Shopify Pre-order Enforcement is a safeguard that ensures pre-order items are processed correctly. It prevents customers from checking out pre-order variants as standard “buy-now” items, which can occasionally happen due to theme conflicts or interference from other apps.

How it works #

PreProduct exposes a custom Shopify checkout rule that can be turned on. If a pre-order variant is detected without a valid Shopify purchase option, the checkout will be blocked, and the customer will be prompted to return to the product page to select the pre-order option.

Note: This feature is only compatible with setups using charge-later, deposit-upfront, or charge-upfront pre-orders powered by Shopify purchase options. Products on capture-only pre-order will just be ignored and never fail validation.

Setup Instructions #

To enable this feature, you must opt-in within both PreProduct and your Shopify admin settings.

1. In PreProduct:
   • Navigate to the Setup tab.
   • Scroll down to the Pre-order enforcement section.
   • Click Activate pre-order enforcement.
2. In Shopify:
   • Click the Manage Checkout rule link that appears in PreProduct (this redirects you to your Shopify Checkout settings).
   • You should be taken directly to the Pre-order enforcement checkout rule. Click save, then click Turn on.
   • If you go back to the Shopify Checkout admin, the rule should show as Active under the Checkout rules section.

After activating, PreProduct will loop through all of your pre-order listings and add special managed metafields in Shopify. Depending on your catalogue size, this can take some time.

Customer Experience #

If the customer tries to checkout a pre-order incorrectly, the validation will fail and show the customer an error message preventing the transaction. Depending on your theme, this will appear as one of the following:

1. Inline Error: A warning message directly above the buy-now buttons.

2. Modal Popup: A “Transaction failed” pop-up explaining that the item must be checked out as a pre-order.

3. Silent failure: We’ve observed that some older themes don’t surface any error messaging, and instead will just fail to add to cart.