Skip to main content

How Do Multi-Recipient Orders Work on Shopify?

How Send To Many handles multi-recipient, multi-ship, and multi-address orders on Shopify: one payment, individual orders per recipient, with shipping and tax calculated per destination.

A multi-recipient order is an order where one buyer sends products to multiple people at different addresses. One payment, one invoice, many shipments. Shopify doesn't support this natively, which is where Send To Many comes in.

Send To Many lets you create multi-recipient orders on Shopify where each recipient gets their own shipping address, product selection, gift message, and delivery date. We generate a real Shopify order for each recipient, so your existing fulfillment workflow, shipping labels, inventory tracking, and reporting all work as expected.

The Problem Send To Many Solves​

Standard Shopify checkout supports one shipping address per order. If a customer wants to send the same product to 50 people, they'd need to place 50 separate orders, pay 50 times, and manage 50 confirmations. That doesn't work for corporate gifting, influencer seeding, event swag, or any scenario where one buyer is shipping to a list.

Other workarounds have similar limitations. Splitting orders after the fact doesn't handle per-recipient customization. External platforms pull your orders out of Shopify. Manual processes break down at scale.

Send To Many keeps everything inside Shopify. One transaction, individual orders per recipient, native fulfillment.

How It Works​

When you create a multi-recipient order (called a Send in Send To Many), here's what happens:

  1. Recipients are added. Either by uploading a spreadsheet, by the shopper entering addresses at checkout, or from an inquiry form submission.
  2. Each recipient is configured. Products, variants, quantities, gift messages, and shipping dates can vary per recipient or be the same for everyone.
  3. Addresses are validated. Send To Many checks every address against postal databases and flags issues before any orders are created.
  4. Shipping and tax are calculated per recipient. Each recipient gets their own shipping rate based on their destination and the products in their order. Tax is calculated per recipient using your Shopify tax settings, including third-party tax services like Avalara.
  5. Payment is collected once. Either through an aggregate invoice (for upload orders) or through Shopify checkout (for storefront orders).
  6. Individual orders are generated. Send To Many creates a Shopify order for each recipient, plus an aggregate order that captures the total revenue for the Send.

After generation, recipient orders appear in your Shopify Orders list. Fulfill them however you normally process orders.

Three Ways to Create Multi-Recipient Orders​

Spreadsheet Upload​

Your team uploads a CSV, Excel file, or Google Sheet with recipient details, maps the columns, and walks through the Send workflow in the Shopify admin. Best for orders managed by your team on behalf of a customer.

Get started with bulk order uploads →

Multi-Recipient Checkout​

Shoppers on your storefront add products to their cart, click the "Send to Multiple Recipients" button, and enter recipients manually or by uploading a CSV. They pay through Shopify checkout, and we handle the rest. Best for self-service gifting.

Set up multi-recipient checkout →

Inquiry Form​

A storefront form captures bulk order requests from potential customers. Your team reviews and converts them into Sends. Best for high-touch programs where customers need consultation before ordering.

Configure the inquiry form →

Per-Recipient Shipping and Tax​

One of the hardest parts of multi-recipient ordering is calculating shipping and tax correctly. When you're shipping to recipients in 30 different states, each order needs its own shipping rate and its own tax calculation.

Send To Many handles this automatically. Shipping rates are calculated for each recipient based on their destination, the products in their order, and your store's shipping settings (Shopify carrier rates, flat rates, or third-party providers like Zapiet and Bird). Tax is calculated per recipient using your Shopify tax configuration, including any third-party tax services.

On the aggregate invoice, shipping and tax appear as single totals. The per-recipient breakdown is available on each individual order and in analytics exports. See FAQ: Shipping Rates and Sales Tax for common questions.

Order Structure​

Every Send creates two types of Shopify orders:

Recipient orders: One per recipient. These are the orders you fulfill and ship. Each has its own shipping address, products, tracking number, and (optionally) pricing details.

Aggregate (gifter) order: A single order that captures the total revenue for the Send. Your customer pays this order. It uses custom line items (not catalog products) to avoid double-counting inventory.

This structure means your customer sees one invoice and one payment, while your fulfillment team sees individual orders they can pick, pack, and ship normally. For details on how these orders interact with Shopify reporting, see Key Concepts.

Scale​

Send To Many handles multi-recipient orders of any size. A Send with 5 recipients works the same way as a Send with 5,000. Address validation, shipping calculation, and order generation scale automatically. For very large Sends, orders generate in batches, and you can monitor progress from the Send summary page.

Next Steps​

Last updated on