Orders and order lifecycle
Orders and order lifecycle
An order is the durable purchase created by completing a cart or placing a draft order. It retains the line, address, shipping, discount, tax, and total data needed to process that purchase. Use the order’s recorded data when displaying a historical transaction.
Three state dimensions
| Field | What it answers |
|---|---|
orderState | What is the business lifecycle of the order? |
paymentState | What is the payment outcome? |
shipmentState | What is the delivery progress? |
A paid order can still be waiting to ship. A shipped order can later be partially refunded. Use all relevant states for operational actions instead of collapsing them into one local Complete flag.
Identity and history
Use the order id in API operations and orderNumber in human-facing communication.
Use externalReference or your integration mapping to connect another system’s order identity.
Read the exposed order activity when investigating a change.
A current product name or price is not a substitute for the order’s snapshot. Likewise, a customer’s new address is not automatically the shipping address of an older purchase.
Separate the operational actions
Fulfillments record which line quantities are prepared or shipped. Payments record payment activity. Changing an order state is not a substitute for capturing funds, refunding a payment, or recording a shipment.
For assisted sales before placement, use Draft orders.