Shopify gives merchants two related but different tools for selling outside the standard storefront checkout: draft orders and quotes. They overlap, but they solve different problems. Understanding the split matters if you sell B2B, wholesale, or made-to-order and negotiate prices before a sale closes.
What a Shopify draft order is
A draft order is an order a merchant creates manually inside Shopify admin. You add products, set quantities, apply a custom discount or price, add shipping, and choose a customer. Shopify then lets you either mark it as paid, collect payment yourself, or email the customer an invoice link. When the customer pays that link, the draft becomes a real order.
Draft orders are a native, no-extra-cost part of Shopify. They are useful for phone orders, manual B2B sales, and one-off custom pricing. The catch is that they are built for the merchant, not the buyer. The invoice a customer receives is plain and transactional. There is no expiry, no acceptance step, and no visibility into whether the buyer opened it or is still deciding.
What a quote is
A quote is a buyer-facing document. It presents pricing as an offer the customer reviews and decides on, rather than an invoice waiting to be paid. In practice a quote usually adds a few things a bare draft order does not:
- Branded presentation that looks like it came from your business, not a generic Shopify email
- An expiry date so a price is only valid for a set window
- An accept step where the buyer explicitly agrees before paying
- Approval flows on larger deals, where someone internal signs off first
- Tracking, so you can see opens, clicks, and whether the quote converted
The difference is intent. A draft order says “here is your bill.” A quote says “here is our offer, valid until this date, please review.”
Side by side
| Shopify draft order | Quote | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | The merchant, in admin | The buyer, to review |
| Presentation | Plain invoice | Branded, on-brand page |
| Can expire | No | Yes |
| Acceptance step | No | Yes |
| Approval flow | No | Often |
| Open and click tracking | No | Yes |
| Native to Shopify | Yes | Needs an app |
How ShopQuotes connects the two
ShopQuotes does not replace draft orders, it builds on them. When a customer requests a quote or a merchant builds one, ShopQuotes creates a real Shopify draft order underneath. On top of that draft order it generates a branded Live Quote page: the customer opens it, accepts, and pays through native Shopify checkout. Because the draft order is real, the sale flows through Shopify normally, with no commission on the order.
You also get the buyer-facing layer draft orders lack. Quotes can expire, go out from your own email domain or by link or PDF, and every quote reports opens, clicks, and conversions. That is the “CRM for quotes” idea: build, track, and send, not just fire off an invoice.
If you already lean on draft orders for B2B or made-to-order work, this is the layer that makes them presentable and measurable. You can start free on the Launch plan and see the full breakdown on pricing, read related terms in the glossary, or install from the Shopify App Store.