Introduction:
Managing pre-order buying limitations is crucial to prevent overselling and ensure fair distribution of limited stock items. This guide provides a detailed walkthrough on setting and managing pre-order buying limitations in the Notify Me app for Shopify, utilizing the preorder-limit-count tag to automatically mark a product as sold out once the limit is reached helping you control the quantity of pre-order items customers can purchase.
1. What Are Pre-Order Buying Limits?
Pre-order buying limits let you restrict the number of customers who can pre-order a specific product. This prevents more pre-orders than your inventory can support and helps ensure smoother fulfillment.
Key Concepts:
Buying Limit: The maximum number of customers allowed to pre-order an item.
Product Tag: A tag added to a Shopify product to enforce this limit.
Customer-Based, Not Quantity-Based
Pre-order limits count the number of unique customers, not the quantity of products in each order.
For example, if you tag a product with preorder-limit-20, the app will accept 20 customer orders — even if each customer orders more than one unit.
So, if one customer orders 3 units of the same item in a single pre-order, that still only counts as 1 customer toward the 20-customer limit.
Product-Based, Not Variant-Based
Pre-order limit applies to the procut , not the variant itself, meaning , you cannot limit variants indivisually.
2. How to Enable Pre-Order Buying Limits
To activate this feature:
Log in to your Shopify admin.
Open the Notify Me app.
Go to the Pre-order settings section.
Scroll to the Pre-order Buying Limitation section.
3. How to Use the preorder-limit-count Tag
To enforce a buying limit on a product:
Navigate to your Products in Shopify.
Select the product you want to limit.
Add a tag in this format:
preorder-limit-X(replace X with the number of customers you want to allow).
Example:preorder-limit-20will allow 20 customers to pre-order the product.
Once the customer limit is reached, Notify Me will automatically mark the product as sold out, preventing any further pre-orders.
Important Notes on How Limits Work
The pre-order limit only applies to purchases made through the Notify Me pre-order button.
Orders placed via the standard Shopify "Add to Cart" button are not counted.
4. Updating and Managing Limits
To change the limit, simply update the tag (e.g., change
preorder-limit-20topreorder-limit-25).Keep an eye on pre-order volume and adjust tags based on stock availability or demand trends.
Summary
Setting customer-based pre-order limits helps ensure fair access to limited products and prevents overselling. With the preorder-limit-X tag and Notify Me’s automation, your products will automatically switch to “sold out” when the limit is hit — helping you stay in control.
Need help configuring limits or troubleshooting tag behavior? Reach out to our support team anytime.