How It Works

Multi Ship adds a split shipping option to your cart page so customers can send items to different addresses in a single order. Everything happens in one checkout — no need for separate transactions.

The Customer Experience

When a customer has two or more items in their cart, a "Ship to Multiple Addresses" checkbox appears above the checkout button. Checking it opens a guided 3-step flow. The customer's progress is saved as they go, so they can leave the cart and come back without losing their addresses or the tick in the box.

Step 1 — Select Addresses The customer adds the shipping addresses they want to use. Logged-in customers see their saved addresses, guests can enter new ones, and anyone can import a list of addresses from a CSV file. You choose the maximum number of addresses per order in settings, up to 150.

Step 2 — Assign Items The customer assigns each item in their cart to one of the selected addresses. They can split quantities across addresses — for example, sending 2 of an item to one address and 1 to another.

Step 3 — Review & Ship The customer reviews each shipment, selects a shipping method per address, and can optionally add gift notes or delivery instructions. Shipping rates are calculated separately for each destination.

After clicking Proceed to Checkout, the customer completes payment through Shopify's standard checkout in a single transaction.

Large orders. When an order is too big for the standard cart checkout, Multi Ship prepares the whole order for the customer and takes them to a secure Shopify payment page for it. That happens above 20 checkout lines (one per address in bundle mode, one per item per address in individual mode) or above 30 addresses. The customer sees a progress bar while the order is prepared. Everything else is the same: one payment, and after it the order is split into one shipment per address.

What Happens After Payment

Once the order is paid, Multi Ship automatically:

1. Confirms the order is fully paid, at the prices Multi Ship calculated for the checkout. If it isn't, the order is held for you to review instead of being split.
2. Splits the order into separate child orders — one per shipping address
3. Each child order contains only the items assigned to that address
4. Archives the original parent order in Shopify once every child order exists

If Shopify is briefly unable to create a child order (for example on a very large order), Multi Ship keeps retrying it automatically. The order shows as Needs attention until every child order exists.

What You See as a Merchant

• Shopify Admin — The child orders appear as regular orders that you can fulfill independently, each with its own shipping address
• Multi Ship Dashboard — Shows all split orders with fulfillment status, timeline events, and shipment details
• Order Detail — Click any order to see items, shipping address, gift notes, and a timeline tracking creation through fulfillment

You fulfill each child order just like any normal Shopify order — pick, pack, and ship.