Editing Orders
You can add items, remove items, change quantities, and adjust shipping on an existing order. Every edit touches three things at once — inventory, the payment total, and the fulfillment record — which is why some edits are blocked outright.
When an order can't be edited
| Situation | Error |
|---|---|
| The order is cancelled or archived | ORDER_NOT_EDITABLE |
| The order is fully fulfilled and contains at least one physical item | ORDER_NOT_EDITABLE |
| The new quantity is below what's already been packed for that item | ITEM_QUANTITY_BELOW_FULFILLED |
The fully-fulfilled rule has a deliberate exception: digital-only orders stay editable. They're auto-fulfilled at creation, so "fulfilled" there means "nothing to ship", not "work is done".
The below-fulfilled rule is the mirror of the packing guard: you can't pack more than was ordered, and you can't order less than was packed. Either would leave the record claiming more units shipped than exist.
What each edit does to the money
Adding items
The order total goes up and the difference becomes an outstanding balance. A Paid order moves to Partially paid.
If the added item is a digital product and the order is already paid, its download link is issued immediately.
Removing items or reducing quantity
The order total goes down.
- If the order was already paid, the removed value is recorded as a refund, capped at what was actually collected. The payment moves to Partially refunded, or Refunded if nothing is left.
- If the order was not yet paid, only the amount due changes — nothing is refunded.
As always, the refund is a record, not a transfer. Money you owe back on a card order still has to be returned through the gateway.
Inventory
Removing an item returns its units to stock. Adding one takes units out, and is rejected if there isn't enough (INSUFFICIENT_QUANTITY / PRODUCT_OUT_OF_STOCK).
Custom items and custom prices
You can add a custom item — a line with a name and price that isn't in your catalog — for a bespoke charge, a service, or a one-off product.
Catalog items support a custom price override on the line. This is how pay-what-you-want products keep the price the customer chose.
Because the order line doesn't remember that the item was pay-what-you-want, re-saving an edit can collapse a customer-chosen price back to the catalog price. Check the line total after editing an order that contains PWYW items.
Shipping
Shipping can be overridden on an order with a custom price and label — useful when you negotiate a delivery charge or waive it as a goodwill gesture.
What gets recorded
Every edit writes to the order timeline: items added, items removed, quantity changes, shipping-method changes, discounts added or removed. The timeline names who made the change.
API reference
| Action | Endpoint |
|---|---|
| Edit order items | PATCH /v1/order/:orderId/items |
| Update order details | PATCH /v1/order/:orderId |