Virtual orders still require an address (billing) - no option to make it optional?

[ioweb-gr]

Summary

We have bumped into a case where our customer is selling virtual items only in a rapid-commerce style. The user only needs to fill in minimal information like his email and phone to order the items.

What we've stumbled upon is the inability to disable requesting a full address.

When the order is virtual, correctly the shipping address disappears and becomes optional. However the billing address is still requested to checkout.

How can we solve this issue to make both addresses optional? Is there a way to manage this use-case?

Examples

Think of products with serial numbers. In order to deliver the item, you only need the customers' email or his phone number.

Currently a full address is required to submit the order.

Proposed solution

It would be great if we could have an option in the backend for adjusting whether billing address is optional for virtual orders.

Release note

No response

Triage and priority

• Severity: S0 - Affects critical data or functionality and leaves users without workaround.
• Severity: S1 - Affects critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround.
• Severity: S2 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround.
• Severity: S3 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and does not force users to employ a workaround.
• Severity: S4 - Affects aesthetics, professional look and feel, “quality” or “usability”.

[m2-assistant]

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[engcom-Bravo]

Hi @ioweb-gr,

Thanks for your reporting and collaboration.

We gone through with the description and it seems to be and Enhancement to proceed further marking this as Feature Request

Thanks.

[ananth-iyer]

@ioweb-gr Billing address is required in all use cases. For Virtual orders - Shipping address is optional.

You can add dummy addresses to place orders via plugins. It may required developer customisations.

We cannot change the whole system which is used by millions of Merchants stores.

[ioweb-gr]

Thanks for the reply @ananth-iyer

Respectfully, saying that a feature can't be considered because "millions of stores use the system" isn’t a strong reason to dismiss a clearly defined use case. Magento already handles conditional logic (e.g., hiding shipping address for virtual products), so extending this to billing—especially for low-risk, digital-only transactions—is a logical next step.

This isn’t about changing core behavior for everyone. It’s about offering flexibility. A config toggle or plugin hook could enable this use case without impacting stores that don’t need it.

There are many real-world scenarios where requiring a full billing address is excessive:

• Instant delivery of prepaid digital gift cards
• Access to subscription-based SaaS tools
• Event tickets with QR code delivery
• Mobile top-ups or vouchers
• One-click phone/email-based reorders in fast commerce

WooCommerce for example easily supports this kind of flow out of the box with optional address fields for virtual/downloadable products where people can just straight into a purchase with just their email.

Magento is known for its flexibility and robustness—it shouldn't fall behind in user experience where lighter platforms are offering better agility.

At the very least, this request deserves discussion, consideration, and perhaps a scoped feature flag, not outright rejection. What do you think ?