A backorder is an order a seller accepts for a product it can’t ship from stock right now. The order stays open, holds its place in line, and ships once the item is back in stock. If your own order says “backordered,” the purchase went through and is waiting on inventory.
For brands, a backorder is also a number in a warehouse system. Inside a fulfillment warehouse, an order goes on backorder when the units ordered outnumber the units ready to pick. That can happen with an empty shelf, and it can also happen with the product sitting in the building.
This guide covers what a backorder means, how it differs from out of stock, how a 3PL processes one step by step, what causes backorders, and how brands can keep them to a minimum.
What does backorder mean?
Backordered means an order has been accepted for an item that’s temporarily out of stock. The buyer has paid for or committed to the purchase, and the seller ships it once new stock arrives. The order stays open the whole time and keeps its place in line.
From the shopper’s side, a backorder looks like a confirmed order with a later ship date. The item exists, it sells normally, and more is on the way.
From the seller’s side, a backorder is a decision to keep selling at zero inventory instead of marking the product sold out. Most ecommerce platforms let brands make that call product by product. On Shopify, for example, it’s the “Continue selling when out of stock” setting on each product variant, which lets customers keep checking out after inventory hits zero. Shopify doesn’t use the word “backorder” itself, but that setting is how most Shopify brands accept them.
A backorder can cover a whole order or just one line on it. If a customer buys three items and one is out of stock, only that one item is backordered.
Backorder vs. out of stock vs. pre-order: what's the difference?
The difference is whether the customer can still buy. A backordered item can be ordered now and ships later. An out-of-stock item can’t be ordered at all. A pre-order is for a product that hasn’t launched yet.
Can the customer order it? | Is there a ship date? | What it signals | |
|---|---|---|---|
Backorder | Yes | Later, once stock returns | The product sells normally and more is coming |
Out of stock | No | None offered | No confirmed restock, so the sale is usually lost |
Pre-order | Yes | Tied to a launch or release date | The product is new and hasn’t shipped to anyone yet |
So does backorder mean sold out? For now, yes. The seller has run out of available units, but the sale stays on the books instead of walking away.
One more term gets mixed in: backlog. A backlog is every unfulfilled order a business is working through, for any reason. A backorder is the specific order or line that’s waiting on stock.
How does a backorder work inside a fulfillment warehouse?
Inside a 3PL, an order becomes a backorder when the units on open orders outnumber the units available to pick. It clears only after new stock is received, put away, and allocated to that order. This warehouse view is the part most backorder explainers skip.
Here’s the path one backordered order takes:
- The order drops into the warehouse system. It’s counted as an order waiting to be processed.
- The system runs an allocation check. It looks for enough units that are available to pick at a facility eligible to ship the order.
- The shortfall becomes the backorder. If there aren’t enough pickable units, the order waits. In GoBolt’s Merchant Portal, the backorder quantity is calculated simply: units on open orders minus units available to pick.
- Replenishment is announced. The brand or its supplier sends an advance shipping notice (ASN), and the inbound stock shows as incoming.
- Stock is received, then put away. Units scanned at the dock count as on hand, but they’re still pending until they’re moved into a pick location. Only then do they become available.
- The order is allocated and ships. Open orders are matched to the newly available units, then picked, packed, and shipped.
Here’s how the numbers play out. Say a brand has 120 units of a best-selling hoodie on open orders and 80 units available to pick. The backorder is 40 units. If 200 units arrive on an inbound shipment, the backorder doesn’t clear when the truck backs into the dock. It clears once enough of those 200 units are put away to cover the 40-unit gap, and the waiting orders are allocated in line.
The math is the same in any warehouse management system, even when the labels differ. Every system separates stock that has arrived from stock that can be picked, and “the truck arrived” and “the order can ship” are two different moments.
That gap explains a common frustration: a brand sees its inbound shipment delivered, but backordered orders keep waiting for a day or two. Received stock still has to be checked in, counted against the ASN, and put away before it can be sold. A received pallet sitting at the dock can’t be allocated to an order yet. Inbound shipments that arrive without an ASN, or with quantities that don’t match it, take longer to reconcile, which stretches the wait further.
Receiving speed is the part of the clock the warehouse controls. GoBolt’s dock-to-stock commitment is within 48 hours, which effectively sets how long a backorder waits once replenishment lands.
What causes backorders, even when stock is in the building?
Most backorders start upstream, when demand outruns supply. But many happen with units physically in the warehouse that aren’t available to sell yet. “On hand” and “available for sale” are two different numbers, and backorders live in the gap between them.
The upstream causes are familiar: a launch or viral moment that sells faster than forecast, a supplier or production delay, or a reorder placed too late. Those leave the shelf genuinely empty.
The less obvious causes leave units in the building but out of reach:
- Received but not put away. Stock that’s been scanned at the dock is still pending until it reaches a pick location.
- On hold. Units held for a quality check or at the brand’s request can’t be allocated.
- Damaged or expired. These count as on hand but can’t ship.
- Reserved for another channel. Inventory set aside for wholesale or a retail partner isn’t available to direct-to-consumer orders, and the reverse.
- Waiting on a kit component. A bundle can’t be built, and so can’t ship, if one component is missing.
- Corrected by a cycle count. If a count finds fewer units than the system expected, the difference comes out of available stock and open orders can tip into backorder.
- At a different facility. In a multi-warehouse network, the units may sit in a building the order didn’t route to.
Channel reservations are a deliberate trade-off. GoBolt lets brands reserve inventory by sales channel so a wholesale order can’t drain stock promised to online shoppers. It also means a channel can backorder while another holds units.
The practical takeaway is to sell against available for sale, never on hand. Storefronts that show on-hand counts will keep accepting orders the warehouse can’t fill, which is one of the inventory management challenges that catches scaling brands off guard, especially when they sell across more than one channel.
Should you ship what's available or wait for the full order?
When part of an order is backordered, the brand decides whether to ship the in-stock items now or hold the whole order until everything is available. Shipping partial is faster for the customer. Waiting for the complete order costs less to ship.
Wait for complete. One box, one shipping charge, and a cleaner unboxing. The risk is that a single missing unit holds the entire order, so a customer who bought five items waits on the slowest one.
Ship partial. The customer gets most of the order sooner. The brand pays for a second shipment, a second box, and more handling, and the customer gets two deliveries instead of one.
Split across facilities. In a multi-warehouse network, the missing item can sometimes ship from another location instead of waiting for replenishment.
Partial shipping isn’t automatically the better customer experience. For low-value orders, a second shipment can erase the margin. For gift sets or bundles meant to arrive together, a partial delivery can feel incomplete. Waiting for complete works best when the backordered item is expected soon and the order is small. Partial works best when the in-stock items are the ones the customer needs first, or when the wait is open-ended.
Most brands set this as a rule instead of deciding order by order. In GoBolt’s order orchestration settings, brands choose whether to ship partial orders from multiple facilities, ship partial orders from a single facility, or wait until every item is in stock.
How long does a backorder take, and what do you owe the customer?
There’s no standard length for a backorder. The wait is supplier lead time, plus inbound transit, plus warehouse receiving. If the wait runs long, sellers in the US and Canada have rules about notifying customers and letting them cancel.
The brand controls the first two parts through supplier relationships, purchase timing, and sending ASNs. The warehouse controls the third. A backorder on an item already on a truck can clear in days. One tied to a new production run can take weeks.
When a backorder drags on, notice rules apply:
- United States. The FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires sellers to have a reasonable basis for any shipping time they state, or to ship within 30 days if they don’t state one. If they can’t ship on time, they need the customer’s consent to the delay or must refund the order.
- Canada. Provincial consumer protection laws set similar rules. In Ontario, for example, the Consumer Protection Act lets a customer cancel an online purchase when delivery is more than 30 days late. Rules vary by province, so check where your customers are.
This is general information, not legal advice. A clear ship-date estimate at checkout and a proactive delay notice cover most of what customers expect.
How can brands reduce backorders?
Brands cut backorders by making sure every storefront sells only what’s actually available, and by getting replenishment into available stock before demand catches up.
- Send an ASN for every inbound. Stock with an ASN shows as incoming and moves through receiving faster than an unannounced delivery. Accurate SKU counts on the ASN also mean fewer discrepancies to resolve at the dock.
- Sync available for sale to every channel. Storefronts and marketplaces should see the sellable number, not the on-hand count. Available for sale is what’s left after units already committed to open orders are subtracted, so it’s the only number that reflects what a new order can actually claim.
- Set reorder points and safety stock on best sellers. Demand forecasting built on past sales and planned promotions helps size the buffer before peak.
- Cycle count high-velocity SKUs. Frequent counts catch discrepancies before they turn into surprise backorders, one of the most common inventory management challenges.
- Reserve channel inventory before launches. Protect stock for the channel that needs it most during a launch or wholesale push, and release the reservation once the push is over so units don’t sit idle.
- Show the backorder status on the product page. When a brand does accept backorders, a clear label and an estimated ship date at checkout cut cancellations and “where is my order” tickets.
- Watch open orders daily. Backorders are easiest to manage when they’re caught the day they happen. GoBolt’s Merchant Portal includes an Open Orders report that lists every order with unfulfilled items, along with how many days it’s been open and its stock status.
Final thoughts
A backorder is a kept sale with a delay attached. Inside the warehouse, it’s the gap between open orders and stock that’s ready to pick, and that gap often exists even when units are on the shelf. Most of the fixes are about making the sellable number accurate and getting new stock into it faster.
Before your next launch or peak, check three numbers for each of your top SKUs: available for sale, incoming, and open orders. If open orders are higher than available for sale, you already have a backorder, whether your storefront shows it or not.
FAQ
Does backorder mean sold out?
For now, yes. A backordered item has no units available to ship today, but the seller is still accepting orders and will ship them once new stock arrives. An out-of-stock item is different: customers can't order it at all until it's restocked.
How long does a backorder usually take?
There's no standard length. A backorder lasts as long as the supplier's lead time, plus inbound shipping, plus the warehouse's receiving and put-away time. It can clear in a few days if replenishment is already in transit, or take weeks if it depends on a new production run.
What happens if you order something on backorder?
Your order is accepted and stays open. When new stock reaches the warehouse and is put away, it's allocated to waiting orders, then picked, packed, and shipped. If you ordered several items, the seller may ship the in-stock ones first or hold everything until the backordered item arrives.
Can you cancel a backordered order?
Usually, yes, since it hasn't shipped. In the US, the FTC requires sellers who can't ship on time to get the customer's consent to the delay or issue a refund. In Canadian provinces such as Ontario, customers can cancel when delivery is more than 30 days late.
Why does an item show in stock but my order is backordered?
The units may be in the warehouse but not available to ship yet. Stock can be waiting to be put away, on hold for a quality check, damaged, reserved for another sales channel, missing a kit component, or sitting at a different facility than the one your order routed to.
