Preorders: Why You Should Offer Them (+ How To Set Them Up)

Preorders boost sales, improve customer relationships, and provide insights for business forecasting. Learn how to set them up.

When Tom Petty sang, “The waiting is the hardest part,” he probably wasn’t picturing the delivery of his latest online order. But in ecommerce, the feeling of anticipation is a powerful lever.

Preorders give customers the thrill of anticipating a new product. For merchants, preorders transform potential sales into actual purchases, boosting revenue and improving customer relationships.

In this guide, learn how preorders work and how to use Shopify to enable preorders for your customers.

What does preorder mean?

Preorders allow customers to order products before they are released or restocked. Customers make a full or partial payment when they preorder, and the order ships once it becomes available.

Whether products are out of stock or soon-to-be launched, preorders act as reservations, guaranteeing customer access at the earliest possible availability.

When a merchant accepts a deposit for a preorder, they often charge the remaining amount using a customer's stored payment method.

💡 Check out Shopify’s collection of preorder apps.

Why preorders make sense for your business

Preorder selling provides significant advantages, positively impacting revenue, operations, and customer loyalty.

Increase sales

Customers have more shopping options than ever. Ecommerce has effectively put the entire world at their fingertips, and any product—from one-of-a-kind crafts to premium luxury goods and electronics—is available with a few taps.

For retailers, this means fierce competition. If your product is unavailable when shoppers want it, they’ll simply move on to the next store.

Preorders allow you to lock in sales whether the merchandise is ready to ship or not. You have the power to never say “no” to a customer again, because now, when they’re ready to buy, you’re ready to sell (even if you’re not ready to ship).

Plus, with preorders you can take payment up-front, in the form of a deposit, or when the item ships, so you can shape your strategy to fit your unique cash flow needs.

Forecast demand by meeting it

Preorders turn uncertainty into insights by providing trustworthy data about demand.

Selling a physical product inherently comes with risks. Whether you’ve invested in research, design, and manufacturing or you simply purchased inventory, retailers have financial interest in precisely understanding the demand for their products.

If you’re a merchant looking to fine-tune your product before bringing it to market, preorders can help you determine customer preferences before your production run concludes. “Gut feelings” may work for some business geniuses, but for the rest of us, preorders provide a realistic picture of which sizes, colors, and options to produce in order to meet demand.

Supply chain issues can be tricky, even for established businesses. Preorders allow you to forecast minimum product quantities required to fulfill your orders, helping reduce the risks of managing uncertain supply chains and storing idle inventory.

Generate excitement and drive growth

It can be hard for retailers to break through the digital noise and grab customers' attention. This makes driving awareness and excitement about a new product release—or the return of a fan favorite—especially important.

Just as movie trailers create hype before a film’s release, preorders can build anticipation for a product before it hits the shelves. Successful preorder marketing campaigns follow many of the same cues as regular marketing campaigns, including:

• Creating professional product imagery and copy. You can leverage factory samples, and even professional retouching services to create product imagery if none exists yet.
• Offering preorder incentives. Limited-time discounts, early access to release news and other products, and free customization are great ways to boost preorder sales while generating excitement.
• Promoting on paid and social media. Whichever digital platform your target audience uses, be sure to fill it with news about your preorder.

In addition to generating buzz, offering exclusive preorder access to customers on your mailing list or through a member loyalty program boosts the odds these repeat shoppers will convert, and helps build brand loyalty.

Preorder methods

Pay now

Pay now is the most common type of preorder—you simply collect the full sales price at the time of the preorder. You can think of it like a standard sale with an extended fulfillment time.

With preorders, customers receive information explaining when they can expect their shipments.

Pay-now preorders are great for businesses that want to:

• Get paid up-front. If cash flow management is important, pay now helps ensure you have cash on hand.
• Capture customers in the moment. Worried about missing out on a sale because an item is out of stock? Pay now lets you make the sale whenever shoppers are ready to buy.
• Automatically update out-of-stock products. Many preorder apps can be set to automatically accept preorders whenever a product goes out of stock, so fewer customers move on to another seller.
• Keep customers informed. Pay now preorder site messaging can be customized to display additional information, like expected shipping dates.

Pay later

The other type of preorder is pay later. This method lets customers make a deposit or a payment-free “reservation” on a product, and then pay the remaining or full sales price once the item ships.

Pay-later preorders are ideal for businesses that want to:

• Capture orders for upcoming products that may be delayed. Pay later gives you more fulfillment flexibility when informing customers that a product will ship later than intended.
• Test the market for new products. Pay later lets you gauge interest in a new product so you can produce the right amount.
• Charge customers at fulfillment. If you want to customize your cash flow, pay later lets you bill customers before or after you pay your suppliers.

How to set up preorders on Shopify

Preorders are complex, and there are many options for enabling them. Any preorder app you install from the Shopify App Store will work seamlessly with your Shopify ecommerce page.

Popular preorder Shopify apps

If you’re ready to start offering preorders, try one of these preorder apps available in the Shopify App Store.

PreProduct

PreProduct lets you accept preorders for upcoming product launches at any point in the product cycle. Choose between pay-later and deposit-based preorders, and  charge customers by payment link or deferred payment when you're ready.

Endless Blading Co. makes precision, multi-setup inline skate frames. It uses PreProduct for preorders, making it easier to forecast demand and place orders with vendors.

Pre-Order Manager

Pre-Order Manager makes it easy to automate preorder dates and enable them based on stock levels.

EarthBits, a zero-waste store for makeup and cleaning products, uses Pre-Order Manager when products go out of stock. EarthBits says that Pre-Order Manager has "eliminated a huge amount of customer service," since customers know exactly when they'll receive their currently out-of-stock order.

Purple Dot

Use Purple Dot to set up 100% pay later terms. The platform saves customer cards at checkout and charges them when products are ready to ship.

Menswear brand SPOKE uses Purple Dot for preorders, allowing them to flexibly launch products on schedule. SPOKE says that preorders helped them "achieve a 400% higher sell-through than we expected if we had had to wait to sell."

💡 Each app integrates seamlessly with Shopify, so choose the one that’s best for your business. For more options, check out Shopify’s preorder app collection.

Build a custom preorder solution

Established merchants with complex needs can build bespoke preorder flows in Shopify with preorder APIs. This tooling makes it easy for partners and developers to build new preorder experiences directly within Shopify Checkout.

Sell anticipation

By offering preorders, you're not just selling products, you're selling experiences. Preorders create excitement and help customers feel that they're part of something exclusive.

Preorders FAQ

Can I sell preorders before I have produced my products?

Unless clearly communicated to customers, items should be in production before they are offered for preordering.

Can I still offer a preorder if I’m not sure when my product will ship?

You should be able to suggest a reasonable timeframe for when your product will ship based on your understanding of your industry. If you do not list a date, your items should ship within 30 days.

Can I change my shipping date?

If you cannot ship a preorder within the stated time, you should provide a revised shipping date and explain the customer’s rights to cancel or request a refund.