Listing a Shopify pre-order with PreProduct is done by piggy-backing off of existing product listings. This stops you from having to enter the same information twice, as well as allowing a seamless transition from regular order to pre-order.

It’s important to note that PreProduct requires a line of code to be installed in your theme. You can learn more about this from the top of the setup menu from within the app. To create a new PreProduct listing, follow these steps:

Start by navigating to PreProduct and click the ‘New Listing’ option from the top menu.

• You will see a list of your Shopify products. Ordered by ‘most recently modified’. Click the product which you would like to list. You can also search in the box at the ‘create new listing’ screen (If you don’t see the product you’re looking for, simply modify its Shopify listing in any way. e.g. add a space to its description and hit ‘save’.)

• You will now be met with the main listing creating screen. Any configuration or options will work, apart from a request to list non-0-stock variants. Once you’re ready, click ‘Create listing’ to create the listing. (See the ‘Only list specific variants’ option if you’re just listing certain variants).

Listing options #

When will you be ready to ship to customers? #

PreProduct offers two approaches; a period in days (which will automatically be reduced by one every 24 hours), or a fixed phrase e.g. ‘next season’. The ‘something else’ box allows you to switch between the two options.

Early bird discount #

This number field will create a discount if populated.
For deferred charge pre-orders, a discount will be embedded into the order itself. For other listing kinds, PreProduct will directly change your product’s/variant’s ‘price’ and ‘compare at price’ in Shopify. The former, a discounted version of the latter. 
(note, when PreProduct listings are finished, this discount is reversed).

Kind of listing  #

• Capture-only – Customers will enter their order details, along with a name and email. Then when you’re ready to charge customers, you can send out payment link emails from PreProduct.
• Charge-later – Customers are sent through checkout at the time of pre-order to accept the future charge. Then once you’re ready, you can trigger the deferred charge on their card.
• Deposit upfront – PreProduct offers the ability to require a deposit for pre-orders. Pre-orders are powered by deferred charge with the deposit amount being charged at the time of pre-order. The outstanding amount is charged against that same card once you trigger it.
• Charge upfront – Just like the name suggests, customers are charged at the time of pre-order. In Shopify, orders are created straight away with an initial fulfilment status of “on hold”. For other platforms, PreProduct will keep the order out of the platform until fulfilment is triggered from PreProduct.

Advanced section #

Only list specific variants  #

You might have a product with variants you’d like to list through PreProduct and variants that should be available as a regular ‘buy now’. By checking this tick-box and then subsequent variant boxes, you can do just that. (PreProduct will dynamically hide and show your ‘buy button’/PreProduct widget as needed)

Set max pre-order limits #

This section allows you to set a maximum number of pre-orders that a variant can receive. For example, maybe you’re worried about selling out of a specific variant.
Once a variant hits its limit, PreProduct will stop accepting pre-orders for it and (theme depending) hide that variant or show a ‘sold out’ sign in place of the ‘pre-order’/’buy-now’ button.

Set customer pre-order limits #

This section allows you to limit the number of pre-orders a single customer can make. PreProduct’s front-end will stop the customer from exceeding this limit.

*Something to note; a user can bypass customer limits via Chrome Incognito mode, but these rare cases can be caught at the PreProduct dashboard or Shopify Orders level.