Setting up Shopify back in stock notifications



Intro

Shopify back-in-stock notifications can play a crucial role in enhancing the customer experience and driving Shopify sales for eCommerce businesses.

The basic premise of back in stock notifications, is that customers who visit a product page displaying a sold out product or a product that is currently unavailable have the option to provide their email address to receive a back in stock alert.

Some of the benefits of setting up Shopify back in stock notifications includes; customer engagement and retention, increase customer satisfaction, maximise sales opportunities to recover lost sales, and improve inventory management.

How back-in-stock notifications work

Back-in-stock notifications are alerts/messages sent to customers who have expressed interest in a product that was previously out of stock or not yet available but has now become available on a Shopify store.

Below is how the basic process typically works:

-The store sets up a back in stock flow on their website

-A customer expresses interest; A customer visits a product page on a Shopify stores website and finds that the desired item is out of stock or currently not available.

-The customer can then choose to opt in for restock alerts, by providing their email address/phone number through an on-page widget. This is typically a ‘back in stock’ button that launches a pop-up modal to capture the customer details.


Opting in to back-in-stock notifications

-When the product is restocked and becomes available again, the Shopify store will automatically send a notification (via email, SMS, or app notification) to all the customers who signed up for back in stock alerts for that specific product.

-Once notified, the customer can click on the link provided which will take them directly to the product page to make a purchase. This simplifies the buying process for the customer and can lead to quicker sales.

Why a stock alert app brings customers back to your store

Customers who have signed up to be notified of restock alerts, have already expressed that they are interested in the product. You can imagine how much better qualified a back-in-stock email list would be when compared to most email campaigns.

Sending restock alerts to customers reignites their interest and as they have already previously missed out they will be even more driven to quickly purchase the product.



The back in stock notification not only drives sales but also directs traffic back to your eCommerce site. Customers receiving back-in-stock emails are likely to browse other products as well and potentially make additional purchases during their visit to your shop.


Setting up a back-in-stock Shopify app


Choosing a back-in-stock app

When choosing a back-in-stock app for your eCommerce website, there are several key factors to consider to ensure that the app you select best suits your business goals. Here are important aspects to look for:

Ease of Use and Integration:

The app should be relatively user-friendly to use and set up, you also want it to integrate seamlessly with your site theme, as well as have a great support team. An app that you can comfortably use and set up means you’ll actually use it. You can always look into more feature-rich apps, once you’re ready.

Customization and Branding:

Find an app that allows customization to match your brand’s look-and-feel. Use the app’s interface to customize notification templates, colors, etc to ensure a cohesive brand identity.

Notification Channels:

You will need to check the notification channels the app supports, such as email, SMS, push notifications, or other messaging apps and ensure that the app supports the channels preferred by your target audience for the most effective communication.



Adding the “notify me” button to your shopify theme

You’ll need to incorporate a code snippet/block into your Shopify theme that triggers the automatic display of a “Notify Me When Available” button whenever products are no longer in stock. Most apps will now use Store 2.0 block that you drag from the “Online Store -> “Shopify Customizer”. But if you are are not on a 2.0 Shopify theme, you will need to add a code snippet.

After you have added the code snippet/block, shoppers browsing an out-of-stock/unavailable a product will see a “Notify Me When Available” button appear directly next to, or below, the “Sold Out” button. It is important to ensure the correct placement and visibility of the “Notify Me When Available” button, as this will encourage customers to register their interest.

When shoppers clicks the “Notify Me” button, a pop up form will appear that allows shoppers to enter their email to be notified when the item is restocked or available.

Once this form is submitted by shoppers, a Subscribed to Back In Stock event will be tracked on the shoppers profile



Customising the back-in-stock button and form for your store

The “Notify Me When Available” button and form should allow a lot of customization, depending which app you choose. Klaviyo for examples allows you to change the colors, fonts, text, and other elements according to the style of your online store and your design preferences.



Setting up the back-in-stock notifications email/text flow

Creating effective back in stock alert email notifications is essential to captivate customers and motivate them to make a purchase. Services like Klaviyo can useful as they allow you to automate the email flows.

Below are some of the best practices to utilise when writing back in stock alert emails.

Clear and Compelling Subject Line:

Grab attention with a clear and engaging subject line that conveys the purpose of the email

Personalization:

Address the recipient by their name to create a sense of personal connection and make the email feel more tailored to their preferences.

Announce Product Availability:

Clearly state that the desired product is back in stock, setting the tone for the rest of the email.

Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA):

Use a prominent and compelling CTA, such as “Shop Now” or “Grab Yours Today,” that directs customers to the product page to make a purchase.

Offer Limited-Time Incentives:

Encourage immediate action by offering limited-time promotions, discounts, or free shipping to incentivize purchases.

Create a Sense of Urgency:

Use language that creates a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to act quickly before the product runs out of stock again or the pre-order discount stops being available.

monitoring analytics and reporting

Many Shopify apps that offer back-in-stock notifications, allow you to monitor the performance of your various flows and product pages. It’s best practise to monitor these analytics and optimise your front-end wording and email campaigns appropriately. Consider split tests with something like Klaviyo’s AB testing.



Why you might use a pre-order app instead

what level of order intent do you want to capture?

Sending a back in stock notification to customers is very much worthwhile, however a customer is giving quite a low level of commitment. There is another option however… pre-orders.

If you want to ensure you’re capturing genuine interest, as well as start a transaction in a way which is still flexible and without any money charged upfront. Pre-orders can be a great way to level up your back-in-stock alerts.

By using a pre-order system that supports pay-later pre-orders, you can tap into a customer’s willingness to commit to a purchase even before an item is restocked. This offers a clearer indication of product demand than mere stock notifications.

pre-orders that allow you to charge later

Shopify capture only pre-orders, allow you to capture a customer’s intent to pre-order. When you are ready to finalise the pre-order and collect payment, you send out payment links to customers, and this allows them to pay for their pre-order through your online store.

Shopify charge later pre-orders are similar to ‘capture only’ pre-orders in that the customer pays for the product at a later time (whenever suits the store owner). However, the customer goes through the Shopify checkout at the time of pre-order and enters their card details and agrees to a deferred charge. Shopify vaults these card details and charges when the store owner triggers the charge.

Setting up a pre-order app in the place of back in stock notifications

We’ll use PreProduct in this example, although other pre-sale apps may support similar functionality.

  1. Install PreProduct from the Shopify App Store
  2. Add PreProduct’s block to your theme’s product pages via the Shopify Customize editor
  3. Visit PreProduct’s “Templates” screen and set the eligibility conditions for which products should show be allowed to show the back-in-stock button. Make sure to choose capture-only or charge-later when specifying the pre-order listing settings.
  4. Finally, turn on the listing manager automation from PreProduct’s “Setup” -> “Automations” screen, so that eligible out of stock products will be pre-sold.

The Listing manager gets the chance to run every time a product has a change in Shopify (e.g. a change in stock level), but as soon as this first change happens, eligible products will stay in sync.

Back in stock app Shopify FAQ

Back-in-stock email subject lines should be; Clear and to the point so that customers immediately understand what the email is about, attention-grabbing so that customers want to open and read it and urgent so it is opened and customers act fast to purchase.

How to write back in stock email subject lines?

Yes, you should definitely customize your back-in-stock emails/messages. Personalized emails are more likely to be opened and clicked on than generic emails.

Should you customise back in stock emails?

Both back in stock notifications and pre-orders can both be beneficial for online stores. Back in stock notifications can be great when you have products that regularly go in and out of stock, so customers can be notified as soon as they are back in stock, and allow you to sell more items. Pre-orders allow you to take the order even when the product is out of stock and does not rely on the customer purchasing the product once back in stock after receiving the notification.

Should you set up back in stock notifications or use a pre-order app?

You will need to download a back in stock app from the Shopify app store, and then configure it in your Shopify store.

How do I set up back in stock alerts on Shopify?

“Back in stock” refers to a situation where a product that was previously out of stock or unavailable for purchase is once again available for purchase. It indicates that the product is available again and is ready for customers to buy.

What is the meaning of back in stock?

The “back in stock” strategy involves strategies used by businesses to effectively manage and capitalize on the restocking of products that were previously unavailable. This approach is crucial for maximizing sales.

What is the back in stock strategy?

It’s up to you to add and remove stock in the Shopify product admin. As customers purchase items, the stock level will naturally decrement. Once you have new stock arrive on premise, you can go into Shopify’s product admin and increase the inventory level.

How do you know if something is back in stock?

This is commonly referred to as a “back in stock alerts” or “stock notifications” app. There are many options available on the Shopify app store.

What is the app that tells you when something is in stock?

Eliza Wegener

Co-founder @PreProduct

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7 day free trial with all plans

Shopify pre-orders vs Kickstarter 



1. Introduction

The following guide is going to look at the very important debate between Shopify pre-orders vs Kickstarter and choosing which is best for launching a new product.

The Rising Importance of Pre-orders in E-Commerce

Pre-orders are increasingly becoming more important in e-commerce, this is due to several factors; some are listed below;

  • Revenue generation – Pre-orders contribute to revenue generation before the product’s official release. Customers typically pay in advance when placing a pre-order, providing businesses with a steady cash flow even before the product is available for shipment.
  • Production Planning and Inventory Management – Pre-orders help businesses forecast demand and plan production accordingly. By analysing pre-order data, companies can make informed decisions about manufacturing, supply chain management, and inventory allocation. This reduces the risk of overproduction or under-stocking, thus optimizing operational efficiency.

rolls of fabric, factory, material

  • Anticipation and Exclusivity: Pre-orders allow customers to secure a product before its official release date, creating a sense of anticipation and exclusivity. By placing a pre-order, customers can ensure they will be among the first to receive the item, giving them a feeling of being ahead of the curve.

The power of pre-selling a new product:

Utilising pre-orders for e-commerce can offer lots of benefits, some of these include;

  • Marketing and Promotion: Pre-orders can serve as a marketing and promotional tool for companies. They generate buzz and excitement around a product before its release, creating a sense of urgency to secure a reservation. E-commerce platforms can leverage pre-orders to build anticipation through targeted advertising, social media campaigns, and influencer collaborations.

social, media, social media

  • Customer Engagement and Loyalty: Pre-orders provide an opportunity for e-commerce companies to engage with customers and build loyalty. By allowing customers to secure a product in advance, businesses demonstrate that they value their customers’ preferences and trust. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat purchases in the future.

What to Expect from This Comparison Guide?

This comparison guide will look at the Shopify vs Kickstarter debate, analysing the main differences between using Kickstarter or other crowdfunding platforms vs offering Pre-orders on your e-commerce platform (i.e. Shopify) for releasing a new product.


2. Understanding Shopify and Pre-Orders

The Basics of Shopify Pre-orders:

Pre-selling on Shopify allows you to sell products that are not currently in stock or available for immediate purchase directly from your own website/e-commerce platform. Here are the basic aspects of Shopify pre-orders:

  1. Availability: With pre-selling, you can list products on your Shopify store even if they are out of stock or not yet released. This enables customers to place orders in advance, securing their purchase for when the product becomes available.
  2. Product visibility: Pre-order products are displayed on your Shopify store like any other product, with the option to indicate their availability status as “pre-order” or “coming soon.” This helps customers understand that the product is not currently in stock but can be ordered in advance.
  3. Order placement: Customers can add pre-order items to their cart and proceed to checkout just like regular purchases. The checkout process remains the same, allowing customers to provide their shipping information and select their preferred payment method.
  4. Payment options: Shopify offers flexibility in terms of payment collection for pre-orders. You can choose to collect full payment, partial payment, or no payment upfront at the time of order placement, depending on your business strategy and product availability.

By leveraging Shopify pre-orders, you can gauge demand for new products, generate customer excitement, and secure sales before the items are physically in stock.



Key Benefits of Using an advanced Shopify Pre-order App like PreProduct:

  • PreProduct allows you to charge in a way that makes sense for you: later, upfront, deposit etc


  • A Fully customisable set of customer communication tools to keep customers in the loop: product-page messaging, email campaign and customer portal.
  • Manage pre-orders in their own system until paid, whilst closely integrating with Shopify so you have the power of both systems.


How do Shopify pre-orders work:

In order to utilize pre-orders, you must first install a pre-order app from the Shopify App Store and then go on to handle pre-orders within the Shopify admin interface or within the application itself.

To enable an item for pre-order, you will need to finalize app setup (any snippets/blocks that need adding), then list the Shopify product in question via the app.

Once pre-orders are configured, your customers gain the ability to pre-order (depending on the type of pre-order you set-up) for products before they are ready for shipment.

To access details pertaining to your pre-orders, it is essential to have a pre-order app in use. If a pre-order app is installed, you should also be able to see pre-order specific information in the Product and Orders screens of your Shopify admin, as well as within your specific Pre-order App.

As mentioned above, apps will offer multiple ways to offer pre-orders. The three main pre-order types are:

  1. Charge upfront pre-orders – this allows you to charge the customer for the pre-order when they place the pre-order
  2. Charge later pre-orders – the customer goes through the checkout at the time of placing the order, but is not charged, instead they agree to a deferred charge, and Shopify vaults their card details until the store is ready to trigger the payment at a later stage.
  3. Deposit based pre-orders – allows the store to charge a portion of the transaction up-front, the customers card details are vaulted by Shopify, allowing you to charge the outstanding amount at a later stage.

3. Understanding Kickstarter and Crowdfunding platforms

What is Kickstarter and How Does It Work?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that allows individuals, groups, and organizations to raise funds for creative projects and ideas. It allows the creator to set a backing goal within a specified timeframe. Video game and board game developers particularly like releasing crowdfunding projects.

People interested in supporting the project, known as backers, can contribute money to help raise money and bring the ideas to life. In return for their support, backers often receive rewards or early access to the project.


crowdfunding, idea, bulb

The Unique Advantages of Using Kickstarter for Crowdfunding:

Kickstarter offers several unique advantages for crowdfunding campaigns:

  1. Broad Audience: Kickstarter has a large and diverse community of backers who actively browse and support projects. This provides creators with a built-in audience and increases the visibility of their projects to a wide range of potential supporters.
  2. All-or-Nothing Funding Model: Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing funding model. This means that if a project fails to reach its backing goal within the specified timeframe, no money is collected from backers, and the project does not move forward. This model creates a sense of urgency and encourages backers to rally behind the project to raise money and ensure its success.
  3. Backer Engagement: Kickstarter emphasises the importance of building a community around projects. Creators can actively engage with their backers through project updates, comments, and rewards. This fosters a sense of involvement and connection, creating a dedicated group of supporters who are invested in the project’s success.
  4. Pre-Selling and Validation: Kickstarter allows creators to pre-sell their products or offer exclusive rewards to backers. This not only helps generate funds but also serves as a validation of the market demand for the project.

Noteworthy Kickstarter Success Stories

  • Exploding Kittens: Exploding Kittens is a card game that became a massive success on Kickstarter in 2015. The campaign broke records by raising over $8 million in just 30 days. The game’s unique and humorous concept, coupled with effective marketing, contributed to its phenomenal success. Exploding Kittens went on to become one of the most successful tabletop games in recent years.


  • Oculus VR: Oculus VR, the company behind the popular virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, launched its groundbreaking successful campaign on Kickstarter in 2012. The campaign raised more than $2 million, sparking significant interest in virtual reality technology. Oculus VR was later acquired by Facebook, further propelling the development of virtual reality.


  • Pebble: Pebble is a smartwatch company that gained widespread recognition through its Kickstarter campaign in 2012. It raised over $10 million, making it one of the most successful Kickstarter projects at the time. Pebble went on to become a prominent player in the smartwatch industry before being acquired by Fitbit in 2016.


4. Comparison between Shopify Pre-orders and Kickstarter

Project Types and Scope: Shopify Pre-Orders vs Kickstarter

Kickstarter only offers the one format. An All-or-Nothing Funding Model, that is where a backing goal is set to be achieved within a specified timeframe, or backers don’t get charged.

Shopify pre-orders on the other hand allow you to offer different charging options, therefore which allows for flexible funding. In the case of PreProduct: charge upfront pre-orders, charge later pre-orders or deposit based pre-orders.

Funding Mechanism: The Contrast Between Shopify Pre-orders and Kickstarter

Shopify pre-orders gives you the choice as to when you would like to receive revenue. You have the option to charge upfront with charge upfront pre-orders, collect a deposit upfront then charge the outstanding amount at a later time or charge the full amount at a later time with charge later pre-orders.

In contrast with Kickstarter you will only receive revenue if and when the project meets the goal and is successfully funded. There is a 14 calendar day window following your project’s deadline where Kickstarter will collect and process the pledges, and then the funding is then released.

Audience Reach and Marketing: Exploring the Differences

Crowdfunding platforms have a built-in audience of backers, whom are people who generally love the platform and pledge on projects regularly.

However, this audience tends towards certain industries like gaming and early adopter hardware gadgets/fashion. It also wouldn’t be advisable to rely on for your first bunch of sales, as the Kickstarter algorithm and social proof won’t kick in at the beginning.

Shopify on the other hand is your own store/website, which means you’re solely responsible for driving traffic to your website.

Although both Shopify and Ecommerce crowdfunding campaigns in general often heavily rely on paid social media ads for traction and sales, but at least with Shopify you’re driving customers to your own domain.

Because of this, existing brands usually opt for Shopify/their own website over Kickstarter, even if their first product launched via crowdfunding.

Timeframe: Getting Your Idea to Market

Kickstarter allows campaigns to run for 1 to 60 days maximum, and it is generally recommended to use a 30 day time frame.

This means that even if you are very close to your funding goal on the last day of the campaign, you can not extend it, and the project will not go ahead, no backers will be charged.

With Shopify pre-orders you are completely in control of the time frame. You can set the shipping time that suits you, and there is also no financial goal to be met.

Fees: Comparing the Costs

For crowdfunding platforms if your project is successfully funded, there are two main types of fees that will be collected from your project total: A platform for for example Kickstarter’s is a 5% fee, and payment processing fees (between 3% and 5%). If your project isn’t successful, there are no fees.

For a Shopify app, we will look at PreProduct (our Shopify app), fees start from $19.99 per month (plus a usage charge of 0.5% of paid pre-order revenue).


justice, scales, balance

Evaluating the two platforms

Kickstarter is for a short set time period, and this can not be extended, so there is high pressure to ensure you reach your goal in the set time period. You are also driving traffic (via your chosen marketing methods) to another platform rather than your own.

A favourable aspect of Kickstarter is that it has an in-built audience, so without any marketing effort your project can be exposed to the inbuilt Kickstarter audience.

When using a Shopify pre-order app, you are in control of how long you offer pre-orders for, and you can extend or shorten this time period it is completely up to you.

Another benefit of using a pre-order app like PreProduct, is that you are sending all traffic to your website, rather than to another companies website ie Kickstarter.


hong kong, city, traffic

5. How to Choose: Shopify Pre-Orders or Kickstarter?

Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Platform, Making the Right Choice for Your Business:

Is it just a one hit product you are planning to launch and fulfil, or are you planning to make a business out of the initial product launch?

  • If you are at the early stage of your business and just wanting to launch your product with no business plans, Kickstarter will probably meet your needs just fine.
  • If you are wanting to make a business out of your product launch, then using Shopify combined with a pre-order app may be more beneficial as you are not confined to Kickstarters time-frames and rules + you can start building up marketing channels to your site
  • Are you wanting to launch and pre-sell more than one product?
  • You are able to run more than one Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, but instead running multiple pre-order campaigns on the one site may be easier to manage, customers may also be interested in ordering more than one pre-order product.

space, startup, laptop

What kind of time frame are you wanting to run the campaign for? Do you want to be able to make changes to the time frame?

  • A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign requires you to set a specific timeframe, that is between 1 and 60 days. Once the campaign is created and begins this timeframe can not be edited.
  • Pre-order apps allow you to run the pre-order campaign for as short or as long as you like, and often do not require a timeframe to be set when the pre-order is launched.


Do you need an inbuilt audience?

  • Kickstarter has a large in-built audience and will also choose some projects to be featured or given the ‘Project We Love’ designation. If you have not undertaken any marketing, and have no existing audience, Kickstarter may be beneficial to get your project in front of a large audience. Although please note, you will need to ‘seed’ the campaign with at least a handful or orders to have a chance of organic sales from the platform.
  • Using Shopify and a pre-order app will not provide an in-built audience, but you will be driving all traffic towards your own site.


Fee structure

  • Kickstarter collects a 5% fee from the funds collected for creators. Stripe, the payments processor, will also collect a payment processing fee (roughly 3-5%).
  • All Shopify pre-order apps vary in the fees they charge. PreProduct our Shopify app, offers 3 different plans each with varying fees. Our cheapest plan is $19.99 per month, and then a 0.5% of paid pre-order revenue.


Using Kickstarter first, then transitioning to Shopify + PreProduct

  • An option that allows you to benefit from the advantages of both Crowdfunding and Shopify pre-orders, is to first use a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to launch your initial product and campaign, then after the campaign finishes, direct traffic to your own site and start running pre-orders.

7. Comparison chart

FeatureShopify + PreProductKickstarter
Host on your domain
Complete control of product page
Inbuilt audience
Campaign can exceed 30 days
Can control when you trigger charge
Can charge a deposit upfront
Can charge full amount upfront
Deferred charge
Can send emails to customers on demand
Mandatory fees
Google analytics tracking
Offer early bird discount
Shows an up to date funds raised bar

8. Conclusion

  • Reflecting on the Shopify Pre-orders vs Kickstarter Debate

As you can see from this article, there are a lot of points to consider when deciding whether it is best to use either Shopify pre-orders or Kickstarter to launch a new product or variant, and it is important to evaluate and think through all of these points.

Kickstarter has the benefit of an inbuilt audience, which may be important for some new businesses, but Shopify pre-orders gives you full control.

You can choose when to charge customers, when to end or extend a pre-order campaign, and you are also directing all traffic to your own business site.

You also have the option to use a hybrid model, launching your campaign on Kickstarter and then transition to Shopify pre-orders afterwards.

  • Future Trends and Developments to Watch in Pre-orders and Crowdfunding

The pre-order and crowdfunding landscape is constantly developing.

One of the interesting developments happening in the pre-order/crowd funding space is the evolution of artificial intelligence and improved data analytics which can help campaign creators optimize their marketing strategy, predict demand, and set more accurate funding goals.


artificial intelligence, brain, think

Another trend is the use of social media such as Instagram, Facebook & TikTok. For marketing to direct customers to your campaign, as well as for social proof and reviews, integrating customer reviews and social proof (e.g., user-generated content) into pre-order pages to build trust and credibility among potential buyers.


internet, whatsapp, smartphone

Hopefully this guide has been helpful and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Happy pre-selling!

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How to set up pre-orders on Shopify



1. Introduction

Pre-orders can be a great tool for your online store, with potential to increase hype around new releases whilst solving your cash flow problems. It’s beneficial to understand how to set up pre-orders on Shopify.

What is a pre-order?

A pre-order is where customers can place orders for products or services before they become available for general sale. Essentially, customers are buying an item before it is physically in stock or released.

There are several benefits to setting up pre-orders:

Pre-orders can provide insight for Shopify stores about the demand for their products.

By seeing how many people are pre-ordering an item, stores can adjust their production and inventory management to meet demand. This can help them avoid overproduction, which can lead to excess inventory and financial losses. If you plan to use pre-orders for probing future demand, we recommend capture-only or charge-later pre-orders, that way customers aren’t being charged anything until you’re comfortable moving forwards.

Pre-orders can generate buzz and excitement for a product before its release.

By allowing customers to pre-order, store owners can boost hype and create a sense of exclusivity around new releases. It also gives you an opportunity to launch twice in a way, once for the pre-order release and once again when the product arrives and you start taking regular buy-now orders.

Pre-orders can boost your online store cashflow, as they can capture revenue upfront.

When customers pre-order products, they typically pay the full price or a deposit at the time of the order, which provides stores with a cash flow boost before the product is even released. This can be especially helpful for small businesses or startups that may not have access to significant capital or financing (although financing options for small e-comm brands is in improving!) .



2. Set up pre-orders on Shopify

Does my Shopify store support pre-orders?

All Shopify stores are capable of supporting pre-orders, however not all payment processors support deferred-charge pre-orders. Currently both Shopify Payments and PaPal are supported, however you will run into issues when using an unsupported third party payment gateway or even Shop Pay.

That said, Shopify will automatically hide any unsupported payment providers from your checkout. So, as long as you have Shopify Payments or PayPal enabled, you’re good to go and move forward to set up pre-orders on Shopify.

Installing a Pre-order App

To get started and set up pre-orders on Shopify, visit the Shopify App Store and search for “pre-order”, then select the app you wish to install.

Once you have located the app, click on it to access the app listing page, and then select the “Add app” option.

To grant the app access to your Shopify admin account, click “Install app” and authorize its use.

Integrating the App with Your Storefront

Shopify 1.0

If your Shopify theme is Shopify “store 1.0” and you’re not comfortable with customising the code of your product template, then I’d recommend contacting the app developer, as they’ll need to edit code to add their snippet to your online store.

Generally the process is to locate the Shopify theme file containing the “buy” button and insert the app’s customized code beneath the {% endform %} liquid tag. This will let the app’s script determine which product the pre-order button should apply for (if any) when running on that page.

Keep in mind that the file name may differ, but commonly it will be one of: product-template.liquid, product-form.liquid, or product-main.liquid, among others. (Typically in your ‘sections’ or ‘snippets’ folder)

*We also recommend saving your theme file locally first, incase of any mistakes. That way you have a backup if anything goes wrong, as well as being able to take advantage of powerful code editor ‘file find’ tools like ‘find in project’.

Shopify 2.0

With the introduction of Shopify 2.0, app blocks can now seamlessly integrate into the Shopify admin’s drag-and-drop theme customizer, making it much easier to set up pre-orders on Shopify. (‘app block’ is effectively the same as a ‘snippet’ in this context)

App blocks streamline the product pre-order template installation process, as well as automatically removing themselves if you uninstall the app.

Listing Pre-orders on Shopify

Once you’ve completed the above steps to integrate the app with your Shopify storefront, you can now start pre-selling!

Begin by listing a product in your selected pre-order app. Most if not all pre-order apps sit on top of your existing Shopify product listings. Once listed in the app, the pre-order product page’s cart button text should be replaced with a pre-order version, accompanied by any other front-end additional information, i.e. special pre-order messaging.



You will need to decide which type of pre-order to use, generally depending on the payment settings they use. The general pre-order types are:

  • Charge upfront pre-order – 100% charged upfront (Most apps will offer this).
  • Charge Later pre-orders – 100% charged later when you trigger the charge.
  • Deposit-based pre-orders – A percentage paid upfront, with the outstanding charged later.
  • Capture-only pre-orders – A payment link is sent once you’re ready to send customers through your payment gateway.

Different apps may support or not support any of the above, so it’s important to research this ahead of installing (for example, PreProduct’s list is here).

What kind of pre-order should you use?

pros, and, cons

The below is just a set of rough guidelines from what I’ve seen running a pre-order solution over the years.

Charge upfront pre-orders are useful if you need the cash flow upfront, and appropriate if you have a good idea of when the pre-order items will be ready for shipping. Charging upfront also comes with a higher commitment from customers, over something like capture-only or notify-me-when-in-stock.

Charge upfront may not be the best type of pre-order if you’re worried about manufacturing delays or freight issues. Customers could become frustrated if they’ve fully paid, but then have unexpected delays receiving the product.



Charge later pre-orders can be one of the better choices when you’re not sure how long manufacturing may take, or when there is some uncertainty around production and supply chain. As customers will be less inclined to be annoyed by delays when they haven’t parted with any money yet. It’s still important to keep customers informed of delays though.

Charge later is also convenient if customers have a change of mind, whilst waiting for the out of stock product to come in; because no refund is needed, the pre-order can just be cancelled (without any bank transaction started/cancellation needed).

Deposit-based pre-orders is a good alternative that sits between charge upfront pre-order and charge later pre-order. This type of pre-order shows commitment from customers, but also means customers do not need to pay for the full product upfront, which can help increase pre-order sales by lowering the price to buy for customers.

Capture-only pre-orders can be a great pre-order option when you need to gauge interest. They require the least amount of commitment from both the buyers and shop owners. Similar to a back-in-stock flow, customer’s only go through checkout once the product’s available and can be imminently shipped.


Deciding on a pre-order shipping statment

When creating a pre-order listing, you will also need to set a shipping statement. This could be in a period of days or fixed phrase (ie ‘Next Summer’). The balance here is that a pre-order listing with too vague a shipping statement can deter potential buyers, however an exact shipping statement with a much longer duration can also detract from the willingness to buy.

At PreProduct, generally we advise merchants to keep it specific when they can. With the caveat that you should go with what’s comfortable and if that’s not committing to an exact date, then that’s a completely sensible decision. You should also bear in mind that the communicated shipping statement can be changed at any point (well in a lot of apps at least).


Choosing an exact pre-order shipping statement

Using a less specific pre-order shipping statement

Shopify product settings

The product/variant section of the Shopify admin dashboard contains an option to enable the ‘continue selling when out of stock’ feature. This setting is crucial when utilising pre-orders and has two important purposes:

  1. If a product has zero stock and the box is unchecked, customers will not be able to purchase it. However, if the box is checked, the product can still pass through the checkout, whatever the inventory level. Some apps (eg PreProduct) automatically manage this box, when creating/finishing a pre-order listing.
  2. Furthermore, most Shopify themes display an ‘out of stock’ message when a product/variant has zero stock and the box is un-ticked. Ensuring the ‘continue selling when out of stock’ box is ticked will prevent this message from being displayed.


3. Offering Discounts on Pre-orders



Basic Discount Setup

If you’re not using a pre-order app, you can set up a discount in any theme by altering the ‘Price’ and ‘Compare at Price’ in the Shopify product admin. The ‘Compare at Price’ is the original price and the ‘Price’ is the discounted price. This means the Shopify will know that there is a discount and your theme will most likely reflect this on your front-end. 



Purchase Options Discounts

For pre-order listings that use purchase options (in PreProduct’s case, this is every kind apart from capture-only listings), rather than altering the price of the product directly on Shopify, the discount is applied at the pre-order listing and order level.

This means that the discount is fixed for any pre-orders already captured, but if you decide to change the discount for future pre-orders, they’ll have the updated subtraction applied. This is great, as you don’t need to worry about the price change; and furthermore, can even change the Shopify product price without impacting previous pre-orders.

With early bird discounts, you can enable customers to commit to a purchase early on and capture more sales, this is due to a created sense of exclusivity and urgency. Tapping into the classic psychology of ‘wanting more for less’ and FOMO.

Letting early adopters get in early can boost customer loyalty, and rewarding these customers with a discount can boost this dynamic even more so.



4. Setting up pre-orders on Shopify to use deposits

Creating Deposit-based pre-orders

When you set up pre-orders on Shopify and create a listing, there should be an option to choose whether to capture deposits/partial payments for pre-order listings in supporting deposit pre-order apps.

When creating a pre-order listing, you will just need to select the deposit type: fixed amount or percentage. This will be communicated on the product and cart pages, as well as next to the payment authorization section of the checkout.



How do deposit pre-orders work?

Pre-order listings that use deposits will communicate to customers the price and terms of the order before they click the pre-order cart button. They’ll then be directed through your usual checkout process, however there will be details of the deposit price, the outstanding price, as well as when the merchant plans to charge it. Then once you’re ready to trigger the outstanding payment, you can trigger the charge via your pre-order app. Usually this is is powered by vaulted credit card technology so no further action is needed from the customer.

Using deposits can be beneficial as they require customers to commit a portion of the pre-order payments upfront, demonstrating a genuine interest and commitment to purchasing the product.

Deposits provide an immediate influx of cash for the business, which can be crucial for covering production costs, marketing efforts, or other expenses related to fulfilling pre-orders. It’s completely up to you whether you implement a non-refundable deposit policy.

Charging Tax and Shipping Fees

When using deposit based pre-orders, both shipping and taxes will be charged in the final outstanding amount, not in the deposit amount. Your existing tax and shipping profiles will be respected.

5. Summary and Conclusion

In summary, to use and set up pre-orders on Shopify offers several powerful advantages for ecommerce stores.

  • They provide valuable insight into product demand for pre-order products, enabling stores to predict inventory amount and avoid overproduction.
  • Pre-orders generate anticipation for a product, improving hype for your future releases.
  • Lastly, pre-orders can generate upfront revenue, providing cash flow before product release, something that ecommerce companies of all sizes can get excited about.

If you are interested in giving pre-orders on Shopify a go and experiencing some of these benefits I mentioned above, we’d love you to start a free trial of PreProduct today.

Get the Shopify App


Eliza Wegener

Co-founder @PreProduct

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

How to do pre orders on Shopify



1. Introduction

Pre orders are advance orders placed by consumers for a product or service that is scheduled for future release.

They are a marketing strategy used by e-commerce businesses to enable customers to purchase a product before it is officially released or available for purchase as well as for out of stock products.

Understanding how to do pre-orders on Shopify can be very valuable & useful for your business.



1.1 Pre-order benefits for both businesses and consumers

Customer Commitment: It allows businesses to gauge the level of interest in their product before production or release.

The number of pre-orders can indicate the potential success of the product, and will allow you to make sure you can meet customer demand.

Guaranteed Sales: Firms can secure a certain number of sales even before the product is officially available, helping with revenue generation/cash flow and to manage inventory, which can be very important for smaller or newer businesses.

Marketing and Hype: Pre-orders generate buzz and anticipation around a product, helping to build excitement and anticipation among consumers, as well gauging demand and ensuring there is sufficient interest in a new product before investing in production.

Incentives: Many companies offer incentives to encourage pre-orders, such as exclusive content, discounts, or limited-edition items, to reward early supporters, this also assist in nurturing customer loyalty.



2. How pre orders work

2.1 Announcement

Companies announce their upcoming product or service, providing details about its features, release date, and pricing.

2.2 Pre-Order Period

A specific pre-order period is set during which customers can place their orders. This period typically begins well before the official release date.

2.3 Reservation

Customers interested in the product can place an order, usually through various channels, including online platforms, physical stores, or official websites.


shopping, online, ecommerce

2.4 Payment:

In most cases, customers are required to pay for the product upfront, either in full or a partial payment as a deposit.

2.5 Confirmation:

Customers receive a confirmation of their pre-order, often in the form of an email or a receipt, with details of the purchase.

2.6 Release Date:

On the scheduled release date, the product is officially launched, and customers who pre-ordered it receive their orders. This can be delivered physically or digitally, depending on the nature of the product.

2.7 Additional Benefits

Some companies may offer additional perks to pre-order customers, such as early access, exclusive content, or priority shipping.



3.0 Types of pre orders on Shopify

There are 4 main types of pre orders you can offer on Shopify; Capture only pre orders, charge later pre orders, deposit pre orders, charge upfront pre orders.

3.1 Capture only pre orders

Capture only pre-order involves changing the buy now/add-to-cart button to a pre order button, and capturing the customers details/order in the pre-order system.

3.2 Charge later pre orders

This type of pre-order involves changing the buy now/add-to-cart button to a pre order button, the customer goes through the check-out at the time of placing the pre order and authorises a deferred charge. Shopify vaults the card details, and then the store triggers the deferred charge at a later stage.

3.3 Deposit pre orders

Deposit pre order allows you to utilise partial payments, charging the customer for a portion of the purchase price up-front, and then the remaining outstanding amount at a later stage via a deferred charge.

3.4 Charge upfront pre orders

For charge upfront pre order the payment is taken upfront.


4. Setting up Pre Orders on Shopify

4.1 Enabling pre orders in your Shopify online store

Shopify allows businesses to offer pre-orders via a pre-order app. You will need to download and install a pre order app from the Shopify app store.



There are many types of Shopify pre order apps to choose from, and pre order apps offer many different options so make sure you check which will suit your business best.

You will then need to integrate the app within your Shopify store. There are normally two different ways to do this depending on whether you have a Shopify 1.0 theme or a Shopify 2.0 theme. Both are outlined below:

  • Shopify 1.0 theme integration – you will need to find the Shopify theme file that has the buy button within it, and then adding the app’s snippet. Often this will be in the product template file.
  • Shopify 2.0 theme integration – you will need to drag and drop the app block, from the theme customizer in Shopify admin.

4.2 Setting up Pre Order products

Once you have added the snippet or app block to your store you will be ready to list pre-orders on your Shopify store.

You will need to list any products you wish to have on pre-order, in your chosen app. You will also be able to choose, what variants to list for pre-order, whether or not to offer an early bird discount along with pre-order limits and estimated delivery date.



Some apps like our app PreProduct, will allow for pre-ordering for specific variants on Shopify, instead of listing all variants for pre-order. This allows you to just list those variants that may be out of stock, or new variants for pre-order, whilst either still offering other variants for buy now or have them appear as sold out, depending on your business situation.

Early bird discounts, also known as early bird pricing or early bird specials, are promotional offers that businesses use to encourage customers to make purchases or bookings well in advance of a product’s release or an event’s date. These discounts are typically offered for a limited time and are designed to incentivise early action.



PreProduct also allows you to set pre-order limits. Meaning that if you will only able to acquire a certain stock level, or wish to have limited stock available (possibly to create a scarcity mindset) you can set this up.

It is important to set an accurate estimated delivery date, you should also be able to edit the date, if things change, to ensure you are meeting customer expectations.


5. Best Practices for Pre Orders on Shopify

5.1 Promoting pre orders effectively

There are several different e-commerce marketing options that can help to promote and assist in having a successful pre order campaign. These are listed below;

  • Social media content both organic and paid
  • Press coverage
  • SEO
  • Collaborations
  • Email campaigns


Alongside these marketing options, there are some other strategies that can work really well with pre orders.

  • Targeting early adopters for new releases, new products etc
  • Generate an urgency for purchase by offering an early bird discount that is only on offer for pre order
  • Only offering a certain number of items, this will create a sense of scarcity

urgent, business, document

5.2 Setting realistic pre order timelines and delivery dates

It is important to ensure pre order customers are aware of approximate shipping timelines and that there may be some delay. With pre orders, shipping times are never certain, due to potential manufacturing and freight delays, which is often out of your control.

Pre order apps should allow you to regularly communicate via email with your pre order customers, so you can ensure they are kept up to date with shipping timeframes.



5.3 Communicating with pre order customers

A multi pronged approach is the best way to communicate effectively with pre order customers.

This can include the following methods:

  • Front end wording; this communicates to the customers pre order details/shipping time frames etc on the store front/on page cart
  • Email campaign; this can be used to keep customers updated
  • Customer portals; allows customers to check on the progress of their order, and can communicate shipping updates etc.


5.4 Managing refunds and cancellations of pre orders

Pre orders can be cancelled in Shopify in the same manner normal orders can be cancelled. Some pre order apps that feature a customer portal, also allow customers to cancel their pre order via the portal.

Refunding customers is at your discretion and can done as per the usual process in Shopify.


cash register, drawer, cash

6. Conclusion

Pre orders, are a great tool that can be used by businesses to generate excitement for a new product, line, or sold-out products along with giving a business access to revenue sooner than may normally be possible.

There are a few different types of pre orders, and there will be one that best suits and aligns with your business model and goals. Alongside your chosen pre order type, there are many different techniques you can use to promote your pre order campaign and ensure it is successful.

This article was written by the team at PreProduct. PreProduct is a next generation Pre Order app, that specialises in helping stores run successful Pre Order campaigns.

If you would like to run a successful Pre Order campaign, then we recommend starting a free trial of PreProduct, to see if it is a good fit for your business.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

Unbounce Pre-orders



1. Unbounce pre-orders with Shopify & PreProduct

Unbounce offers a super powerful and intuitive way to create and manage landing pages for new product launches.
However, what if you wanted to start taking pre-orders from one of your landing pages?

For selling physical products, Shopify has been establishing itself as a market leader for quite some time now.
PreProduct is a pre-order app that plugs into Shopify and enables you to launch new products via different kinds of pre-sale.
In the below guide, I’ll show you a quick and easy way to set up Unbounce pre-orders.

Although ordinarily confined to the Shopify store itself, in this guide I’ll show you how to run PreProduct in a ‘headless’ way from your Unbounce page. Enabling easy communication and capture of Shopify / Unbounce pre-orders.
Essentially you’ll be adding a ‘custom HTML block’ to your Unbounce landing page and populating it with a couple of lines of code that PreProduct will automatically generate for you.

Each of the below steps is fairly straightforward, but feel free to get in touch if you run into any issues.
I’ve also recorded a quick video here in case that’s your preferred tutorial format.

Requirements:


*Each of the above apps have fully functional free trials that you can take advantage of.


2. Step-by-step guide

2.1

  • For this tutorial we’ll be using Unbounce’s classic builder. If you don’t have an existing page set up, click the ‘create new’ button in the top right corner of Unbounce.
stage 1

2.2

  • Now click on the triple-dot symbol to the far right of your page’s card area. Then click ‘Edit champion variant’.
stage 2

2.3

  • You’ll now be taken to your page’s editor. Click and drag the ‘custom HTML’ block from the left-side menu onto the page.
    You should be greeted by a text input modal.
stage 3

2.4

  • Now we just need to generate a snippet in PreProduct to paste into the modal. Start by opening up PreProduct.
dashboard

2.5

  • If you haven’t already created a pre-order listing in PreProduct, create one now by clicking the ‘New listing’ menu item.
    Then select it from the main dashboard.

2.6

  • Now click the ‘Generate headless code’ button on the left-hand side of the dashboard. A modal should pop up with your snippet in a grey text area. Highlight and copy the snippet.

2.7

  • Now, back in Unbounce; paste the snippet into the ‘custom HTML code’ modal and click ‘save code’. You can now position the block where you’d like on the page. We generally recommend making the block no smaller than 40% of the desktop page width. Then on mobile, it should be used at around 100% width.
stage 7
stage 7.5

2.8

  • The pre-order front-end won’t show properly until you click ‘preview’. Let’s do that now. You should see the pre-order button appear, along with an on-page pre-order cart when clicked. Listing details and styling are controlled from within PreProduct’s dashboard.
stage 8

3. Summary

Congratulations, you’ve just enabled Unbounce pre-orders  from your landing page. Through PreProduct, you’ll now be able to take advantage of Unbounce’s optimisation and design, alongside Shopify’s powerful e-commerce engine.

Pre-orders will flow from your Unbounce page into PreProduct and then at some point, Shopify. Depending on the kind of pre-order listing: ‘pay later’, ‘deposit-based’, or ‘pay now’.
For example; pay later’ pre-orders will just be in PreProduct until you send out payment link emails. Where as ‘pay now’ pre-orders will redirect to your Shopify checkout straight away and flow directly into the Shopify order system. 

What kind of pre-order listing to choose is a whole other article in itself. However, ‘time until ship’ is a good point to benchmark against. Is your new product going to be in customer’s hands next month? Well ‘pay now’ pre-orders is probably a good fit.
Or is it more like 6 months with potential delays? Then pay later or deposit-based pre-orders will give you more flexibility and customer goodwill.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or to let us know how your pre-order campaign is going.
We’re always happy to talk ‘pre-orders’ and ‘new product launches’.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans