Alert on Shopify fraud analysis risk above medium, filtered by a value floor set at roughly your average order value, and route it to somebody permitted to hold or cancel an order. An alert that reaches a person who has to ask permission before acting has added a step rather than saved one.
Why this one is worth an interruption
The signal is already there. Shopify computes a risk assessment on orders and most teams never see it until they go looking, by which point the order has usually shipped.
The reason to alert rather than review in batches is that the useful window is before dispatch. After that your options collapse from holding an order to chasing a parcel you have already paid to send.
The threshold
Two dials: how risky, and how much it is worth. Both matter, because a flagged order for a small amount is usually not worth the time it takes to verify.
| Condition | Set it to | Why that number |
|---|---|---|
| Risk level | medium and above | High alone misses the ambiguous ones worth a look |
| Value floor | around your average order value | Below it, verification costs more than the loss |
| First-time customers | lower the floor | No history to weigh against the flags |
| Express shipping | always include | Speed plus risk is a common combination |
| Timing | before fulfilment, not after | The whole point is the window before dispatch |
Who should receive it
Send it to whoever is allowed to hold an order, and give them a written limit so they do not have to ask.
- Whoever can hold, verify or cancel without escalating first.
- Not the packing team, unless they also hold that authority. Otherwise the alert creates a pause with no decision at the end of it.
- An owner or manager only above a second, higher value, written down in advance.
What to do when it fires
- Do not cancel on the flag alone. The indicators are probabilistic and a real customer who gets cancelled tells people about it.
- Hold fulfilment while you check, so the clock stops.
- Verify by contacting the customer through a channel from the order itself, not one supplied in a later message.
- Record the outcome against the flag, so you learn which indicators actually predict fraud in your store.
When not to set this alert
Do not set this if nobody receiving it is allowed to hold an order. You will have built a notification that produces anxiety and no decisions.
Do not set it below your value floor. Verifying a low-value order costs more in time than the loss it prevents, and doing it anyway teaches the team that the alert is not worth reading.
Common questions
What does Shopify's fraud analysis actually tell me?
A set of probabilistic indicators and an overall risk level. It is evidence to weigh, not a verdict, which is why cancelling on the flag alone catches real customers.
Should I cancel a high-risk order?
Not on the flag alone. Hold fulfilment, verify through a channel taken from the order itself, and decide from what you find. Cancelling on the indicator alone reliably insults genuine customers.
What value floor should I use?
Around your average order value as a starting point, lowered for first-time customers and express shipping. Below that floor, the time spent verifying costs more than the loss you are preventing.
Who should receive high-risk order alerts?
Somebody permitted to hold or cancel without asking. Routing it to a person who must escalate adds a step to the process rather than removing one.