What has been found to be the best way to manage when Shopify Collective vendors make items available for pre order. It does not always show in the description (and I don’t allow edits so my site can look uniform), but it does lead to customer questions about the status of orders. It would be ideal to pass that information on to prospective customers without allowing changes to description or title.
To keep communication consistent and prevent vendors from changing titles or descriptions while being transparent with customers from the start, you should consider creating a product tag or metafield for preorder products and then expose that information using a storefront condition and badge on the product card and product page.
Thanks for your reply. How would you recommend doing this through Collective? The vendor would need to manually tag ‘pre order’ or something to that effect?
Hi @JPLF . Since you don’t allow edits to descriptions/titles, the best approach is to manage pre-orders through theme customizations and tags/metafields:
Use badges or banners: Add a clear “Pre-Order” label on product cards, PDPs, and even in cart. These are highly visible and don’t require editing the core description. Appealing badge styles help customers immediately identify pre-order items.
Tags/metafields: Tag items with preorder (or use a metafield for estimated ship date) and let your theme auto-display the message above the Add to Cart button.
Policy & FAQ: Keep a consistent pre-order policy page and link to it from the banner/message. Make sure you have a consistent policy page or FAQ that explains how pre-orders work: what delays are possible, expected shipment windows, cancellation/refund options. You can link to that from product pages (via a banner or small notice).
Notifications: Send automated emails with shipping timelines to reduce customer questions.
Hope this helps
Thanks, I think I need something that more automatically updates based on the actions of the Collective Sellers. I am not able to check their sites every day