What is a Draft order?
Draft orders can be created in Shopify to manually configure an order and send that order to a customer to allow them to check out.
They are listed in Orders > Drafts
Why does Discount Ninja use Draft orders?
Draft Orders allow for more flexible applications of discounts to products. They can also be programmatically created. This is why Discount Ninja (as well as many other discount apps on Shopify) leverage Draft Orders.
Does Discount Ninja always use a Draft order to prepare a checkout?
No. There are two situations where the app does not prepare a Draft order when the user clicks the checkout button:
No discount applied: when no Discount Ninja promotions have been applied, the app will leverage the "standard" checkout
Sales Channel companion app configured: when Discount Ninja's free Sales Channel companion app is installed and configured to handle checkout, the app will bypass the "Draft order" mechanism
How does Discount Ninja use Draft orders?
Step 1: a draft order is created upon initiation of checkout
Whenever a customer browses your website and initiates the checkout of a shopping cart that is discounted by Discount Ninja, the app will create a draft order.
This draft order contains the content of the cart and applies the Discount Ninja promotions to the cart.
Step 2: draft order is converted in abandoned checkout or order
If the customer provides contact details but does not complete the checkout, then the draft order essentially becomes an abandoned checkout. The status of the Draft order remains "Open".
If the customer completes the checkout, Shopify creates an order that is linked back to the draft order for traceability. The status of the Draft order then changes to "Completed" and a link to the order is added to the Draft order.
What is different about a checkout that is created based on a Draft Order?
The key differences between a "standard" checkout and a checkout that is prepared by Shopify based on a Draft Order are:
No discount code field is available at checkout. Discount Ninja provides two solutions if you need a discount code field. First, you can add Discount Ninja's custom promotion code field to the cart page. It accepts both Shopify discount codes and Discount Ninja promotion codes. Second, you can show the discount code field at the checkout by using Discount Ninja's free Sales Channel companion app.
No "back to cart" link or "home page link" is available. Unfortunately, these links are not available due to the limitations of the Shopify APIs.
Shopify Plus scripts are not executed on draft order checkouts. Use our free Sales Channel companion app to work around this.
When should I use the free Sales Channel companion app alternative?
You should consider using Discount Ninja's free Sales Channel companion app if:
You want to offer a discount code field at checkout
You need to execute scripts at checkout (Shopify Plus)
The key differences between a "standard" checkout and a checkout that is prepared by Shopify based on information from Discount Ninja's free Sales Channel companion app:
No "back to cart" link or "home page link" is available. Unfortunately, these links are not available due to the limitations of the Shopify APIs.
The standard Shopify Abandoned Checkout emails cannot be sent out: due to a limitation in Shopify, abandoned checkout emails cannot be sent for a checkout that was prepared this way.
Install the free Discount Ninja's Sales Channel companion app via Settings > Integration > Sales channel in the app. Ensure the configuration is correct and ensure all products are published on the Discount Ninja Sales Channel.
Can I remove the Draft orders?
Yes, all Draft orders created by the app can be safely removed.
You can also configure the app to automatically remove the Draft orders (with a small delay) from the Settings > Checkout Options > Checkout mode.
