Adding pre-orders to the Shopify Turbo theme



The Turbo Shopify Theme

The Turbo Shopify theme is one of Out of the Sandbox’s flagship themes and a favourite of Kurt Elster. This article will go through adding pre-orders to the Shopify Turbo theme. Turbo is fully featured and performant, as well as being Shopify store 2.0 compatible. Meaning it’s pretty straight-forward to add third-party apps. However, we’ll also go through a more limited ‘free’ way of setting up pre-orders with Turbo.

There are many great reasons to offer pre-orders, including a positive influence on cash flow, the wiggle room it can afford your product launches, and the supply chain risks that can be offset. If you’d like to read more about the advantages of Shopify pre-orders, we talk about them extensively on our homepage.

Turbo theme

ref: Out of the sandbox

Adding Pre-orders Manually

We do not recommend this method at all, but realise that some people would prefer to see a free of charge version of offering pre-orders. Backup your themeAlways backup theme files before you change code. This way, you’ll always have a safe version to revert to if something goes wrong.

Word of warning

It’s possible to collect pre-orders without any apps and with minimum developer work, by using the following bare-bones approach. Although I don’t recommend doing this for several reasons that we’ll go into after the step-by-step:

  1. Shopify has a checkbox in the Shopify product section under ‘inventory’ called ‘continue selling when out of stock’. When ticked, Shopify will accept orders for that product, even when the stock level is empty or negative.
  2. It’s also possible to change your add-to-cart button’s text via the Shopify theme files so that it shows ‘pre-order’ when a product has 0 in stock and the above setting is enabled. Using something like the liquid code below within the button tag.
{%- if product.variants.first.inventory_policy == "continue" and product.variants.first.inventory_quantity == 0 -%} pre-order {%- endif -%}

As well as the overhead of hardcoding a change into your store’s theme that doesn’t localise to the user’s language, the above method will also mean:

  • ‘pre-orders’ and ‘buy-now’ orders are mixed together in your Shopify order section, leading to mistakes and laborious admin.
  • No efficient control of what product is on pre-order and what is on ‘buy now’.
  • Your store’s front-end won’t communicate to customers when they’ll receive their pre-order.
  • You have no way of communicating with customers during the pre-order process. e.g. A ‘Your natural deodorant is three weeks away from shipping’ email or customer portal.
  • Pre-order payment has to be upfront (no pay later or deposit option)
  • No way to place limits or any advanced pre-order features on your listing.

All of these drawbacks can very quickly add up to a negative customer experience with a lot of work on your end to manage and stay in control. Luckily Shopify’s app ecosystem has many apps who work on these problems and ways to increase your pre-orders. Thanks to Turbo’s Store 2.0 compatibility, you won’t need to write a line of code to integrate one either.

Using PreProduct for pre-orders

Like I just mentioned, Shopify’s Appstore is home to many pre-order apps that will help you find success with your pre-sales.
PreProduct offers the below benefits, as well as a customisable pre-order cart. After selecting PreProduct from the AppStore, simply click ‘install app’ from the top of the page and Shopify will take you through a quick install process.

PreProduct’s feature set includes:

  • The ability to choose which specific product/variants will be on pre-order.
  • A designated dashboard for your pre-orders, without regular orders being mixed in.
  • Customisation of the design/messaging of the pre-order button and front-end, including dynamic variables like shipping time.
  • Email campaigns to keep customers in the loop and engaged throughout the pre-order campaign.
  • Different payment options like; ‘pay later’, ‘deposit’ and ‘pay now’. Meaning you can list pre-orders much earlier and with better flexibility (+ in some countries, conform to necessary legal requirements).
  • Analytics and dashboards for reporting/interacting/merging the individual pre-orders.

Using the Shopify store 2.0 ‘customize’ editor you won’t have to add permanent code to your theme. You can just drag and drop a block into your product page. Meaning you’re in complete control of where the pre-order section goes in your storefront, as well as when it gets taken out.

Adding a pre-order app block to your Shopify turbo theme

Once you have PreProduct installed, you’ll be able to drag it’s block into your product page exactly where you want it. Here’s how:

  • Navigate to the ‘Online store’ section of your Shopify dashboard.
  • Click ‘Customize’.
  • You will now be greeted with Shopify’s customize editor. It will be set to your home page. Click ‘catalogue’ to go to a collection page and then click on any product to select your product page.
  • Notice the different areas of your product page in the left-hand side bar, signified by the tag icon and name in bold. We want to add to your ‘Product Information’ section, so click the blue ‘Add block’ link at the bottom of that list.
  • A pop-up should appear with a list of blocks under the ‘APPS’ heading. Click the PreProduct block.
  • The PreProduct block has now been added to the ‘Product information’ section. To choose it’s position, click the little back arrow to the left of its nam and drag it up or down until you’re happy with the position.
  • That’s it, you should be all good to go. Don’t forget to save! (Top right corner of the page).

Summary

You have now finished setting up pre-orders for the Shopify Turbo theme. You can now start listing products for pre-order and taking pre-sales for your future and out of stock products.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

Adding pre-orders to Shopify Dawn



The Dawn Shopify Theme

Dawn is Shopify’s exciting new theme. As of the end of August 2021, new stores will be set-up with Dawn as default and have access to a bundle of new features which Shopify are calling ‘Store 2.0’. Among these new features is the long rumoured ‘sections anywhere’ ability, speed increases, support for 3d models out of the box and much more. However, the topic of this article is how to add pre-orders to Shopify Dawn. There are many compelling reasons to offer pre-orders, including their positive effects on cash flow, the flexibility they afford your product launches, and the risks they can offset. If you would like to read more about the benefits and strategies of pre-orders, we have an article on why you should take pre-orders on Shopify here.

Dawn theme

ref: Shopify

Adding Pre-orders Manually

I do not recommend this method at all, but realise that some people would prefer to see a free of charge version of offering pre-orders.

Word of warning

It’s possible to start collecting pre-orders without installing any apps or paying a developer to modify Dawn through a very bare-bones approach, although I don’t recommend doing this for several reasons that will be soon become apparent. Here are the steps:

  • Backup your theme. (you should always backup theme files before you change code, so you have a safe version to revert to if something goes wrong).
  • Shopify has a checkbox in the Shopify product admin under ‘inventory’ called ‘continue selling when out of stock’. When checked, your store will accept orders for that product, even when the stock level is 0.
  • You can then made a code change like the below to what text is outputted in your add-to-cart button. You’ll be looking for something similar to the first block of code below; which you’ll want to change to the block below.

Before:

{%- if product.selected_or_first_available_variant.available -%}
  {{ 'products.product.add_to_cart' | t }}
{%- else -%}
  {{ 'products.product.sold_out' | t }}
{%- endif -%}

After:

{%- if product.variants.first.inventory_policy == "continue" and product.variants.first.inventory_quantity == 0 -%}
  pre-order
{%- elsif product.selected_or_first_available_variant.available -%}
  {{ 'products.product.add_to_cart' | t }}
{%- else -%}
  {{ 'products.product.sold_out' | t }}
{%- endif -%}

  • Finally, navigate back to the ‘online store’ screen in Shopify and click ‘Customize’, click through the store preview until you’re looking at your product page. Then click ‘Buy buttons’ from the list of ‘product information’ blocks and uncheck the ‘Show dynamic checkout buttons’ option so that only your main buy button shows up.
Problems with the manual approach

On top of the fact that this option hardcodes a change into your store’s theme and doesn’t localize to the user’s language, it also will mean:

  • Muddled up ‘pre-orders’ and ‘buy-now’ orders in your Shopify order section, leading to mistakes and laborious admin.
  • No efficient control of what’s a pre-order and what’s a ‘buy now’ listing in your store.
  • Your storefront won’t tell customers when they should hope to receive their pre-order.
  • You have no way of communicating with customers during the pre-order process. e.g. ‘Your Red Sneakers are two weeks away from shipping’.
  • Pre-order payment has to be upfront.
  • No way to place limits or any advanced pre-order features on your listing.

All of these drawbacks can very quickly add up to a bad customer experience with a lot of work on your end to stay afloat and in control. Luckily Shopify’s app ecosystem has apps listed by companies who spend their whole time solving these issues and figuring out the best way to increase your pre-orders. The best bit is… thanks to ‘Store 2.0’s new features, you won’t need to write a line of code to integrate one.

Adding a pre-order app

Like I mentioned above, Shopify’s Appstore is home to many pre-order apps that will help you find success with your pre-sales.
PreProduct offers the below benefits, as well as a customisable pre-order cart. However, there are many other good options on the Shopify AppStore. After selecting a pre-order app from the App Store, simply click ‘install app’ from the top of the page and Shopify will take you through a quick install process.

Pre-order app features can include:

  • A user interface to choose which of your product/variants will be on pre-order and when.
  • A designated dashboard for your pre-orders, without regular orders being mixed in.
  • Customisation of the visual design/messaging of the pre-order button and front-end, including real-time variables like shipping time.
  • Email campaigns to keep customers in the loop and engaged throughout the pre-order process.
  • Different pre-order payment options like; ‘pay later’, ‘deposit’ and ‘pay now’ meaning you can list pre-orders earlier and with more flexibility (and in some countries, conform to necessary legal requirements).
  • Analytics and dashboard for reporting/interacting with the individual pre-orders.

Pre ‘Store 2.0’, permanent code had to be added to your store theme to add a pre-order app, resulting in increased setup time while a developer made the integration, as well as the potential for your theme to acquire more and more third-party code as you installed/uninstalled various kinds of apps.
Now Shopify gives store owners the ability to add something called an ‘app block’. Instead of having a developer add permanent code to your theme, you can simply drag and drop a block into your product page. Meaning you’re in complete control of where the pre-order section goes in your storefront, as well as when to take it out.

How to add a pre-order app block to your product page with Dawn

Once you have a pre-order app installed from the Shopify app store, as long as it supports ‘Store 2.0’, you’ll be able to drag it’s block into your product page exactly where you want it. Here’s how:

  • Navigate to the ‘Online store’ section of your Shopify dashboard.
  • Click ‘Customize’
  • You will now be greeted with Shopify’s drag-and-drop editor. It will currently be set to your home page. Click ‘catalogue’ to go to a collection page and then click on any product to select your product page.
  • Notice the different areas of your product page in the left-hand side bar, signified by the tag icon and name in bold. We want to add to your ‘Product Information’ section, so click the blue ‘Add block’ link at the bottom of that list.
  • A pop-up should appear with a list of blocks under the ‘APPS’ heading. Click the pre-order app’s block.
  • The app’s block has now been added to the ‘Product information’ section. To choose it’s position, click the little back arrow to the left of the apps name so you can see all of the product page blocks again. Then hover over the app’s name in the ‘Product information’ section and drag it up or down until you’re happy with its position.
  • That’s it, you should be all good to go. Don’t forget to save! (Top right corner of the page).

Now that you have pre-orders set up on your store, you can start listing new products straight away and promoting them. Whilst there are specific pre-order marketing tactics, we generally find the usual suspects work well. For example, conversion and abandonment optimisation through an app like Tada, organic/paid social media, influencer partnerships, email marketing etc.

Summary

Once you have finished adding pre-order functionality to Shopify Dawn, you can start taking pre-sales straight away for your future and out of stock products. Now that Shopify’s clever ‘sections everywhere’ app blocks have been released, integrating exciting new features into your store has never been easier.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans