or reduced
When you edit an order to remove an item or lower its quantity, or refund items as cancelled, the package table follows:
- Rows that lost units show the new count, for example “1 to ship”. A row with nothing left shows Cancelled and its cells are locked.
- Unlabeled boxes follow the order. A box can’t hold more units of an item than the order still has, and an item with nothing left leaves every unlabeled box. A box left empty is removed. Box weights and declared values are worked out again, and the shipment’s rates are cleared.
- Labeled boxes are never changed. What they hold is what shipped.
If you open an order that changed after its boxes were packed and click Validate Address & Get Rates, Parcello updates the boxes first and says so: “The order changed since these boxes were packed, so the boxes were updated to what the order has now. Check that every item is in a box.”
If you click Create Labels instead, nothing is bought, and you see: “The order changed since these boxes were packed. Boxes were updated; get rates again.”
Examples:
- One box holds 3 units of a product and the customer cancels 1. The box now holds 2.
- The customer cancels the whole line. The product leaves every unlabeled box, and a box that held only that product is removed.
- 3 units are packed one per box and the customer cancels 1. Each box still holds 1 unit, since none holds more than the 2 left, and Parcello can’t tell which box to empty. Remove the extra box yourself before you create labels.
Items are added
An item added to the order appears in the package table as a new row, not assigned to any box. The page shows a banner such as “1 line item not assigned to any box.” Assign it to a box, or click Add Package for a new one. See Boxes and shipments on the order.
If every shipment already has labels, a banner offers Add Package for the new item, and Parcello puts the new box on a new shipment, on the carrier the item ships with. See Shipments created later.
The shipping method changes
Under each shipment’s Carrier field, Parcello lists the shipping the customer paid for. The first line is “Customer checkout:”, and lines added later with Edit Order, such as an upgrade to overnight, appear as “Added:” with the date Parcello saw them.
A shipping line removed with Edit Order stays in the list, struck through, with ”· Removed” and the date. A removed line no longer counts as shipping the customer paid.
When a line added with Edit Order pays for a faster service, such as “Overnight” on an order placed with Ground, Parcello moves the order’s UPS and FedEx shipments without labels to that service and says so under the shipping lines. A service you picked yourself stays, with a warning. The carrier never changes, and a removed line moves the shipments back. See Shipping upgrades added after checkout.
The order is cancelled
When an order is cancelled in Shopify, Parcello doesn’t void its labels. A label you already bought stays valid until you void it.
- On the Orders page, cancelled orders are hidden unless at least one of their shipments has a label. Those stay listed with a Cancelled — void label badge, so you can find them.
- Open the order and click Void Labels on each labeled shipment you won’t send. See Create and void labels.
Fulfillments change in Shopify
- If you cancel a fulfillment Parcello made in the Shopify admin, Parcello clears it and its items return to Pending fulfillment.
- Fulfillments made outside Parcello, by you, another app or a 3PL, appear under Fulfilled externally, with their tracking on the Tracking page. A tracking number added later to such a fulfillment is picked up too.
See Fulfill orders in Shopify.
Notes and limits
- Parcello never changes a labeled shipment. To ship a labeled shipment differently, void its label first.
- Refunds that don’t cancel items, such as a partial price refund, don’t change the boxes.
- An order Parcello hasn’t seen yet, such as one older than its import window, isn’t updated until it’s imported. See The Orders page.
Troubleshooting
A shipment didn’t take the new address. It has a label, it’s going to an address you edited yourself, or it’s a recipient shipment or a return. Edit its label address, or void the label first.
A box disappeared from my order. The order lost the items in it, and an empty unlabeled box is removed. Check the order’s edits and refunds in Shopify.
My order changed in Shopify but Parcello still shows the old version. Wait a few minutes and reload. Parcello’s 6-hour check catches anything a lost update missed. If it still looks wrong after that, contact us with the order number.