Next-Level Pre-order Automation with Shopify Flow (Free vs App | 31 New Triggers + Actions)

Small teams can punch above their weight when they automate well. In 2025, Shopify Flow is making it possible to build world-class pre‑order systems – without needing full development teams. And by pairing it with a pre‑order app like PreProduct, you unlock 31 custom triggers and actions to run your entire pre‑order lifecycle.

Why Shopify Flow Matters for Lean Teams

Shopify Flow is a no‑code automation platform that lets you build workflows using triggers, conditions, and actions. It ships with Shopify Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans, and supports both event‑based and scheduled automations, across your entire store ecosystem.

What Flow offers small teams:

• Automation across products, inventory, orders, customers, and more.
• No need for manual scripts or recurring app maintenance.
• The ability to scale smarter, not just headcount.

In essence, Flow gives you the building blocks to operate like a much larger team—without hiring.

Part 1: Native Shopify Flow Setup (Free, No App Required)

You can already build basic pre‑order logic using Flow’s native tools. Here’s how you may approach a basic selected overselling workflow.

Example Workflow:

Roll Out Pre‑order When a Variant Sells Out

Trigger: Variant goes out of stock

If product has tag can‑pre‑order

Then:

• Enable “Continue selling when out of stock” via the Shopify Flow HTTP Request action (not currently a built in Shopify action)
• Set a pre-order policy metafield (e.g. “Ships mid‑September”)

This allows you to oversell only on products approved for pre‑order. The metafield can be surfaced on your storefront to communicate pre‑order details.

Automatic Reversal When Stock Returns

You can also automate turning pre‑order off:

• Trigger: Variant back in stock
• If product has the pre‑order metafield
• Then untick “continue selling” and remove the metafield

Now your pre‑order workflow happens fully automatically, requires no ongoing oversight, and keeps your team lean.

Part 2: Extending Flow with PreProduct (Custom Triggers & Actions)

While native Flow gives you strong automation foundations, PreProduct takes it to the next tier—especially for pre‑order operations.

What PreProduct Adds to Shopify Flow

The app introduces:

• 15 new custom actions:
  • Create listing – Create a new pre-order listing for a specific product/variant
  • Get listing – Fetch data for an existing listing
  • Get many listings – Fetch multiple listings at once
  • Get pre-orders – Get a list of pre-orders tied to a listing or product
  • Put listing variant on pre-order
  • Take listing variant off pre-order
  • Update listing customer max limit
  • Update listing deposit
  • Update listing discount
  • Update listing shipping
  • Trigger charges and/or fulfilment – Initiate payment capture and/or fulfilment
  • Link listing to template
  • Sync listing to linked template
  • On pre-order? – Check if a product or variant is currently on pre-order

• 16 new custom triggers:
  • Listing created
  • Listing finished
  • Listing shipping five days out
  • Listing variant limit reached
  • Listing variant limits all reached
  • Pre-order created
  • Pre-order cancelled
  • Pre-order charge failed
  • Pre-order charge succeeded
  • Pre-order paid
  • Pre-order fulfilment released
  • Email – confirmation*
  • Email – update
  • Email – upcoming charge
  • Email – failed charge
  • Email – payment link

With these tools, you can go far beyond inventory triggers—automating charging, fulfillment, communications, and integrations with your customer stack. Here’s our user doc on the various automations

Recreating & Enhancing a Simple Flow

Here’s how we’d rebuild the native example using PreProduct’s actions and triggers:

• When inventory hits zero
• If product tagged can-pre-order
• Use the PreProduct action “on pre-order?” to determine if the product/variant is on pre-order already.
• Add PreProduct actions like “create pre-order listing” or “add variant to listing” to branch flows:
  • Notify CX team on failed charge
  • Trigger a Klaviyo email before upcoming charge
  • Repeat handling on listing cap reached

Your flow becomes not just reactive—it becomes orchestrated, intelligent, and connected across marketing, operations, and finance.

Real Use Cases: Shopify Flow Templates in the Flow Store

These are live templates in the Shopify Flow library—built using PreProduct’s extended actions/triggers:

Put on Pre-order When Out of Stock

Automatically starts pre‑order campaigns when inventory drops to zero.

Toggle Pre‑order Based on Inventory & Metafield

Use metafields to control exactly when pre‑orders are allowed—a layer of logic only accessible via Flow.

Charge & Fulfil When Product Has Tag

Tag a product ready‑to‑ship and have flow trigger PreProduct’s “trigger charges and/or fulfilment” action for all of the product’s pre-orders.

Charge & Fulfil When Order Has Tag

Manually tag orders in Shopify (e.g. VIP backers) to trigger PreProduct’s “trigger charges and/or fulfilment” action for that order’s pre-orders.

These represent actionable templates for both lean operations and complex campaigns.

Why This Approach Works for High-Performing, Small Teams

Pre‑orders are complex—they tie inventory, pricing, communications, and fulfillment together. Flow gives your team the ability to orchestrate those touchpoints across Shopify and your app stack. PreProduct extends that orchestration throughout:

• Pre‑order launch
• Charge timing and retries
• Fulfilment triggers
• Customer segmentation and campaigns
• Stock and listing control

This combined approach lets small teams run high-impact, professional pre‑order systems without extra hires.

Summary

• Native Shopify Flow gives any team a powerful, free toolkit to build pre‑order workflows.
• PreProduct adds depth—with 31 custom triggers and actions designed for the pre‑order lifecycle.

Together, you can build a system that automates pricing, communication, inventory and fulfilment—end to end.