adding pre order option

[pinkpunkyfairy]

hi i want to know if i can add a pre order option

so i will have physical stock for some items but then i want to add a pre order for certain items?

i did try and google and search i got the answer of yes but then it was quite confusing then it said no as well

so basically i just want to know can i add pre order products and if yes how to do it.

also i saw it needs An app? what apps and do the apps take a % of your orders

thanks

[turbo-rafal]

Yes, you can add a pre-order option for certain items in your Shopify store. Here’s how to set it up and some information about apps:

1. Built-in method:
   • Enable “Continue selling when out of stock” for specific products.
   • Create a custom pre-order product template.
   • Assign the pre-order template to desired products.
2. Using apps:
   • Install a pre-order app from the Shopify App Store.
   • Popular options include:
     • Pre-Order Helper
     • Pre-Order Now
     • EasyOrder by NexusMedia

Apps offer more features and easier setup:

• Customizable pre-order buttons.
• Automated notifications.
• Flexible payment handling.
• Personalized messaging.

Most apps charge a monthly fee rather than a percentage of orders.

. To choose between the built-in method and apps:

• Use the built-in method if you have technical skills and limited pre-order needs.
• Use apps if you value time efficiency and advanced features.

Remember to clearly communicate pre-order terms and conditions to your customers, including expected delivery dates and any relevant policies.

[Jo_EarlyBird]

Hi @pinkpunkyfairy , Josiah here. We run an Aussie-founded preorder & back-in-stock app Early Bird.

Short answer is yes you can run pre-orders for certain items while selling as normal for other items. And no, you don’t NEED to have an app to do so.

Like @turbo-rafal mentioned, there are a few ways to approach this. Whether you need an app or not, often comes down to two main things:

1. How much time do you have to set it up?

2. Are you offering the most basic version of pre-orders?

You don’t need a preorder app if:

• You are taking full payment upfront for the item.
• You are comfortable making changes to your theme. Duplicating product templates, changing button text etc.
• You are only doing pre-orders for a few products. If you’re doing more than a handful, the time it takes to manage them manually would be saved by using a pre-order app to do it for you.

You should consider a preorder app if you need to:

• Schedule items for pre-order - it’s a bit more complicated to do this using the duplicate product template approach.
• Take partial payments for pre-orders, then automatically collect the remaining amount later (after X days or on a specific date).
• Offer customizable discounts for pre-orders (separate from Shopify discount codes). Eg. 20% off if you pay up front, 10% off if you pay a 50% deposit.
• Aren’t comfortable making theme changes. Our Early Bird app manages the button text and display pre-order info prominently throughout your customer’s purchase journey, without changing your theme.

TLDR:

If you have time and feel comfortable to edit your theme code, you can run preorders without an app. If you prefer automating your preorders or prefer to have professionals making those changes, a pre-order app like ours will handle it all for you.

(It only takes a few minutes from install to launching a preorder campaign! On average, our merchants set it up < 5 minutes.)

Happy to answer any questions you have about Shopify pre-orders, partial pay and back-in-stock in general.

We also have a Free Plan with no commission fees if you want to try our app at your own pace. See if it’s the right fit for your business.

[Sandy-STOQ]

@pinkpunkyfairy You don’t need an app to sell preorders. I run a preorder app full time with my team - STOQ - and with lots of experience working with thousands of merchants, I can confidently tell you that you don’t need one (crazy as it may sound).

If you’re new and scaling your Shopify store, this is what you generally want from preorders -

1. Get customer interest on specific items and confirm that interest is real with a full upfront payment

2. Ship the item out soon as it’s restocked

3. Keep running preorders on products that are not in stock yet.

If your workflow looks anything like this, don’t use a preorder app. Instead, do the following -

1. Enable ‘Continue selling when out of stock’ on the products you want to sell as preorders

2. Create a product page template that gives customers details about the preorder

3. Set up a Shopify Email workflow to tell customers about the preorder if a particular product or set of products are in the order.

While we automate much of this setup through app features on STOQ, I really believe you don’t need an app. Consider getting one only when you need to handle fulfillments in a specific way or when your business relies heavily on preorders.

[Yauheni_K1_PreOrder]

Hey,

Other guys are right, Shopify natively lets you enable pre-orders by going to Products → select your product → under Inventory for each variant, check Continue selling when out of stock. You’ll also want to manually add “(Pre-order)” to your product title or description so customers know. Here’s the official inventory guide.

The main trade-offs are that the button still says “Add to cart” (you’d need to edit your theme code to change that), and you have to manually indicate pre-order status in your product copy.

For mixed inventory (some items in stock, some pre-order), an app like K1 PreOrder can automate that (I’m the founder of K1 PreOrder) with automatic button text replacement, inventory-based display modes (Always / Out of stock / Below threshold), and product-level targeting so you can pick exactly which items show the pre-order button. If this is relevant, here’s K1 PreOrder listing.

Happy to help with the setup or custom theme code if needed.

Best regards,
Yauheni