Shopify Bulk Order & Corporate Gifting Glossary
Definitions of key terms: Sends, recipient orders, aggregate orders, order generation, inquiry forms, and other Shopify bulk order concepts.
A quick reference for terms you'll encounter throughout Send To Many and this documentation.
Send To Many Concepts
Send: The central concept in Send To Many. A Send represents a single bulk order: a group of recipients, the products they'll receive, and all the settings that go with it. Every Send generates individual Shopify orders for each recipient.
Send preset (Send type): A saved configuration template that bundles settings like notification behavior, revenue handling, shipping options, and invoicing preferences. You select a Send preset when creating a Send, and it pre-fills all the configuration. You can override individual settings per Send.
Gifter: The customer who places and pays for a Send. In corporate gifting, this is usually the company or the person managing the gift program. In checkout, this is the shopper.
Recipient: The person who receives the shipment. Each recipient in a Send gets their own Shopify order with their own shipping address.
Order Types
Recipient order: A standard Shopify order created for each recipient in a Send. These are the orders your team fulfills and ships. Recipient orders use "Send to Many" as the payment gateway and have app = Send to Many in the order data. Also referred to as "child orders" in some technical contexts.
Aggregate order (gifter order): A single Shopify order that ties all recipient orders together and captures the full revenue for the Send. Created from a draft order and processed through Shopify's standard payment gateway. Tagged Send to Many aggregate and marked "Does not require shipping." Uses custom line items instead of catalog products to avoid double-counting inventory. Also referred to as the "parent order" in some technical contexts.
$0 recipient orders: A revenue handling option where recipient orders are created with $0 line item values. All revenue lives on the aggregate order. This prevents double-counting in reports but means individual recipient orders don't show pricing details.
Calculated recipient orders: A revenue handling option where recipient orders contain the actual product prices, tax, and shipping for that recipient. Provides more detail on each order but requires careful report filtering to avoid counting revenue on both the aggregate and recipient orders.
Workflows
Upload workflow: The primary merchant-facing workflow. Upload a spreadsheet of recipients, map columns to fields, validate addresses, select shipping, and generate orders. Used for corporate gifting, influencer seeding, and any scenario where the merchant manages the recipient list.
Multi-recipient checkout: A storefront experience where a shopper adds products to their cart, enters multiple recipients, and pays once through Shopify checkout. Send To Many generates a parent order for revenue and child orders for fulfillment.
Inquiry workflow: A storefront form where potential customers submit corporate gifting inquiries. The merchant reviews the submission and can convert it into a Send.
Invoicing and Payment
Aggregate invoice: The Shopify draft order created during the Upload workflow that summarizes the entire Send. Sent to the gifter for payment. Once paid, the draft order converts to a completed Shopify order (the aggregate order).
Pre-calculated orders: An option where Send To Many calculates shipping, tax, and totals for each recipient before generating the invoice. This gives the gifter exact pricing before they pay.
Deposits and split payments: A payment option where the gifter pays a percentage upfront and the remainder later. Configured per Send preset.
Shipping and Notifications
Suppressed notifications: The default notification setting. Shopify's order confirmation and shipping notification emails are redirected to a blackhole address (suppressed+{send_id}@sendtomany.com) so that no one receives them. The orders are still created normally.
Blackhole email: The placeholder email address used when notifications are suppressed. It follows the pattern suppressed+{send_id}@sendtomany.com. This address doesn't receive mail. It appears in the order's contact email field.
Notification target: Who receives order and shipping emails: suppress (no one), send to recipient, or send to gifter. Configured per Send preset and overridable per Send.
Tags and Identifiers
Send tag: Every order (both aggregate and recipient) from a Send is tagged Send to Many #[Send ID]. Use this tag to identify and filter all orders belonging to a specific Send.
Aggregate tag: Aggregate orders carry an additional tag: Send to Many aggregate. Use this to separate aggregate orders from recipient orders in reports and fulfillment workflows.
Payment gateway: Recipient orders use send_to_many as the payment gateway. Aggregate orders use Shopify's standard payment gateway. This distinction is useful for filtering in reports and third-party integrations.
App attribution: Recipient orders have app = Send to Many in the Shopify order data. Note that Send To Many is not a Shopify sales channel, so you cannot filter by sales channel in Shopify reports. Use tags, payment gateway, or app attribution instead.
Shopify Concepts
Draft order: A Shopify order that hasn't been paid yet. Send To Many creates aggregate invoices as draft orders. Once the gifter pays, the draft order converts to a standard Shopify order.
Cart Transform: A Shopify Function that restructures cart line items during checkout. Send To Many uses a Cart Transform to handle multi-recipient checkout. Only one Cart Transform is allowed per Shopify store, so conflicts with other apps that use Cart Transform are possible.
Import format: A saved column-to-field mapping that Send To Many applies automatically when you upload a spreadsheet with matching column headers. Saves time on repeat uploads with consistent formatting.