# How to Confirm COD Orders Automatically on Shopify (2026)

> Confirm Shopify cash-on-delivery orders before you ship: the manual tag-and-call workflow, what Shopify gives you natively, and how a keypad confirmation call writes COD-CONFIRMED tags back to the order.

Source: https://edesy.in/blog/shopify-cod-order-confirmation-guide-2026

Shopify makes it easy to accept cash on delivery, and leaves the hard part to you: knowing which COD
orders the customer actually intends to pay for before the parcel leaves your warehouse. Shopify has no
built-in step that asks the customer. What it does have is good plumbing for one: **order tags, notes,
filters and webhooks**.

This guide covers the confirmation workflow you can run with Shopify alone, where it breaks down, and how
an automated **press-1-to-confirm call** fits into the same tags your team already filters on.

> **Running a Shopify store with COD?** See [COD confirmation calls for Shopify](https://edesy.in/cod-order-confirmation/shopify): what changes in your admin, the setup steps and how to join the pilot.

## How COD shows up on a Shopify order

Cash on delivery on Shopify is a **manual payment method**. You turn it on under Settings, Payments,
manual payment methods, and it appears at checkout with the name you give it, typically "Cash on Delivery
(COD)".

Three things follow from that:

- **Payment status is pending.** The order is created without payment, and someone marks it paid after
  the courier remits the cash.
- **The gateway name is how COD is identified.** In the order data the payment gateway name carries the
  manual method's name. Anything that wants to treat COD orders differently, including Shopify Flow and
  external tools, checks that name. If you rename the method, update those checks too.
- **Nothing contacts the customer.** Shopify sends its normal order confirmation email or SMS, which is a
  receipt, not a question. A customer who placed the order by mistake has no reason to reply to it.

## The manual workflow (and where it breaks)

Most stores start with a person and a phone:

1. **Filter** the Orders list to unfulfilled orders with a pending payment status, or save a view for it.
2. **Call** each customer, read out the order and amount, and ask them to confirm.
3. **Tag** the order: `COD-CONFIRMED`, `COD-CANCELLED` or something like `COD-NO-ANSWER`, and add a note
   with what was said.
4. **Cancel** the orders the customer refused, and let fulfilment pick only confirmed ones.
5. **Retry** the no-answers later in the day.

Shopify Flow can take some of the clicking away: it can tag every new COD order automatically, so your
team starts from a clean list. It cannot make the call, though.

This works until volume or timing gets in the way. Orders placed at night wait until someone is in.
Retries depend on someone remembering. Notes vary by caller, so the history is hard to audit. And the
calling team becomes the bottleneck right before the courier pickup cut-off, which is exactly when you
need the answers.

The other common route is a confirmation app from the Shopify App Store. These generally fall into three
groups: WhatsApp or SMS message flows, keypad (IVR) call flows, and AI voice calls. Almost all of them
record the answer the same way, as an **order tag**, and leave payment status alone. That convention is
useful: whatever tool you use, your fulfilment filters stay the same.

## What a good confirmation step should do on Shopify

Before choosing a tool, it helps to write down what "confirmed" must mean in your admin:

- **A tag per outcome** that your team and your shipping tool filter on.
- **A note** recording when and how the customer answered.
- **Real cancellation** for refused orders, using Shopify's own cancel, so stock is restocked and the
  order leaves the queue.
- **No change to payment status**, because nothing has been paid yet.
- **No call for orders that changed** in the meantime: cancelled by the customer, or already confirmed
  by your team.

## How call-based confirmation works on Shopify

With a call, the customer hears the order read out and answers with one key. Here is the flow Edesy's
[COD confirmation calls](https://edesy.in/cod-order-confirmation) use.

### 1. The order reaches us by webhook

When an order is created, Shopify sends an `orders/create` webhook. Cancellations come through
`orders/cancelled`, and late payments through `orders/paid`, so a COD order that was paid online before
the call is not called. Each webhook is signed by Shopify (an HMAC of the body) and carries a webhook id,
which we use to ignore duplicate deliveries.

**The phone number caveat.** Shopify redacts the customer's name, phone and address from webhooks unless
the app has access to protected customer data. Without it, every order would arrive without a phone
number and nothing would be called. Setting up that access is part of connecting a Shopify store, and the
connection test checks for it.

### 2. Rules decide which orders get a call

By default only unconfirmed COD orders are called. COD is recognised from the payment gateway name (the
label is configurable if yours isn't "Cash on Delivery"), and an order already carrying your confirmed tag
is treated as confirmed. You can add conditions, such as a minimum order amount.

### 3. The customer is called inside your calling window

Default rules, all adjustable: the first call goes out 2 minutes after the order, only between 9 am and
9 pm IST, with up to three attempts (30 minutes, then 2 hours apart) and a 48-hour give-up time. Night
orders are called when the window opens the next morning.

Just before dialling, the order is checked again. If it was cancelled or confirmed in the meantime, the
call is skipped.

The script reads out your store name, the order number and the COD amount in **Hindi or English**: press
1 to confirm, 2 to cancel. You can edit every line of it.

### 4. The answer is written back to the order

| Customer outcome | What changes in Shopify |
| --- | --- |
| Pressed 1 | Tag `COD-CONFIRMED` added (and a note, if you turn it on) |
| Pressed 2 | Order cancelled with Shopify's order cancel, tag `COD-CANCELLED` |
| No answer after all attempts | Tag `COD-UNREACHABLE`, for your team to decide |
| Answered, pressed nothing | Tag with your no-input label |
| Already cancelled or confirmed | Not called |

Tags are added with Shopify's tag API, so existing tags on the order are kept. A Shopify order has a
single note field and writing to it replaces what is there, so the note is optional. Payment status is never
changed. If Shopify doesn't accept an update at the moment the customer answers, the answer is kept and
the update is retried in the background.

Because the result is just a tag, everything downstream keeps working: saved order views, Flow
automations, and shipping tools that pick orders by tag. If your team already uses different labels, rename
ours to match.

## Integration status, stated plainly

**Shopify is in pilot.** We set up the connection with you during the pilot: the app access for customer
phone numbers, your tag labels, your calling rules and your script. It is not a self-serve App Store
install today.

If your store runs on a headless setup or a custom backend that can send a signed webhook, the
[custom store API](https://edesy.in/cod-order-confirmation/custom-store-api) is live now and can be used instead.

## A rollout plan that keeps your team in control

1. **Agree the labels first.** Decide the confirmed, cancelled and unreachable tags with your fulfilment
   team and set your saved views to them.
2. **Start with calls, not auto-cancel.** For the first week, have "pressed 2" add a tag only, and let your
   team review before cancelling. Turn on real cancellation once you trust the flow.
3. **Keep a human for unreachable orders.** One short manual call round for `COD-UNREACHABLE` orders before
   pickup catches most of the rest.
4. **Listen to recordings.** Check that product names and amounts sound right in the language you chose.
5. **Measure against your own RTO.** Compare refusal rates on confirmed versus unconfirmed orders in your
   courier data; our [COD RTO calculator](https://edesy.in/tools/cod-rto-calculator) helps put a cost on it.

## Pricing

Calls are paid as you go from a prepaid wallet. Share your monthly COD volume with us for pricing.

> **Next step:** [See COD confirmation for Shopify](https://edesy.in/cod-order-confirmation/shopify) and join the pilot. We'll set up the store connection with you.

## Related reading

- [COD order tags and fulfilment workflows](https://edesy.in/blog/cod-order-tags-fulfilment-workflow-2026)
- [WooCommerce COD order confirmation guide](https://edesy.in/blog/woocommerce-cod-order-confirmation-guide-2026)
- [Fake COD orders: how to filter them before shipping](https://edesy.in/blog/fake-cod-orders-how-to-filter-2026)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Does Shopify have a built-in COD confirmation feature?

No. Shopify lets you accept Cash on Delivery as a manual payment method and gives you order tags, notes, filters and Shopify Flow, but it does not contact the customer to confirm the order. Confirmation is either done by your team or by a third-party tool.

### How do I find COD orders in the Shopify admin?

COD orders are placed through the manual payment method you set up (usually named Cash on Delivery) and show a pending payment status until you mark them paid. Filter the Orders list by payment status, or tag COD orders automatically with a workflow and filter by that tag.

### Does a confirmation call change the payment status of a Shopify order?

No. A confirmed answer adds a tag such as COD-CONFIRMED. Payment status stays pending until the courier collects the cash, which is how it should be for COD.

### Why does a confirmation tool need access to customer phone numbers on Shopify?

Shopify treats name, phone and address as protected customer data. Without approved access, new-order webhooks arrive without the phone number, so there is nobody to call. Setting up that access is part of connecting the store.

### Is the Edesy Shopify integration self-serve?

Not yet. Shopify is in pilot: we set up the connection with you, including the app access, labels and calling rules. Stores with their own backend can use the live webhook API today.

### Can I keep the tag names my fulfilment team already uses?

Yes. The labels default to COD-CONFIRMED, COD-CANCELLED and COD-UNREACHABLE, and each one can be renamed to match the filters and automations you already have.