When creating a pre-order listing, if clicking the pre-order button fails to add an item to your cart or checkout, there are a several possible causes. Here are some common reasons why this might happen, along with suggested solutions to ensure a smooth pre-order experience on your store.

Inventory Settings #

• Issue: The product’s stock level is set to 0 and the “Continue selling when out of stock” option is not enabled.
• Solution: Ensure the “Continue selling when out of stock” checkbox is selected in your Shopify product/variant admin to allow zero stock products through checkout.

Missing Purchase Options #

• Issue: Required purchase options are missing at the time of adding the item to the cart. PreProduct automatically adds these options when you create a listing, but issues can arise if they are removed from the bottom of the Shopify product admin.
• Solution: Do not manually remove the purchase option via Shopify’s product admin. Listing/de-listing products in PreProduct handles this automatically. If you find yourself in this situation, simply finish the listing in PreProduct and then reactivate it to regenerate the purchase option.

Sales Channel Availability #

• Issue: The product has been removed from the “Online store” sales channel.
• Solution: From the top right of the Shopify product admin, ensure that the “Sales channels” include “Online Store”.

Payment Gateway Configuration for Deferred Charge Pre-Orders #

• Issue: Attempting to use deferred charge pre-orders without having Shopify Payments or PayPal configured.
• Solution: Ensure that Shopify Payments or PayPal is set up correctly to accept deferred charge pre-orders. One or both of these payment methods need to be active in your Shopify Billing settings. (When using PayPal, you’ll need Automatic Payments set up. Installing PreProduct automatically requests that this happens.)

Conflicts with Other Apps #

• Issue: Another app, such as a discount app, is interfering with the cart functionality.
• Solution: Investigate if disabling other installed apps resolves the issue. Sometimes, app conflicts can prevent items from being added to the cart properly.

Bogus Checkout Settings #

• Issue: Bogus checkout is enabled, which doesn’t always support testing pre-orders.
• Solution: Testing should be conducted with Shopify Payments in test mode. For more information on testing Shopify Payments, refer to the official Shopify documentation.

Shipping Profile Configuration #

• Issue: The product is not configured to ship to the user’s country. This can prevent your checkout from accepting the pre-order.
• Solution: Ensure that your shipping profiles are correctly set up to include all the countries you wish to ship to. To adjust your shipping settings, visit the Shopify admin’s “Shipping and delivery” section. For more detailed guidance on setting up and managing your shipping profiles, refer to the official Shopify doc: Setting up and managing your shipping.

By working through this list, you can hopefully troubleshoot and resolve the issue. If the problem persists, as always feel free to reach out.