If you bake, make, or pick things yourself, the limit on your store is not stock. It is you. This setting lets you say so, in a way that costs you no sales.
The thing to understand first
A full day never refuses a sale. Past your cap, a buyer can still order — they are simply told, before they pay, that you start on it the next day and when to expect it.
The setting screen says it outright: How many orders you can manage in a day, across everything you sell. Past it, buyers can still order — they’re told it starts the next day, so nobody is turned away and nobody is surprised. Leave empty for no limit.
That is the whole design. Turning a buyer away helps nobody; surprising them helps nobody either. If you want to actually stop selling, that is vacation mode or taking the item off sale.
The two caps
Whole shop
Seller settings → Shipping & delivery → Orders a day (whole shop), labelled Orders your shop can take in a day. Leave it blank for No limit.
This is the honest number: how many orders you can pack, make and send in one day across everything.
Per item
In the listing editor: Orders a day, described as Orders of this item you can take in a day.
For the thing that is slower than everything else. "Ten of this cake a day" while the rest of the shop runs at thirty.
Whichever runs out first is the one that bites. They are not added together — a shop cap of thirty with an item cap of ten means the eleventh of that item queues even though the shop has capacity.
For made-to-order work
Three settings work together, and they answer different questions:
Days to make it—How many days do you need to make it?How long one piece takes.Orders a day— how many you start in a day.- A weekly cap for made-to-order pieces, for craft work where the real limit is the week rather than the day.
And Days before the date that orders close — the cut-off, for anything tied to a date. Someone cannot order a birthday cake for tomorrow if you need three days.
What the buyer sees
This is the part worth looking at, because it is what makes the cap work rather than cost you.
When a day is full they get a queue notice: In the queue, with {n} orders ahead of yours, Starts on, Ready on and Reaches you by — and Order now and stay in the queue.
They are told which limit it is, too: {store} takes only {n} orders a day, {store} makes only {n} of this a day, or {store} takes only {n} made-to-order pieces a week.
A buyer reading that is not being refused. They are being told the truth by someone who clearly knows their own capacity, which is a reason to trust the store rather than leave it.
What counts against the day
Orders that are paid or confirmed and not yet out of the door. Those are the work someone ordering now queues behind.
What does not count: a cancelled or refunded order (the work came back), and a checkout still at the payment screen — it may never be paid, and an unpaid checkout clears after thirty minutes. Cash on delivery does count, because it is placed as confirmed work.
Counted against the day the order came in, in Indian time, because that is the day the work landed on you.
No date lands on a closed day
Every date in that queue notice — the start day, the making days, the delivery estimate — is counted in your own open days. Set Working days & holidays and a Sunday is never promised as a making day.
How to choose the number
Count what you actually did on your busiest good day, then set it slightly below. Not your record — your sustainable best.
A cap set too high is no cap at all. A cap set too low queues buyers who could have had it today. The first error is the expensive one, because it ends in a late order.
Questions people ask
Does a cap hide my listings?
No. Nothing comes off sale. Buyers see the queue and can order anyway.
Can I change it mid-week?
Yes, and it applies to orders from then on. Orders already taken keep the dates they were promised.
What if I just want to stop for a week?
That is vacation mode, not a cap. A cap of zero is not the tool for a holiday.
Do the shop cap and the item cap add up?
No. Whichever runs out first stops the day.
I sell food. Is there anything else?
These items spoil on a pickup option, and a Collect within time short enough to matter. How to offer pickup, selling food and drink.