In today’s fast-paced eCommerce landscape, keeping customers engaged — even when a product is out of stock — is crucial. The Pre-Order feature allows customers to purchase unavailable items in advance, helping you retain demand, maintain sales momentum, and better manage inventory.
What Is the Pre-Order Feature?
Pre-order functionality enables customers to place orders for products that are currently out of stock. This is achieved by adjusting Shopify’s inventory tracking and sales settings. Once enabled, the standard “Add to Cart” button is replaced with a “Pre-Order” button for qualifying products.
Benefits of Enabling Pre-Order
Continuous Sales
Keep generating revenue even when products are temporarily out of stock. Customers can still commit to a purchase and receive the product once it’s restocked.Customer Retention
A Pre-Order button shows customers that the product is coming back soon, reducing the chances they’ll look elsewhere.Demand Forecasting
Gain insights into product demand. Pre-orders help you plan restocking more accurately by gauging customer interest before inventory arrives.Cash Flow Optimization
Secure revenue in advance — especially helpful for financing reorders or manufacturing costs.
How to Activate Pre-Order in Shopify
To activate pre-orders, you’ll need to configure the product’s inventory settings in your Shopify admin panel.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Log in to Your Shopify Admin Panel
Navigate to the Products section.Open the Product Record
Select the specific product you'd like to enable for pre-order. If the product has variants, repeat these steps for each variant.Adjust Inventory Settings
Check “Track Quantity”
Enable “Continue Selling When Out of Stock” (sometimes displayed as "Allow out-of-stock purchases")
Set the inventory quantity to 0 or less
Save Your Changes
Click Save to apply the new settings.
Once completed, customers will see a “Pre-Order” button in place of the regular “Add to Cart” button.
Behavior of the Pre-Order Button
The Pre-Order button updates automatically based on product conditions:
If inventory increases above 0, the button reverts to “Add to Cart”
If “Track Quantity” is disabled, the Pre-Order function is also disabled
If both tracking and out-of-stock sales are disabled, it changes to “Sold Out”
This ensures accurate visibility and avoids confusion for customers based on real-time inventory status.
Troubleshooting Pre-Order Visibility
If the Pre-Order button is not displaying as expected, check the following:
✅ Track Quantity is enabled
✅ Continue Selling When Out of Stock is enabled
✅ Product inventory is set to 0 or lower
✅ All variants meet the above conditions
🔄 No recent changes (e.g., restocks, app conflicts) have reset these settings
Tip: Go through each product variant individually — misconfigured variants often cause visibility issues.