Pre-orders: sell now, deliver later

Pre-orders let you sell a product before you have it in stock: your wholesale buyers reserve and pay today, and the merchandise is delivered when it arrives, on an estimated date you define. It's ideal for launches, imports in transit, or made-to-order production.

Available only in the new store (v2). If your store uses the classic version, the pre-order fields do not appear on your products. Not sure which version you have? If your panel shows the Store Editor with customizable themes and sections, you're on the new version; if your design is configured from Settings → Design, you're on the classic one and can request the upgrade from support.

How it works

1. Enable pre-orders at the store level: in the Store Editor, Pre-orders section (under Commerce), turn on the toggle. There you can also define the label buyers see (defaults to "Pre-order") and the text of the buy button (defaults to "Pre-order").
2. Flag each product: in Products, edit the product and turn on the Pre-order toggle. Set the estimated delivery date, the quota and, if you want, a custom label text.
3. Your buyers reserve: in the store, the product shows the pre-order label, the "Pre-order" button, and the line "Estimated delivery: [date]" (or "Delivery date to be confirmed" if you didn't set a date). A pre-order product with 0 stock is not shown as sold out: zero stock is expected.
4. The merchandise arrives and you release delivery: from the order, the Release selected button releases the pre-order lines (all or some). The system notifies the customer by email that their pre-order is ready and the lines change to "Available — being dispatched".

Form fields (on the product)

• Pre-order (toggle): enables pre-orders for this product. Requires pre-orders to be enabled in the Store Editor.
• Estimated delivery date: shown to the buyer as the estimated date. You can change it later.
• Pre-order text: the label text in the store (e.g. "PRE-ORDER", "COMING SOON"). If empty, the store's default text is used.
• Pre-order quota (simple products only): the maximum number of units to sell on pre-order — the batch that will arrive. Empty = no limit. Next to it, "Committed units: N" shows what has already been reserved.
• Pre-order start and Pre-order end: outside these dates the product automatically stops selling on pre-order. Empty = no limit.
• On products with variants, the quota is set per variant in the Options tab, in the Pre-order quota field of each row. Each variant shows its committed units.

What the buyer sees

• A pre-order label on the product card and on the product page (it replaces the promotion label).
• The "Pre-order" buy button and the estimated delivery visibly shown.
• If the campaign has a quota, when 10 units or fewer remain, "N left" appears. When the quota runs out, the product shows "Pre-order sold out" and can no longer be purchased (on products with variants, only the sold-out variant is disabled).
• In the cart, each pre-order line carries its label and date. If the cart mixes in-stock and pre-order products, a notice appears: "Pre-order products are dispatched separately when they become available". Before confirming, the legal notice corresponding to the country is shown.
• If the cart is 100% pre-order, no shipping is charged at that moment: shipping is added only when you release the delivery.

Managing orders with pre-orders

• In the Orders list, orders with pre-orders carry a traffic-light label based on the nearest estimated date: green (pending), yellow ("Upcoming (7 days)"), red ("Overdue"), and "Released" when nothing is held anymore.
• You can filter by pre-order: "With pre-order", "Pending delivery", "Overdue", "Upcoming (7 days)", "No pre-order".
• The Pre-order demand panel totals the pending reserved units per product and variant with their estimated date: use it to plan your purchase from the supplier.
• Pre-orders do not touch your stock: pre-order lines do not deduct stock when sold nor return it when canceled. Instead, the quota keeps count of committed units and the system prevents overselling when it runs out.
• Held pre-order lines do not appear on the picking order (the merchandise hasn't arrived yet); they can only be picked after being released.

Tips

• Use the quota as the actual size of the batch that will arrive: the system stops selling only when the entire quota is committed.
• If you push back the delivery date, update it on the product: buyers see it in the store and on their order.
• Pre-orders are configured from the product editor; the bulk importer does not handle pre-order fields.
• Pre-order products are exempt from the automatic stock adjustments of ERP integrations while the campaign is active.