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

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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Topic summary

Pre-order payments for long lead-time collectibles and how to avoid charging customers until shipping. Core limitation: with Shopify Payments, an authorization (temporary hold) expires after 7 days; if not captured (turned into a charge) within that window, you must obtain a new authorization.

OP’s options and concerns:

  • Charge on shipment via manual capture is impractical for 2–6 month lead times due to the 7‑day limit and no automatic re-authorization.
  • Non‑refundable deposit (~15%) plus later balance collection may require asking customers to pay the remainder manually if no automation exists.

App-based workaround presented:

  • A pre‑order app can take a partial deposit and auto‑capture the remaining balance on a chosen date beyond 7 days.
  • Features: pay-in-full or deposit, set final payment due date, display expected ship date, reserve stock timing, automated capture and receipt emails, manual overrides, and automated delay notifications.

Additional note: the 7‑day window applies to Shopify Payments; other gateways may offer longer authorization periods.

Outcome/status: OP frustrated this isn’t native; no confirmed resolution. Discussion remains open.

Summarized with AI on December 21. AI used: gpt-5.
3

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.