# What happens after a creator submits a gift request

Source: https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/what-happens-after-a-creator-submits
Updated: 2026-09-24

Know exactly what's automatic and what needs you, so you stop refreshing Shopify to check.

## The goal

A creator just picked a product, typed their address, and hit submit. You want to know, without having to check, whether that turned into a real order or whether it's sitting somewhere waiting on you.

## How most brands do it

New to gifting, most brands either check Shopify constantly (nothing worse to do with the anxiety of "did that actually go through?"), or they set every single campaign to require manual approval "to be safe", and then the approvals pile up unattended, creators wait days for a $0 order that should've shipped same-day, and the brand ends up doing the exact manual review work the software was supposed to remove.

## How experienced teams do it

Experienced teams pick their approval setting deliberately, once, per campaign, not per order. A high-trust campaign (an existing creator list, a small controlled program) runs with no approval required: submissions become real orders instantly, and the team's only job is fulfillment. A public, open-to-anyone link gets approval turned on, because the risk there is spam or abuse, not good-faith creators. Either way, the team checks one place (the Pending tab), instead of Shopify, email, and their inbox separately.

## Do it in Seed

What happens depends on how the campaign was set up:

1. **No approval required:** a real $0 Shopify draft order is created the moment the creator submits, using their saved products and address. It appears on [Gift orders' Gift orders tab](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/gift-orders#gift-orders-tab) and in Shopify admin immediately, ready to fulfill.
2. **Approval required:** the request lands on [Gift orders' Pending tab](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/gift-orders#pending-tab) tagged **Needs approval**. No order exists until you click **Approve**.
3. **Seed holds it for review:** even on a no-approval campaign, a request can land on Pending tagged **Double order** if that shipping address already received a gift recently. A safety check against sending the same person two gifts by accident.
4. Either way, once the order is real: the creator gets an on-screen confirmation (and an email if yours are turned on), fulfillment works exactly like any other Shopify order, and Seed starts the countdown to check their Instagram/TikTok once it's delivered, see [how post tracking works](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/how-post-tracking-works).

> **Tip:** Every gift order is a genuine $0 order, not a discount code, see [how zero-dollar draft orders work](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/zero-dollar-draft-orders).

## Expert checklist

- Decide approval on/off per campaign, at setup, not case by case per order.
- Reserve manual approval for public/open links; auto-approve your vetted or invite-only lists so gifting stays fast.
- Check one queue (Pending), instead of watching Shopify or your inbox.
- A **Double order** flag isn't an error. It's Seed surfacing a judgment call for you, not blocking the creator outright.

## FAQ

**Does the creator's order need my approval?**
Only if your campaign is set to require it, or Seed held it for review, otherwise it becomes a real order immediately.