What editing rules do
Editing Rules and Automations let you replace the store-wide editing behaviour for a specific order journey. A rule can change the editing cutoff and add operational or customer-facing actions when its conditions match.
Open App Settings, select Global settings, then open Editing Rules and Automations.
Use a rule when one group of orders needs different treatment. Common examples include:
- blocking edits for same-day fulfilment;
- extending edits for pre-orders;
- giving weekend orders a next-business-day cutoff;
- holding matching orders while editing is open;
- limiting features for B2B, subscription, pickup, or point-of-sale orders;
- adding tags, customer messages, forms, automations, or fulfilment routing.
Understand the parts of a rule
Every rule has four main parts:
Part | Purpose |
|---|---|
Where does this apply? | Chooses the purchase journey: On Product Pages, At checkout, or Post-Purchase. |
Matching conditions | Identifies the products, customer, order, destination, timing, or channel that should match. |
Editing action | Keeps the store default cutoff, blocks editing, schedules a cutoff, sets a custom window, or allows editing until fulfilment. |
Additional actions | Adds order handling, customer experience, or advanced behaviour. |
Product-page and checkout rules run before a completed order exists, so they offer fewer conditions and actions than a post-purchase rule.
Available matching conditions
The condition picker includes:
- product and order contents, including shipping lines, line-item titles, product tags, total, subtotal, item quantity, free items, and discount codes;
- customer information, including email domain, logged-in status, customer tags, B2B status, purchasing company, and company location;
- destination and delivery information, including included or excluded destinations, postal codes, address-validation result, pickup orders, and shipping-method count;
- timing, including day of week, time window, and order-created date;
- order context, including payment terms, recurring subscriptions, order tags, note attributes, point-of-sale orders, order location, and sales channel.
Select whether all conditions or any condition must match. Use all when every requirement is essential. Use any when each condition independently qualifies the order.
Available editing actions
Editing action | Use it when |
|---|---|
Store default | The rule should add other behaviour without changing the default editing window. |
Block editing immediately | Matching orders must not be edited. |
Scheduled cutoff | Editing should end at a selected time on the same day, next business day, weekday, or date. |
Custom editing deadline | Editing should end after a fixed number of minutes, hours, or business days. |
Until fulfilled | Editing may remain open until Shopify marks the order fulfilled. |
Scheduled cutoffs also use a time and timezone. Test around the cutoff and daylight-saving changes if your operation spans timezones.
Available additional actions
The searchable What happens when orders match? section groups actions into:
- Order handling: Tag Management, Hold Orders, and Order Re-Routing.
- Customer experience: Customer message, removing product modules and app features, Contact form, and Cancellation form.
- Advanced: Editing automations and Combine with other editing rules.
Some actions depend on the purchase phase or editing action. For example, feature removal is unavailable when the rule blocks editing immediately, and Combine with other editing rules is available only when the rule uses the store's default deadline.
Post-purchase rules can also expose geographic restrictions. Stores connected to ShipHero can see a setting that holds matching orders in ShipHero while a time-based editing window remains open.
How overlapping rules are evaluated
- Draft or disabled rules do not affect customers.
- More than one active rule can match an order.
- The matching rule with the shortest calculated editing deadline becomes the primary rule.
- A matching rule with Combine with other editing rules can add eligible settings alongside the primary rule.
- The store-wide Editing Time is used when no active rule replaces it.
This is different from upsell-strategy matching. Editing rules choose the safest applicable deadline, not a marketing-specificity score.
Manage rules
The main page contains your rule table, Create Editing Rule, import and export actions, and a template gallery.
Use the create menu to:
- Create from scratch;
- Create from template;
- Duplicate existing, when at least one rule exists.
The edit page lets you change a rule between Draft and Active. A duplicated or opposite rule starts as Draft so it can be reviewed before affecting customers.
Use export before a large rules change or when moving a reviewed configuration between stores. Review imported rules, integrations, locations, and timezones before activating them.
Before enabling a rule
- Write down the exact orders and purchase phase that should match.
- Check whether another active rule can match the same order.
- Build the smallest set of conditions that expresses the policy.
- Confirm the editing action and every additional action.
- Choose an existing eligible order that should match and one that should not.
- Check the customer message, deadline, available features, order tags, holds, routing, and connected systems.
- Keep the rule in Draft until both results are correct, or immediately return a newly published rule to Draft while testing if necessary.
- Set the reviewed rule to Active.
Refresh the same customer pages after changing the rule. Create a new order only when the rule depends on creation-time data and no existing controlled order represents the required case.
For the full creation flow, see Creating Editing Rules and Automations.
Frequently asked questions
Which rule wins when several match?
The matching rule with the shortest calculated editing deadline is primary. Matching combination rules can add their configured behaviour when eligible.
Why can I not add a condition or action?
The chosen purchase phase or editing action may not support it. Product-page and checkout rules have less order data than post-purchase rules.
Can one rule apply on product pages and at checkout?
Yes. Those before-order phases can be selected together. Post-Purchase is exclusive from them.
What happens when no rule matches?
The order uses the store-wide settings, including the default Editing Time.
