Split Shipping between In-Stock and Pre-Order Items

[Thegachamart]

I see other shops struggle with this same issue but it doesn’t seen like Shopify has a solution for us yet. Most shop nowadays including my own have a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items available for purchase to drive up sales. However, the customer only pays for shipping once during checkout for the total cost of the order including both types of items whether they are ready to ship or now or at a later date.

Even though you tell your customers to place separate orders and warn them that orders with both in-stock and pre-order items won’t ship until all items are available, they don’t listen. Then the flock of emails come in demanding their in-stock items now. 😅

That brings me to my question, is there a way to ship in-stock items as they are available? Then ship the pre-order items at a later date without charging the customer for shipping again and also without us eating any extra costs? Is there a way to split up that initial shipping fee the customer already paid at the time of order for all items? Can we attach the shipping fee to the items separately or is there a way around shipping profiles to make this work? If anyone has success please share. Thank you! 🙏🏼

[ronald_g]

Hi @Thegachamart ,

You can simply create a new location in Shopify called "Preorder" or whatever name you want, and stock the preorder product there (and remove from the existing location). If you need more complex order routing logic, feel free to check out Order Fulfillment Guru.

[Cat2022]

Regarding this comment: "You can simply create a new location in Shopify called "Preorder" or whatever name you want, and stock the preorder product there (and remove from the existing location)." How does that work exactly? I have already installed a Pre-order app (Preorderly). However, the app does not address what happens when a customer 1) Orders 2 or more preorder items with different delivery dates (that are months apart), or 2) Orders preorder item(s) and in-stock items. When I check with Preorderly, they say they have no control over this side of the transaction.

[Jo_EarlyBird]

I tested this as 1 of our customers had the same question as OP.

It doesn't allow you to charge shipping for pre-orders and in-stock items separately.

It lets you charge a custom (higher) shipping rate if a customer has added a pre-order item to their cart. Quite a bit of manual setup though.

1. Locations > Add a location > Name it as "Pre-order warehouse"

2. Settings > Shipping and delivery > Shipping > Custom Shipping Rates > Create a new profile > Name it as "Pre-orders" > Create a Shipping Zone > Select the countries you currently ship to > Add rate (this number needs to cover both of your in-stock and pre-order shipping fulfilment costs) > You can also add conditional pricing based on weight or item price

3. For each of your pre-order products > Product settings > Set to Not stocked at usual locations > Stocked at "Pre-order warehouse"

Then you should see something similar to my screenshots below. 

- The Happy Gilmore Jersey is a pre-order item where I had set it to be stocked at and ship from the "Pre-order warehouse" with custom shipping rate ($39.99).

- The Anti-Social T-Shirt is also a pre-order item where I didn't make any special changes to its location and shipping profile.

- The Collection Snowboard is just a normal in-stock item that has met the free shipping threshold.

I think the real solution is not to offer discounts on your pre-orders. Then let your customers know if they purchase both in-stock and pre-order items, the in-stock items will be fulfilled/shipped first. Pre-order items will be shipped once it's in stock or at the estimated shipping date.

Yes you'll be paying for shipping twice, but since you didn't offer discounts on your pre-orders, you get to keep your margins and your customers happy. Taking into the benefit of securing your cash flow earlier too for pre-orders.

[Ryan871]

You seem incredibly knowledgeable on this subject. I am using purple dot pre orders but am struggling because if a customer purchases 5 pre order items and they all have ship dates separated by weeks or months then the customer gets mad that the pre orders that come in stock early don't get shipped until ALL pre order items ready to ship. Unfortunately Purpledot only allows to charge for the preorder all at once inside an order, rather then separately as they come in.  Do you know a work around to this? I like the features Purpledot has in terms of charging the customer $0 but getting authorization to charge later but customer are unhappy about ship times. I also can't split order because Shopify doesn't allow such tools on deferred payments. Additionally I can't force my customers to create separate orders for each pre order item, so I am not sure what to do. Do you have any suggestions or other apps that can remedy?

[bens_tech_ideas]

Hi @Thegachamart 

The SplitOrder app also does this quite well. Effectively you setup a rule in the app that splits the pre-order item(s) into a separate order so it can be fulfilled separately. Then, the in-stock items can be fulfilled straight away. E.g. 

Order #0001 has three items: 

• Item A (In-stock) 
• Item B  (In-stock)
• Item C (Preorder)

The order contains a pre-order so it would be split into two orders as follows: 

Order #0001 now only includes the in-stock items: 

• Item A  (In-stock)
• Item B  (In-stock) 

Order #0002 has been created for the pre-order: 

• Item C  (Pre-order)

These orders can now be fulfilled separately, and the customer can get their in-stock items first. 

Importantly, you can also setup different pre-order shipping options (with different costs) in the app to offer your customers at checkout,  I.e. 

• Ship in-stock items, ship pre-order later $20
• Ship in-stock items with pre-order $10

This then solves the issue of you as the merchant having to eat up the extra costs of shipping if customers want their in-stock items first!