Fraud Hold: hold risky orders until a person has checked them

Shopify scores orders for fraud risk, but nothing in its own templates stops a risky one from being packed. We add a hold, a daily list and a review step, and get the evidence a bank asks for ready before you need it.

$349

Founding price $249 for the first 3 stores, with a published case study

What's included

1. 01

   Hold rule in Shopify Flow

   When Shopify finishes its fraud analysis and an order matches a signal you have agreed in writing, Flow tags it "fraud-hold", holds every fulfilment order on it and emails your reviewer. Default signals, all editable: Shopify recommends cancel or investigate; risk level high or medium; a new customer at or above a spending threshold; billing and shipping countries differ.

2. 02

   Daily held-orders digest

   Each morning your reviewer gets the list of orders still on hold, oldest first, with a link to each.

3. 03

   Release by a person

   Your reviewer releases a hold in the admin after checking and swaps the tag to "fraud-reviewed". No rule releases holds, because Shopify's release action removes every hold on a fulfilment order, including holds placed by other apps.

4. 04

   Manual capture routine (optional)

   If you also want to hold back payment, we set capture to manual with Shopify's own template. The handover explains the 7-day authorization window on Shopify Payments and the fee for capturing late.

5. 05

   Review checklist

   One page on how to check a held order, and the three outcomes: release, contact the customer, or cancel and refund.

6. 06

   Checkout evidence check

   A dated record of what your checkout shows: policy links, a review notice and the optional confirmation step, with saved copies of your policy pages.

7. 07

   Dispute evidence template

   A fill-in document and tracker laid out in the order banks ask for, with the response deadline and fee line for your country.

8. 08

   Handover

   A runbook, a handover note and a 30-minute walkthrough.

Nothing is switched on until you have approved the signals in writing. Nothing is cancelled, refunded or captured without a person deciding.

What's not included

• Winning or managing disputes. Banks decide outcomes.
• Rules that cancel or refund orders without a person approving them.
• Changes to Shopify Payments reserves or payout holds.
• Setting up third-party fraud apps. We can recommend one.
• Checkout bot protection (Shopify offers it on Plus only, for flash sales).
• Shopify Protect set-up. It covers Shop Pay orders for US merchants on US Shopify Payments only.
• A required terms checkbox at checkout, except on Shopify Plus stores that ask for one.

Shown on our demo store

● Demo environment · Northfield Outfitters (fictional) · synthetic data

Our demo store is a Shopify Plus development store. Every test order went through Shopify's test gateway with made-up addresses and our own test inbox.

• We placed five test orders through Shopify's test gateway. The four that matched a signal were held and tagged "fraud-hold", and the reviewer email step ran; the one that matched nothing went through untouched.
• A new customer spending $749.95 was held. A new customer spending $32.95 was not.
• An order with billing in Canada and shipping in the US was held on that signal alone. A person then released it and swapped the tag to "fraud-reviewed".
• A two-item order was held. Both items came from one location, so Shopify made one fulfilment order: a split across locations was not shown.
• The Flow run log showed the trigger, the tag, the hold and the email step completing. A test run of the daily digest listed the held orders, and after the release the held-order search went from 3 to 2.
• Not shown on our demo store: Shopify's own risk signals and manual capture, because the store uses Shopify's test gateway, whose orders show "Analysis not available". We test those on your store where your setup allows.

Your store's orders will differ, so the signals and thresholds are agreed with you in writing before any rule is switched on.

Honest limits

• Orders Shopify doesn't analyse

  Shopify says free orders, POS, B2B and subscription renewals get no real fraud recommendation, so Shopify's own signals can't match them; your own signals still can. We test the order types your store uses and record the result.

• Third-party fraud apps don't start it

  Shopify's Order risk analyzed trigger runs on Shopify's own assessments only.

• Digital and auto-fulfilled items

  Shopify doesn't document whether they can fulfil before a hold lands, so digital-only stores are not a fit, and mixed stores are tested before go-live.

• Some good orders may be held

  Thresholds start conservative and we look at them again after a week. A held order hasn't shipped or been cancelled; it waits for your reviewer.

FAQ

Does Shopify hold risky orders on its own?

Not by default. Shopify analyses online card orders it can verify and gives a recommendation, and Flow can hold fulfilment, but none of Shopify's own risk templates does. Its capture templates hold back the payment instead, and only with manual capture switched on.

Will this stop chargebacks?

We don't promise that. The kit makes sure a person checks a risky order before it ships and keeps the evidence banks ask for ready. Banks decide disputes.

Why don't you release holds automatically?

Shopify's release action removes every hold on a fulfilment order, including holds placed by other apps. Releasing by hand lets your reviewer see any other hold first and leave it alone.

Do I need Shopify Plus?

No. Shopify Flow is free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Our demo store is a Plus development store, and we check the one Flow feature we've only seen on Plus (comparing billing and shipping country directly) on your store.

What happens if nobody checks the held orders?

They stay on hold and the daily digest keeps listing them, which is why we ask for a named reviewer before we start. If you choose manual capture, the handover sets out the 7-day authorization window on Shopify Payments.