Why Draft Orders Don't Work with MOD Bundles
How MOD Bundles Work
MOD Bundles uses Shopify's Cart Transform technology to create bundles. When a customer builds a bundle on your storefront:
They use the bundle builder interface (theme app block) to select their products
Those selections are stored as line item properties
When added to cart, Shopify's Cart Transform processes the bundle and applies pricing
The Draft Order Limitation
When you create a draft order in Shopify Admin:
You're adding products directly without going through the storefront
There's no bundle builder interface to configure the bundle selections
Without the proper configuration data, the Cart Transform can't process the bundle correctly
This means if you add a bundle product to a draft order, it will be treated as a regular product—not as a bundle with its components and discount pricing.
What Happens If You Try
If you attempt to add a bundle product to a draft order:
What You Expect | What Actually Happens |
Bundle with components | Single product added |
Bundle discount applied | No discount applied |
Components visible | Only parent product visible |
Correct bundle pricing | Regular product pricing |
Alternatives for Manual Orders
Option 1: Share a Cart Link
Create a pre-filled cart link for your customer:
Build the bundle yourself on your storefront
Add to cart
Copy the cart URL
Send to your customer to complete checkout
Option 2: Use the Storefront
Have your customer complete the bundle purchase through your online store:
Send them a link to the bundle product page
They configure and purchase the bundle themselves
The order processes correctly with all bundle components and pricing
Option 3: Manual Discount on Draft Order
If you must use a draft order:
Add the individual products (not the bundle product)
Manually apply a discount equivalent to the bundle savings
Add a note explaining this is a bundle order
Note: This workaround means the order won't be tracked as a bundle sale in analytics.
B2B & Wholesale Considerations
If you frequently create orders on behalf of customers (B2B, wholesale, phone orders), consider:
Training staff to use storefront links instead of draft orders for bundles
Creating separate products with pre-set bundle pricing for wholesale (not using MOD Bundles)
Using Shopify's B2B features which route customers through the storefront checkout
Why This Limitation Exists
This is a limitation of how Shopify's Cart Transform technology works, not specific to MOD Bundles. All bundle apps that use Cart Transform (also called "customized bundles") have this same limitation.
Shopify does offer "Fixed Bundles" through a different API that works with draft orders, but these have significant limitations:
Cannot support Mix & Match selection
Cannot support Pack Builder's flexible sizing
Cannot support Collection Bundle's step-by-step flow
MOD Bundles uses Cart Transform specifically to provide the flexible, customer-driven bundle experiences that make your bundles effective.
Future Updates
We monitor Shopify's platform updates closely. If Shopify adds better draft order support for Cart Transform bundles, we'll implement it and update this documentation.
Questions?
If you have a specific use case that requires draft order support, please reach out to our support team. We may be able to suggest a workaround for your situation.