Not charging for pre-orders until item is ready to ship?

[dboyxx]

Hello,

My store does collectible pop culture items (Funko, action figures, etc) and most of our new release items go through a pre-order phase before they finally become in stock. Most of these pre-orders are for items that do not arrive for 2-6 months.  Collectors are typically scared of small shops because we have to collect right away which is a big disadvantage when competing against the big boys like Amazon, Target, Gamestop, etc. So I've been wanting to try something different.

Looking at my first option, to charge when the item ships, it seems the manual capture method has no automatic re-authorization techniques that bigger stores utilize. If I don't authorize the payment within the 7 days, I can't capture. Is that correct? 

If so, alternatively I've been thinking about starting a non-refundable deposit method (let's just say 15%), where they would automatically pay the deposit then we'd collect payment once the item is getting ready to ship. But if no re-authorization is available, I'm guessing I'd have to send customers notification to pay their balance themselves. 

Anyone have any insight to this? 

I've searched the boards a little and most posts don't really have any solutions.  

[PRGear]

Same issue here. Following!

[Jo_EarlyBird]

Hey there, I've just replied to OP above about auto-capturing deferred payment beyond 7 days. 

Keen to hear your feedback as well.

[Jo_EarlyBird]

Heya Dboy,

Yes, if you don't authorize the payment within 7 days, the authorization becomes void, and you'll need to request a new authorization from the customer to complete the remaining payment.

We’ve actually been talking to several collectible store owners (here in Australia) who share similar frustrations. Our pre-order app can automate capturing the remaining payment on a specific date of your choice, beyond 7 days.

Capturing partial deposit is becoming more popular as it helps avoid losing sales on customers who prefer not to pay in full (as you've suggested).

How our app might work for you:

• Set up a Pre-order campaign (sell as many as you'd like, or in limited quantities)
• Option to pay in full (you can offer discounts separate from Shopify's promo codes)
• Option to capture a partial deposit (% or $ amount)
• Select final payment due date (after X days or at a specific date & time)
• Select expected fulfilment/shipping date to display to your customers, and for the campaign (A specific date or just set as ASAP/Not sure yet)
• Choose to reserve your stock when the pre-order is placed, or when it's fulfilled
• Auto-capture the final/remaining payment and auto-email your customers their payment receipt on your selected due date
• If you'd like to manually capture a specific customer's payment before the automated capture date, you'll still have control to do so
• If the supplier has shipment delays, just update the estimated shipping date and our app can auto-send a pre-order delayed email for you to inform your customers too

Would love to hear your feedback, as I'm always learning what different businesses need when managing pre-orders.

Happy to share some screenshots of what we've done for other stores, or record a 5-minute video to show you what that partial deposit end-to-end process looks like.

[Jo_EarlyBird]

Thought I'd clarify the above:

The 7 day-authorization window is applicable to Shopify Payments. Other payment gateways may have a longer credit card authorization period. 

[dboyxx]

Thanks for your response but I think most of us are frustrated that we'd have to pay for apps to accomplish this and not have this native for Shopify.