How do I mark orders as shipped?

Why marking orders as shipped matters

Marking orders as shipped does more than update individual backers. It determines whether the project is considered Fulfilled in our system.

When the majority of orders in a project are marked as shipped, it designates the project as Fulfilled. This status appears publicly on your creator profile page on BackerKit, which:

• Build credibility with backers
• Show that you successfully delivered past projects
• Increase trust for future campaigns

Because of this, accurately and consistently marking orders as shipped in pledge manager is an important final step in your fulfillment process.

Ways to mark orders as shipped

BackerKit supports several ways to mark orders as shipped. While it’s possible to update orders individually, most creators use bulk or automated methods that better match the scale of crowdfunding fulfillment.

BackerKit offers three primary fulfillment workflows:

1. BackerKit Postage
2. Fulfillment Integration
3. Manual Exports

Each method marks orders as shipped in a different way.

BackerKit Postage

Best for: Creators shipping orders themselves and purchasing labels directly in BackerKit.

With BackerKit Postage, you can purchase and print shipping labels in bulk—no exports or external tools required.

How orders are marked as shipped:

• A shipment is effectively designated as shipped once USPS performs a physical scan on the package. This usually happens when the package is accepted at a USPS counter or scanned at a USPS sorting facility.

This happens automatically—no manual status updates are required.

Fulfillment Integration

Best for: Creators working with a third-party fulfillment partner.

BackerKit can connect directly to supported fulfillment services to send order data and receive status updates.

How orders are marked as shipped:

• Your fulfillment partner/platform processes the shipment
• Integration reports a Shipped status back to BackerKit
• BackerKit updates the order status automatically

As long as the integration is active and correctly configured, order statuses stay in sync without additional work.

Manual Exports

Best for: Custom workflows or fulfillment services that aren’t directly integrated with BackerKit.

With Manual Exports, you download shipment-ready reports and manage shipping outside of BackerKit.

How orders are marked as shipped:

• You obtain tracking numbers from your shipping or fulfillment service
• You format the tracking data into a CSV file
• You upload the CSV to BackerKit
• Matching orders are marked as Shipped

This method allows bulk updates. It requires careful formatting to ensure orders are updated correctly.

How to manually upload tracking numbers to backers

1. Once you select Manual Exports as your fulfillment method, go to Export
2. Select a segment to export using the Tracking Number Upload Template (download as .CSV). If you already have an export of your tracking info, you can skip to step 5. 
3. Once exported, you can fill in the Tracking Numbers, Carrier Information (optional) and Tracking URL (optional).
4. Under Upload Tracking Numbers, click Upload CSV File and choose the template you filled in or a Comma-Separated Value File (.csv) that contains the tracking number for each backer's order. 
5. Click Upload. After you upload the .csv file, your orders will automatically be marked as shipped.

How to manually mark orders as shipped using Segments for orders without tracking

If you sent out orders without tracking you can use the segments tool to mark those backers as fulfilled:

1. On the left sidebar, click Segments
2. There are various ways you can filter backers, it depends on what information you have, but the best bet is always backer ID. Read more about how to create segments here.
3. Once you determine how you are going to filter, save the segment
4. Click Segment Actions
5. Click Mark as Fulfilled
   1. This command will only work if the backers are in the Start Shipping bucket
   2. We do not recommend fulfilling to backers unless they are in the Start Shipping bucket, but if you did, you can also use the Force Mark as Fulfilled command to mark backers as fulfilled. Use Force Mark as Fulfilled with caution, once a backer is fulfilled with this segment action we can not revert their status.

Sending Tracking Notifications

Regardless of how orders were marked as fulfilled and tracking numbers assigned, you can send out notifications from BackerKit. To send out a tracking notification email which looks like this, click  on Shipped> Send Tracking Notifications. 

Marking individual orders as shipped

You can also mark individual orders as shipped from a backer’s order page. 

Given the volume of orders in a typical crowdfunding campaign, individual updates are best suited for:

• One-off replacements
• Special cases or corrections
• Very small projects

For most creators, one of the bulk methods above is faster, more accurate, and easier to manage.

To mark orders as shipped for individual backers:

1. Search for the backer by their name, email address, notes, or pledge ID using the search bar at the top of your project page. 
2. When you find the backer, click their name.
3. Under the status, click Mark as Fulfilled (the backer will need to be in a ready to fulfill status)
4. On the final page you can enter in the Tracking Number, Carrier, Tracking URL, and also indicate if you want to queue a tracking notification email for the backer.