How to Set Up Pre-Orders on Shopify Without Confusing Your Customers

Pre-orders sound simple until you actually try to set one up in Shopify. You expect a toggle. Instead, you find apps, workarounds, payment rules, and a few quiet limitations that aren’t obvious at first glance.

The good news is that pre-orders do work well on Shopify when they’re set up properly. You can take early sales, test demand, or keep selling while stock is on the way. The bad news is that doing it carelessly can lead to checkout problems, angry customers, or promises you can’t keep.

This guide walks through how to set up pre-orders on Shopify in a clear, realistic way. No shortcuts that break later. No hype. Just the options that actually exist, what each one is good for, and how to choose the approach that fits your store right now.

What a Pre-Order Means on Shopify

A pre-order on Shopify is not a native product type. It is a purchasing agreement layered on top of a normal product.

From the platform’s perspective, you are still selling a standard product. The difference is in how you communicate availability, when you collect payment, and how you manage fulfillment.

This distinction matters because Shopify applies the same checkout logic, payment restrictions, and fulfillment expectations to pre-orders as it does to regular orders. When those expectations are not met, problems start showing up later, not during setup.

At a basic level, a Shopify pre-order involves four things:

• The product is not ready to ship at the time of purchase
• The customer explicitly agrees to wait
• You provide a realistic shipping timeline
• You follow through or offer a refund if that timeline changes

Everything else, apps included, exists to support those four points.

When Pre-Orders Actually Make Sense

Pre-orders are not a universal solution. Used in the wrong situation, they add friction instead of value.

They work best in a few clear scenarios.

New Product Launches

If you are releasing a new product and want to test demand before committing to inventory, pre-orders give you early signal and early cash flow. This is one of the cleanest use cases, especially when the launch date is known.

Back-in-Stock Demand

When an item sells out but interest remains high, pre-orders allow customers to reserve inventory instead of walking away. This is especially useful for repeat products with predictable restock timelines.

Limited or Seasonal Items

For holiday products, drops, or limited runs, pre-orders help you plan quantities without guessing. Customers understand the wait because scarcity is part of the value.

Made-To-Order or Custom Products

If production starts only after purchase, pre-orders align naturally with how the product is made. Clear timelines matter more here than speed.

What pre-orders are not good for is hiding inventory issues or delaying fulfillment without communication. Customers tolerate waiting when it is intentional, not when it feels like an excuse.

Extuitive: Predict Ad Performance With Confidence

When you launch pre-orders, your ads matter more than usual. You are not just selling a product, you are asking customers to commit early. That makes creative quality, audience targeting, and timing critical. Guess wrong, and you waste budget before the product even ships.

At Extuitive, we help Shopify brands make better ad decisions before money is on the line. Instead of launching creatives and hoping they perform, we predict real-world results upfront using AI models validated against live campaign data.

Our platform forecasts which ads are likely to win, which ones will underperform, and how each creative compares to your historical averages and best performers. That means fewer wasted tests and faster confidence in what you put live.

What we focus on:

• Predicting winners and losers before launch. See expected performance before ads go live, not after budget is gone.
• Intelligent audience targeting. Identify the audiences most likely to convert and buy, based on data, not assumptions.
• CTR and ROAS forecasting. Understand how new creatives are expected to perform relative to your past results.
• Scalable creative prediction. Analyze and score large volumes of ads at once, without running live tests.

For teams that need fast, reliable answers, we turn ad testing into a planning step instead of a gamble.

Shopify’s Rules and Limitations You Need to Know First

Before choosing a setup method, it is important to understand Shopify’s non-negotiable constraints. These are not app limitations. They come from Shopify itself.

Shipping Promises Are Not Optional

You must have a reasonable basis for any shipping date you present. If you do not specify a date, Shopify expects you to believe the product will ship within 30 days.

If you miss that window, you are required to inform the customer and explain their right to cancel or receive a refund.

Some Payment Methods Do Not Work With Pre-Orders

Customers cannot use accelerated checkout options such as:

• Shop Pay
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay

Local payment methods like Klarna, iDEAL, and Sofort are also excluded for pre-order purchases.

This affects conversion, especially on mobile. It is not something you can override.

Customized Checkouts Are Not Supported

If your store uses a heavily customized checkout, pre-orders may not function correctly. This is one of the most common reasons pre-order flows break after launch.

Pre-Orders Cannot Be Mixed Freely

Customers cannot combine different purchase options in a single checkout. A product cannot be both a pre-order and a subscription. Buy X get Y discounts do not apply to pre-orders. Shop Promise badges cannot be used.

Understanding these limits early prevents frustration later.

Option 1: Using a Pre-Order App (The Most Reliable Path)

For most stores, a dedicated pre-order app is the safest and least confusing option.

Apps handle three things that are easy to get wrong manually:

• Clear messaging on product pages and checkout
• Payment timing, including deposits
• Admin visibility for pre-order status

How App-Based Pre-Orders Usually Work

Once installed, a pre-order app adds a purchase option to selected products or variants. On the storefront, this typically replaces the Add to cart button with a Pre-order button and displays shipping or availability notes.

In the Shopify admin, pre-order information becomes visible in the product page and order list. This helps prevent fulfillment mistakes later.

At checkout, the customer is required to confirm that they understand they are purchasing a pre-order. Without this confirmation, the order cannot be completed.

Deposits and Delayed Payments

Many apps allow you to collect either full payment upfront or a partial deposit.

If you choose deposits, Shopify displays the amount due at checkout and clearly marks the remaining balance as payable later. When multiple pre-order products are added to the cart, Shopify applies strict rules to determine due dates and deposits.

The earliest due date always wins. Deposits are combined.

This logic is automatic and cannot be customized beyond what the app allows.

Why Apps Reduce Confusion

Apps enforce consistency. They display pre-order language in the same places customers expect to see it. They also reduce the risk of forgetting a setting that breaks checkout behavior.

For stores with moderate to high order volume, this reliability matters more than saving a few dollars on app fees.

Option 2: Manual Pre-Orders Without an App (Possible, But Fragile)

It is technically possible to set up pre-orders without an app, but this approach requires care and ongoing maintenance.

Manual setups rely on a combination of inventory settings, payment capture rules, and theme customization.

Step 1: Enable Manual Payment Capture

In Shopify’s payment settings, you must set payment capture to manual. This allows you to authorize payments without capturing them immediately.

Be aware that Shopify has a default authorization window of seven days. If your pre-order timeline exceeds that, you will need a third-party payment method that supports longer authorization periods.

Step 2: Allow Selling When Out of Stock

For each pre-order product, you must enable Continue selling when out of stock. Without this, Shopify will block purchases once inventory hits zero.

This setting is simple, but it applies store logic that can affect other workflows if not monitored.

Step 3: Create a Separate Product Template

You cannot rely on the default product page. Customers need to be explicitly informed that they are placing a pre-order.

This usually involves creating a separate product template that includes a visible pre-order notice near the price or purchase button.

Theme editing is required. Mistakes here can break layout or checkout behavior.

Step 4: Assign Products Carefully

Each pre-order product must be assigned to the pre-order template manually. Forgetting this step results in silent failures where customers see a normal product page for a pre-order item.

The Hidden Cost of Manual Setups

Manual pre-orders save money on apps but cost time and attention. Every theme update, payment change, or checkout adjustment risks breaking the flow.

For very small stores or one-time launches, this may be acceptable. For ongoing pre-order programs, it usually is not.

How Checkout Actually Feels for the Customer

The checkout experience is where confusion either disappears or multiplies.

During checkout, Shopify requires customers to acknowledge that they are purchasing a product with a delayed fulfillment. This step cannot be skipped.

If you are collecting deposits, the order summary clearly shows what is due now and what will be charged later. This transparency is good, but only if your earlier messaging prepared the customer for it.

What causes confusion is mismatch. If the product page says Ships soon and checkout says Payment due on fulfillment, trust erodes quickly.

Consistency across product page, cart, and checkout matters more than clever wording.

Managing Multiple Pre-Orders In One Cart

When customers add multiple pre-order products to the same cart, Shopify applies strict prioritization rules.

If two products have different payment due dates, the earliest date applies to both.

If one product is due on fulfillment and another has a specific date, due on fulfillment takes priority.

Deposits are combined and charged together.

Customers are not shown these rules explicitly. That means your messaging should assume the worst-case scenario and still make sense.

Avoid mixing products with very different timelines unless you are comfortable explaining delays later.

Clear Messaging Is the Real Pre-Order Feature

Technology enables pre-orders. Messaging makes them work.

Every successful pre-order setup shares a few traits.

1. Be Specific About Timing

Ships in late June is better than Ships soon. If dates are uncertain, say that honestly.

Customers forgive delays more easily than vagueness.

2. Repeat The Message Without Overdoing It

One note in the description is not enough. Reinforce the pre-order status near the purchase button, in the cart, and in the order confirmation email.

Not with popups. With calm, visible text.

3. Explain What Happens If Plans Change

Customers feel safer when they know they can cancel or get a refund if timelines shift. You do not need legal language. Just clarity.

Common Mistakes That Cause Support Headaches

Most pre-order issues come from a small set of avoidable mistakes.

• Forgetting to disable accelerated checkout buttons
• Promising shipping dates that depend on suppliers you do not control
• Mixing pre-orders with discounts or subscriptions
• Changing fulfillment timelines without notifying customers
• Treating pre-orders as hidden inventory instead of explicit agreements

Each of these creates confusion that shows up weeks later, when fixing it is harder.

Final Word

Pre-orders are not about selling earlier. They are about setting expectations earlier.

When done well, they reduce guesswork, smooth cash flow, and strengthen trust. When done poorly, they create confusion that costs more than it earns.

Shopify gives you the tools. Apps and workarounds fill the gaps. The responsibility for clarity, however, always stays with the store owner.

Frequently Asked Questions