A guide for shops that make things by the day

How to limit orders per day on Shopify

An oven holds so many loaves. A roaster does so many batches. A farm has so many boxes. If the shop keeps taking orders past that, someone gets a refund and an apology. This guide covers how to limit orders per day on Shopify: the inventory method that works in plain Shopify, where it falls short, and how Still Works Standing Orders sets a limit per item for each day.

1. Decide what you are really limiting

"Orders per day" usually means one of two things, and it is worth knowing which before you set anything up.

Items per day. Forty sourdough on Saturday, whoever orders them and however many orders that takes. This is what a kitchen is actually limited by.
Orders per day. No more than thirty orders for Friday's delivery run, because the van and the hours are the limit. This matters most for delivery.

Most bakeries and roasters need the first. If one customer buys six loaves, that is six loaves of oven space, not one order.

2. The inventory method in plain Shopify

Plain Shopify has no setting that caps how many orders the store takes in a day. What it does have is inventory, and inventory can stand in for a daily limit.

Open the product under Products. In the inventory section, turn on Track quantity and untick "Continue selling when out of stock".
Set the quantity to what you can make for the next day. When it reaches zero, the product shows as sold out.
Each day after your cutoff, open Products, or the Inventory page under it, and reset the quantity for the next day. Use the bulk editor if you have several products.

That limits one day at a time. To take orders for several days ahead, add an option to the product, such as Pickup day, with one value per date. Each date is its own variant with its own quantity, so Saturday can have forty and Thursday twenty. At each cutoff, set that date to zero or delete it, and add the next one.

To cap orders rather than items, some shops sell a "delivery slot" product with a quantity per date and ask customers to add it to the cart. It works, but customers forget it, and nothing stops an order placed without one.

3. Where the inventory method falls short

Problem	Why it happens
Someone has to reset the numbers	Inventory does not refill itself for the next day.
Stock counts go wrong	Inventory meant for counting stock is now counting oven space, and any real stock count on that product is lost.
One limit split across sizes	Each variant has its own quantity, so a loaf in two sizes has two counts instead of one.
Regulars are not counted ahead	A customer who wants the same thing every week has to order again, and the limit only sees them once they do.
Holidays need special numbers	You change the quantity by hand for that one date.

4. Daily limits in Still Works Standing Orders

Still Works Standing Orders sets a limit per item, per pickup or delivery day, per location. It counts by item quantity across every standing order and every one-time pre-order due that day. It does not count orders that were placed without a day, and it does not cap the number of orders as such. If what you need is "no more than forty sourdough on Saturday", this is that.

Open your days. In the app, under Set up, add your pickup location or delivery run on the Locations tab, then tick your days on the Week tab and set when orders close.
Choose the products. On the Plans tab, add a plan with the products you make to order.
Set the limits. The Capacity tab is a grid: a row for each product in a plan and a column for each open day. Type a number where you have a limit and leave a box blank for no limit. The "Every day" column sets one number for the whole week. Save.
Change one date. On the Calendar tab, click a date to give it its own limits, such as more pies before a holiday, or to close it.

The numbers do not need resetting. Each day has its own count, and the limit applies fresh to every date.

What the customer sees. On the product page, the day list marks a day as full, and shows how many are left once three or fewer remain. A full day cannot be picked for a one-time order. A customer who wanted a full day can leave an email under "Tell me if a spot opens", and the app emails them once when room frees up, for example after someone skips.

Regulars count from the start. A standing order sits on its day every week, so its loaves are already counted before anyone else orders. If a regular's next day is already full, the app moves it to the next day with room and emails the customer. One order that is bigger than the whole limit on its own stays where it is and shows on Today under "Over the limit you set for this day", so you decide.

The app is free for up to 10 active standing orders. Find it on the Shopify App Store.

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