How automatic fulfilment works
Alva Digital Downloads checks every paid order against a short list of conditions before it marks anything as fulfilled. When the order passes, Alva creates the fulfilment in Shopify immediately and the order moves to Fulfilled. When it fails even one condition, Alva leaves the order untouched and delivers the files as normal.
Fulfilment is decided for the whole order, not per line item. Alva either fulfils everything on the order or nothing on it. That is deliberate: a partial-looking fulfilment would otherwise mark your shippable goods as sent before they have left the building.
Fulfilment and delivery are separate. Alva sends the download email the moment the order is paid, whether or not it fulfils the order. An unfulfilled order does not mean the customer is missing their files.
The five conditions an order must meet
An order is fulfilled automatically only when all five of these are true. Each one that fails is a reason the order stays unfulfilled.
- Automatic fulfilment is switched on in the Alva admin under Settings.
- Every line item on the order is mapped in Alva to a file, pack, link, or license key tag.
- No line item requires shipping.
- No line item is a personalized (made-to-order) product.
- If fraud checks are enabled, the order has been approved.
Reason 1 — the product is still flagged as physical
This is the most common cause. A digital product created by duplicating a physical one, or added before the store went digital, keeps Shopify's This is a physical product setting ticked. Alva reads that flag directly and refuses to fulfil anything that claims to need shipping.
Fix it in Shopify: open Products, select the product, scroll to the Shipping section, and untick This is a physical product. On a product with variants, clear it on every variant you sell. Save, then place a test order — it should fulfil within a minute of payment.
Clearing the flag is worth doing regardless: while it is ticked, the product also drags shipping rates and delivery estimates into your checkout.
Screenshot placeholder: the Shipping section of a Shopify product page with the "This is a physical product" checkbox unticked and highlighted. Use a fictional digital product name. No real customer data.
Reason 2 — the order mixes digital and physical items
If a customer buys an ebook alongside a T-shirt, the order contains a shippable item, so Alva declines to fulfil it. This also catches the common pattern of bundling a free digital bonus with every physical order — those orders never fulfil automatically, no matter how the digital product is configured.
Until per-item fulfilment ships, mark the digital line item as fulfilled yourself: open the order in Shopify and fulfil that line only, leaving the physical items for your normal shipping process.
Reason 3 — the product isn't mapped in Alva
Alva only recognises products you have mapped to a file, pack, link, or license key tag. An unmapped line item — including a physical one, a gift card, or a product you deleted the mapping for — reads as "not mine to fulfil" and stops the order.
Check the mapping in the Alva admin under Products. If a mapping went missing after a product was deleted and recreated, see Fix or delete a mapping for a deleted product.
Reason 4 — the product is made-to-order
Personalized products are skipped on purpose. Their file does not exist until you upload it for that specific order, so fulfilling early would mark the order complete while the customer is still waiting. Fulfil these manually once you have uploaded the file.
Reason 5 — a fraud check is holding the order
When fraud checks are enabled, Alva pauses fulfilment along with delivery until the check resolves. Approving the order in the fraud queue releases both — the order fulfils at that point, provided it met the other conditions when it arrived. A rejected order is never fulfilled.
Checklist when an order stays unfulfilled
Work these in order — the first two account for most cases:
- Open the product in Shopify and confirm This is a physical product is unticked on every variant.
- Open the order and check whether it contains any shippable item alongside the digital one.
- Confirm the product is mapped in the Alva admin under Products.
- Confirm automatic fulfilment is enabled in the Alva admin under Settings.
- If fraud checks are on, confirm the order is approved rather than held for review.
- Confirm the order is marked Paid in Shopify — an authorised or pending order triggers nothing at all. See Why an order takes a few minutes to appear in Alva.
Frequently asked questions
Not currently. Alva fulfils an order only when every line item on it is digital. If any item requires shipping, Alva leaves the whole order alone, so your physical goods are never marked as shipped before they actually ship.
Delivery and fulfilment are separate steps. Alva sends the download email as soon as the order is paid, even when it declines to mark the order as fulfilled. A customer holding their files while the order shows unfulfilled is expected.
No. Alva creates the fulfilment without a Shopify shipping notification, because it already sends its own download email. This stops the customer receiving two separate emails about the same order.
Alva waits. The order is fulfilled only after you approve it in the fraud queue, and only if it met the fulfilment conditions when it first arrived. An order you reject is never fulfilled.
Yes. Open the order in Shopify and fulfil only the digital line item from the order's fulfilment panel. That leaves your physical items unfulfilled and ready for your normal shipping process.
A personalized product has no file attached until you upload one for that specific order. Alva skips automatic fulfilment for these so an order is never marked complete before the customer's file actually exists.
See also
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Last updated 2026-07-24