---
title: "How to Migrate Pre-orders to Shopify (from Any Platform)"
slug: "migrate-pre-orders-to-shopify"
date: "2026-07-22T02:35:21+00:00"
modified: "2026-07-22T02:35:24+00:00"
author: "Eliza"
canonical: "https://preproduct.io/migrate-pre-orders-to-shopify/"
---

**TLDR:** To migrate pre-orders to Shopify, treat it as two jobs, not one. First, get the historical orders into Shopify (via a CSV or store-migration tool if you’re coming from WooCommerce, BigCommerce or a Kickstarter pledge manager). Then tag those orders and let a pre-order app import them as proper pre-order records, so paid, deposit and charge-later states all carry across. The orders themselves are the easy part. Preserving each customer’s payment state is what actually matters, and it’s the step most migrations get wrong.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-21-at-13.58.54.png)Moving to Shopify is stressful enough without live pre-orders hanging in the balance. And pre-orders are exactly the kind of order that standard migrations mishandle. These are unfulfilled orders, often with money still owed later, tied to customers who are waiting on a product that hasn’t shipped. Lose track of them and you lose revenue, or worse, you charge someone twice and lose their trust.

The problem? Every store-migration tool on the market moves your products, customers and past orders. None of them understand a pre-order. They can’t tell the difference between a fulfilled sale and a charge-later pre-order that still needs collecting in three months. So when you migrate pre-orders to Shopify, you need a process built for that specific job.

This guide walks through exactly that: how to bring pre-orders across cleanly from WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Kickstarter, with payment states and customer records intact. We’ve built the pre-order app that handles the import, so we’ll be specific about what carries over, what gets skipped, and why.

### What migrating pre-orders actually involves

Most people picture migration as a single step: click a button, orders appear in Shopify, done. For pre-orders, it’s two layers, and understanding the split is what saves you from a mess later.

**Layer one is getting the orders into Shopify.** If you’re replatforming from WooCommerce or BigCommerce, your historical orders need to physically land in your new Shopify orders admin. If you’re coming off a Kickstarter campaign, you don’t even have “orders” yet, you have backers and pledges that need turning into orders first.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-21-at-14.01.05-1024x364.png)**Layer two is getting those orders recognised as pre-orders.** An order sitting in your Shopify admin is just an order. For it to behave like a pre-order, so fulfilment holds apply, deferred charges can be collected, and lead-time messaging fires, it needs to live inside a pre-order system. That’s where a pre-order app imports the tagged orders and rebuilds them as pre-order records.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-21-at-14.02.12-1024x117.png)Skip layer two and your pre-orders look like normal sales. They’ll flow straight into fulfilment, your charge-later customers will never get charged, and your deposit customers will show as fully paid. The order data moving across is not the same as the pre-order surviving.

#### Why payment state is the thing that matters most

A pre-order carries a payment state that a regular order doesn’t. It might be paid in full, part-paid via a deposit, or authorised but not yet charged. That state decides what you do next, and it’s the single most important thing to preserve.

It’s also the most common way pre-orders are structured for exactly this reason. Across one million pre-orders, charge-later made up 43.8% of listings, capture-only 28.7%, charge-upfront 14.9% and deposit-upfront 12.6%. In other words, most pre-orders are pay-later in some form. A naive migration that marks everything “paid” would quietly break the majority of them.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-19-at-11.08.47.png)### Before you migrate: take stock of your live pre-orders

Before touching any tools, get a clear inventory of the pre-orders you’re moving. Ten minutes here prevents hours of cleanup later.

#### Sort every pre-order by payment state

Group your live pre-orders into three buckets, because these map directly onto how they’ll import:

- **Fully paid.** Customer paid in full at checkout. These become standard charge-upfront pre-orders.
- **Partially paid.** Customer paid a deposit, with a balance still owed. These become deposit-based pre-orders, with the amount already collected recorded as the deposit.
- **Unpaid but authorised.** Customer committed but hasn’t been charged. When a saved payment method is on the order, these become charge-later pre-orders, ready to collect when you fulfil. One important caveat when you’re changing platforms: that saved card usually won’t survive the move, so read the note on deferred-charge pre-orders below before you migrate this bucket.

If you’re not sure which type of pre-order each one is, the payment state is your answer. Sort by “amount paid” in your current platform’s order export and the buckets fall out naturally.

#### Note lead times and what customers were promised

Pre-orders come with a promise: an estimated ship date, sometimes a specific window. Migrating shouldn’t reset that clock or lose the commitment. Note the promised timeframe for each campaign so you can rebuild it on the Shopify side.

This matters more than it sounds. The most common shipping timeframe is 121 to 150 days, so a charge-later pre-order can easily be months from fulfilment when you migrate. The customer expectation you’re carrying across is real and dated, and your new setup needs to honour it.

### Migrating pre-orders from WooCommerce to Shopify

WooCommerce merchants tend to be replatforming the whole store, so the pre-orders ride along with everything else. The two-layer approach keeps them from getting lost in the shuffle.

**Layer one: get your WooCommerce orders into Shopify.** Export your orders from WooCommerce to CSV, then bring them into Shopify. Shopify’s official guide to migrating from WooCommerce walks through moving your store data, and historical orders are usually handled with a dedicated migration app if you want the full order history preserved rather than just products and customers.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-12.16.09-1024x396.png)**Layer two: tag and import the pre-order ones.** Once your orders are in Shopify, identify which ones are the outstanding pre-orders. Tag those orders in your Shopify admin with a single consistent tag, then run the pre-order import so each becomes a proper pre-order record with its payment state intact. One thing to handle first: collect any unpaid, charge-later pre-orders in WooCommerce before you move. The saved card stays with your WooCommerce payment gateway and won’t vault to Shopify, so anything left uncollected imports with no card to charge.

The upside for WooCommerce stores is that once you’re set up, PreProduct uses your existing catalogue and pushes orders back to your admin when you’re ready to ship, the same working model you get with WooCommerce pre-orders today. You keep the workflow you know, just on Shopify.

### Migrating pre-orders from BigCommerce to Shopify

The BigCommerce path mirrors WooCommerce almost exactly, with the difference being where your export comes from.

**Layer one: export from BigCommerce, import to Shopify.** Export your orders from BigCommerce to CSV, then bring them into Shopify via its migration guide. Import products and customers first, then historical orders, so each order connects to the right records. A migration app handles the full order history if you need it.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-12.28.32-1024x384.png)**Layer two: tag the pre-orders and import them.** With orders in Shopify, tag the ones that are still open pre-orders, then run the pre-order migration. Paid, deposit and charge-later states rebuild automatically based on how each order was left. Same caveat as any platform move: collect any unpaid, charge-later pre-orders in BigCommerce first, because those cards stay with your BigCommerce gateway and can’t be charged from Shopify afterwards.

If you were already running BigCommerce pre-orders, the mental model carries straight over. You’re moving the same kind of order into the same kind of pre-order system, just under a new platform. Your customers won’t notice anything except that their pre-order is now being managed properly on the other side.

### Migrating pre-orders from Kickstarter or a crowdfunding campaign

Kickstarter is the odd one out, and it’s also the situation where a proper pre-order system pays off most. You don’t have ecommerce orders to export. You have backers and pledges, usually managed through a pledge manager like a survey tool or BackerKit.

**Layer one: turn backers into Shopify orders.** Export your backer and pledge data from your pledge manager, then create matching orders in Shopify. This is the extra step crowdfunding creators have to do that replatformers don’t, because your commitments live in a campaign, not a store.

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-12.31.07-1024x492.png)**Layer two: import them as pre-orders.** Tag those new orders and import them into PreProduct. One Kickstarter-specific catch: backers pay through Kickstarter or your pledge manager, and those cards are never vaulted with Shopify or PreProduct. You can’t collect a pledge from Shopify after the fact, so collect everything you’re owed on Kickstarter or in your pledge manager first. Do that and your backers come across as paid pre-orders, leaving fulfilment as the main job to manage. Anything still uncollected imports unpaid and gets flagged, since there’s no card on file to charge. That long runway between campaign and delivery is exactly why fulfilment holds and clear customer messaging matter here.

Moving crowdfunding fulfilment onto your own store is a bigger decision than a straight app switch, and it’s worth understanding the trade-offs. Our breakdown of Shopify versus Kickstarter covers when to make the jump. Once you’re on Shopify, you can even recreate the campaign feel with a crowdfunding progress bar so momentum doesn’t die when the Kickstarter page does.

### Importing your pre-orders into PreProduct

![](https://preproduct.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/logo.svg)This is layer two in practice. Once your orders are sitting in Shopify and tagged, the pre-order import does the heavy lifting. The full step-by-step migration guide has the click-by-click detail, so here’s the shape of it.

#### How the import works

In your Shopify admin, add the same tag to every order you want to import, something like `preorder_import_july`. Any tag works as long as it’s consistent, and if your previous app already tagged its orders, you can reuse that tag as-is. Then in PreProduct, open the Setup menu, find the “Migrate existing pre-orders” card, enter your tag and start the migration. It works through every tagged order one at a time at a pace that’s safe for your store’s API limits, and it keeps running in the background if you navigate away.

#### What carries across

For each tagged order with unfulfilled items, PreProduct creates a pre-order record of the correct type against the right listing, with the payment state carried over:

Order state in ShopifyImported asPaidCharge-upfront pre-order (paid)Partially paidDeposit-based pre-order (amount paid recorded as deposit)Unpaid, authorisedCharge-later pre-order, ready to charge on fulfilmentIf an order contains a product that isn’t listed in PreProduct yet, a new “finished” listing is created automatically so the pre-order has somewhere to live. You can reactivate that listing later if you want to keep selling, or leave it as an archive you can still charge and fulfil from. Orders that mix pre-order items with regular buy-now items are handled too: only the unfulfilled pre-order lines import, and cash already taken for shipped lines stays out of the pre-order’s numbers.

#### What gets skipped, and why

Not every tagged order should become a pre-order, so the import skips anything that doesn’t qualify and tells you why. Common reasons include an order that’s already in PreProduct (so it isn’t imported twice), a charge-later order with no saved payment method to charge against, and fully fulfilled lines with nothing left to manage. After each run, skipped orders are listed with their reason so nothing disappears silently.

One reassurance worth stating plainly: the import is read-only on the Shopify side. PreProduct never edits, tags or holds your live orders during a migration, and no customer emails are sent. The only thing that changes is inside PreProduct, where your new pre-order records appear.

### A few things to watch when migrating pre-orders

Most migrations go smoothly. These are the edge cases worth knowing before you start.

#### Deferred-charge pre-orders won’t have a card on file after a platform move

This is the big one for anyone leaving WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Kickstarter. Saved cards are vaulted with the payment processor on the platform where the order was taken. They don’t travel to Shopify when you migrate. So an unpaid, deferred-charge pre-order that looked perfectly collectable on your old platform arrives in Shopify with no valid card to charge against.

Our recommendation: charge those pre-orders on the platform you’re moving from first, while the card is still on file. Once collected, they migrate across as paid, charge-upfront pre-orders and everything reconciles cleanly. Anything you can’t collect beforehand will import without a payment method, so it gets skipped and flagged for you to chase separately. This is also why deferred charges and Shopify authorization periods are worth understanding before you start.

#### You can re-run and top up

The migration is safe to run more than once. Because duplicates are skipped, you can tag a first batch, import it, then tag more orders later and run again without creating doubles. This is handy when pre-orders are still coming in during your move, or when you want to migrate in stages rather than all at once.

#### Decide whether to archive or keep selling

Every imported pre-order lands against a listing, and for unlisted products that listing is created in a “finished” state. You choose what happens next. Reactivate it to keep taking new pre-orders on that product, or leave it archived as a clean record of what you brought across. Either way you can still trigger charges, emails and fulfilment on the imported pre-orders.

If you want to go deeper on how each payment type behaves after import, our guide to pre-order payment models covers charge-later, deposits and capture-only in detail.

### Wrapping up

Migrating pre-orders to Shopify is straightforward once you stop thinking of it as one step. Keep these takeaways in mind:

- **It’s two layers.** Get the orders into Shopify first, then import them as pre-orders. Don’t conflate the two.
- **Payment state is king.** Paid, deposit and charge-later are different animals, and preserving that distinction is the whole job.
- **Coming from WooCommerce or BigCommerce?** Replatform the orders, tag the pre-order ones, import.
- **Coming from Kickstarter?** Turn backers into orders first, then import, usually as charge-later.
- **The import is safe.** It’s read-only on Shopify, sends no customer emails, skips duplicates, and you can re-run it.

Bring your pre-orders across properly and nothing falls through the cracks: customers stay informed, deposits and deferred charges stay collectable, and everything lives in one place. That’s the goal, and it’s a short process to get there.

Ready to move your pre-orders over? Start with PreProduct and run your first migration in minutes, or read the full migration doc to see every step.

### Frequently asked questions

#### Can you migrate pre-orders to Shopify without charging customers again?

Yes. The import preserves each order’s existing payment state. Paid orders stay paid, deposits keep the amount already collected, and charge-later orders stay uncharged until you choose to collect. Nobody is charged as part of the migration itself.

#### Do customers get emailed during a pre-order migration?

No. The migration is read-only on the Shopify side and sends no customer emails. The only changes happen inside your pre-order dashboard, so customers won’t receive anything unless you deliberately trigger a message afterwards.

#### Can I move pre-orders from another Shopify pre-order app?

Yes. If you’re switching apps rather than platforms, your orders are already in Shopify. Tag them, or reuse the tag your previous app applied, and run the import. It’s the same process without the replatforming step.

#### What happens to charge-later pre-orders when I migrate?

They import as charge-later pre-orders, ready to collect when you fulfil, as long as the order has a saved payment method. There’s a catch when you’re changing platforms: vaulted cards stay with your old platform’s payment processor and don’t come across to Shopify. So we recommend charging any unpaid, deferred-charge pre-orders on the platform you’re leaving first, while the card is still on file. They then migrate as paid pre-orders. Anything left unpaid imports without a card and gets skipped and flagged, so you can chase it separately.