Shopify Preorder Setup: The Decisions That Protect the Customer Experience

A Shopify preorder runs through an app. Shopify’s Help Center page on pre-orders (opens in new tab) says “To use pre-orders, you need to install a pre-order app from the Shopify App Store and then manage pre-orders in the Shopify admin.” Selling a product that way also changes the checkout: Shopify’s pre-order setup page (opens in new tab) says “Customers can’t purchase pre-orders by using the following accelerated checkouts: Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.”

The same Shopify list rules out local payment methods, and Shopify’s developer docs on delivery for deferred purchases (opens in new tab) rule out pickup and local delivery, including for in-stock items sharing the cart. Setting up a Shopify preorder therefore means deciding which products are worth a slower checkout, when the card gets charged, what ship date you state, and what your theme and your app tell the customer in between.

We build Shopify themes, and a preorder launch reaches us as theme work: the plan selector, the cart line, the button label. This is the setup review we’d give a client before a launch or a restock.

Shopify’s purchase options overview (opens in new tab) defines the feature this way: “Preorders: customers can purchase or reserve items that aren’t ready for fulfillment yet, but that you will fulfill at a later date.” It sits beside subscriptions and try before you buy as one of three purchase options. On the pre-orders page (opens in new tab), Shopify says “Depending on the pre-order options that you offer, you can collect full, partial, or no payment at the time the customer places their order.”

How do preorders work on Shopify? The app creates a selling plan on the product, and the selling plan carries four policies: pricing, billing, delivery and inventory, according to Shopify’s developer overview of purchase options (opens in new tab). When a customer checks out, Shopify’s model for pre-order apps (opens in new tab) says “Shopify creates an order, and then creates the payment term and the fulfillment for the order. Shopify also vaults the payment method.” The same page says “The app is responsible for capturing the remaining balance amount.”

That page splits the work into ten responsibilities, four for Shopify and six for the app:

Failed balance charges belong to the app too. Shopify’s developer page on deferred purchase options (opens in new tab) tells app developers “It’s your app’s responsibility to schedule the charge at the right time and automate any process around payment failures.” Most of what a Shopify preorder customer experiences after checkout, including the balance charge, the delay email and the cancel link, is the app’s behavior.

Shopify’s checkout adds one step of its own. The setup page (opens in new tab) says “During the Payment step of the checkout, your customer needs to confirm that they understand that they’re purchasing a product with a purchase option. They can’t complete their purchase without agreeing to this.” Checkout-integrated preorder apps date to June 21, 2022, when Shopify’s changelog (opens in new tab) announced “a collection of pre-order and try before you buy apps are now integrated with Shopify Checkout.”

Shopify’s requirements and restrictions list (opens in new tab) for preorders bars Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and adds “Customers can’t use local payment methods such as Klarna and mollie iDEAL | Wero to purchase pre-orders.” The limitations list in Shopify’s developer docs (opens in new tab) repeats the local payment method rule.

Delivery options narrow as well. Shopify’s developer page on delivery for pre-orders (opens in new tab) says “Pickup and local delivery methods aren’t supported for pre-orders and TBYB. The delivery methods also don’t support one-time purchases if the cart contains a product with a pre-order and TBYB.” A customer who adds an in-stock item to a cart with a Shopify preorder item loses pickup and local delivery on the in-stock item too.

The Help Center pre-orders page (opens in new tab) says “Pre-orders are currently only available to merchants using Shopify Payments or Paypal Express.” The developer docs (opens in new tab) list four gateways for pre-order and try before you buy options together: those two, Adyen on Shopify, and “Stripe, which is only available to some merchants”. If you’re on Adyen or Stripe, confirm with Shopify and your app vendor before you plan a launch around it.

A customer who normally pays with Shop Pay, Apple Pay or Google Pay has to pay another way on a preorder. Keep preorder selling plans on the products where the wait is the offer, such as a launch or a long-lead restock. An evergreen product that’s out for a few days doesn’t need one, and the oversell setting covered below lets its orders through at zero stock.

Shopify’s Help Center says “Pre-order products are only supported on the Online Store and Custom Storefront sales channels.” Between that setup page (opens in new tab) and the developer limitations list (opens in new tab), Shopify documents these exclusions:

On B2B, the developer docs say “Subscriptions, pre-orders and TBYB can’t be used with B2B.” Shopify’s July 30, 2025 developer changelog entry (opens in new tab) added a Storefront API warning code that’s “triggered when a logged in B2B customer creates a cart with a selling plan or adds a merchandise item with a selling plan to their cart.” A wholesale customer logged in to a B2B account therefore can’t be sold a preorder through this mechanism.

The Help Center also says “Pre-orders aren’t supported on stores with customized checkouts.” The developer docs’ version of that limitation names checkouts customized using checkout.liquid, and points those stores to Shopify Extensions in Checkout as the upgrade. A Plus store that has already moved to customizing checkout with extensions and Shopify Functions is on the upgrade path the developer docs name, so confirm preorder support with Shopify before you plan a launch.

The inventory setting and the purchase option do different jobs. Shopify’s page on selling out of stock products (opens in new tab) says “By default, customers can’t purchase an item until you adjust the inventory levels to add more stock,” and offers the oversell setting as the way around that. Shopify lists four reasons to allow out-of-stock purchases, and the first is “You have products available for preorder.”

The setting lets an order through at zero stock, so it changes whether the order is accepted. A Shopify preorder purchase option changes what the customer is told and when they’re charged: it adds the checkout acknowledgment, stores the payment method, and leaves the app to charge any remaining balance.

Two limits come with the setting. Shopify says “You can select the Continue selling when out of stock option only when you turn on the Inventory tracked setting,” and “Continue selling when out of stock doesn’t apply to orders placed from Shopify POS.” If you rely on the setting alone, the ship-time statement and any delay notice are yours to write and send, and the US rule covered below applies a thirty-day default when no ship time is stated.

The purchase option also gives you a choice over when inventory is reserved. Shopify’s managing pre-orders page (opens in new tab) says “Inventory for a pre-order is reserved either at the time of sale or fulfillment,” and “You can choose which option you prefer in the setup of some pre-order apps.” Meanwhile, Shopify’s inventory states page (opens in new tab) says “Incoming inventory isn’t available to sell until it has been received and its state has been changed to Available.” Our guide to Shopify’s inventory states and multi-location stock covers those states and how inventory behaves across locations.

A Shopify preorder can take the full price at checkout, a deposit, or nothing. For deposits, Shopify’s developer docs (opens in new tab) say “a partial amount is charged at checkout, and the remaining balance amount is charged on a specific date (EXACT_TIME) or X days after checkout (TIME_AFTER_CHECKOUT).” Shopify’s charge trigger reference (opens in new tab) lists four values today: EXACT_TIME, NO_REMAINING_BALANCE, ON_FULFILLMENT and TIME_AFTER_CHECKOUT.

ON_FULFILLMENT is the newest, described in the reference as “When the order is fulfilled.” Shopify’s developer changelog (opens in new tab) dated January 1, 2026 added it in the 2026-01 release candidate so preorder payments can be processed when the order is fulfilled. Shopify’s deferred purchase options page says due on fulfillment is available in the unstable API version, and the reference for the latest API version lists it. Ask your app vendor whether the app exposes it.

Each timing puts the risk in a different place. A full charge at checkout leaves no balance to fail later, and it means every delay is a delay on money you’ve already taken. A deposit with a fixed balance date leaves a second charge that can land before the product ships if your date slips. Due on fulfillment ties the balance to fulfillment, so the second charge follows the shipment and not a calendar date.

The second charge can also be stopped by the customer’s bank. Shopify’s managing pre-orders page (opens in new tab) says “Your customer’s bank can challenge subsequent billing attempts, which means your customer needs to manually confirm their purchase and payment method,” and that Shopify emails the customer a link to confirm the payment. When a balance charge fails outright, the page lists three admin actions on the customer’s profile: Send link to update card, Replace card, and Delete card.

Shipping follows the balance on a preorder-only cart. Shopify’s delivery docs (opens in new tab) say “If a cart only contains deferred purchases, then the customer will pay the shipping cost when the remaining balance amount is charged.” A customer who pays a deposit today sees the shipping charge added to the second payment, so state that on the product page and in the confirmation email.

Shopify Plus stores have a separate tool that shares a name with the trigger. Shopify’s February 6, 2026 changelog entry (opens in new tab), marked as exclusive to Plus, announced payment requests per fulfillment, and Shopify’s deferred payments page (opens in new tab) says “For orders with Due on fulfillment payment terms and multiple fulfillments, you can send a payment request for each fulfillment as you ship items.” That’s the admin payment terms feature, which sends the customer a request to pay. It isn’t a charge against the stored card under a preorder selling plan.

Shopify’s developer docs say “each order can have only one deferred payment due date.” When a cart holds preorder items with different terms, the setup page (opens in new tab) gives three rules: “The earliest due date applies to all products”; “The due on fulfillment payment term takes priority over specific dates.”; and “The deposits are combined and charged at checkout.” Shopify’s example: “If a shirt payment is due June 3 and a book payment is due June 7, then both items are due for payment on June 3.”

A customer who preorders two products with different ship dates gets charged for both on the earlier date. If your launches overlap, align the balance dates across the products or use due on fulfillment for all of them, since Shopify says that term takes priority.

When a preorder item and a one-time item share a cart, Shopify’s delivery docs (opens in new tab) say the shipping rates are calculated together if both sit in the same delivery profile and ship from the same location. The setup page adds a note for stores running payment customizations: “Payment Customization Functions only affect non pre-order products in mixed carts.”

Start with how the app takes the preorder. Each listing’s Data access section shows whether the app can edit purchase options, selling plans and payment mandates, and the STOQ listing (opens in new tab) names all three. Ask the vendor directly whether a given preorder offer runs on a selling plan, with the checkout acknowledgment and stored payment method described above, or on a relabeled add-to-cart button on a product set to continue selling when out of stock. The answer decides whether the checkout restrictions and the deferred payment behavior in this post apply to your store.

Shopify publishes requirements for preorder apps, and they make a usable evaluation list. Its App Store requirements (opens in new tab) say “The purchase option app must include an in-product mechanism to allow a buyer to cancel or discontinue their purchase option, for example, a pre-order management portal or a cancel link in an email,” and “Purchase option apps must clearly show buyers the price of the purchase option and when they will be charged.” On delays, the requirement reads “Ensure your app emails a merchant’s customers when the merchant updates the shipment date to a later date.”

Shopify’s model page for pre-order apps (opens in new tab) adds a consent rule: “Apps that offer pre-orders obtain customer consent to delays that exceed 30 days if no shipping time is stated and include a mechanism to return the funds in case customer consent is not obtained.” Ask each Shopify pre-order app vendor to show you these in a test store:

Shopify’s Built for Shopify badge won’t narrow the field. All twelve apps in the recommended block of Shopify’s pre-order app category (opens in new tab) carried it on October 1, 2026. Shopify’s badge text reads “Meets our highest standards for performance, design, and integration.”

Treat listing claims about sales channels as the vendor’s claims. Several of those listings show Shopify POS under “Works with,” and several name B2B preorders as a feature, while Shopify’s developer docs say preorders can’t be used through POS or with B2B. Many of these apps also sell back-in-stock alerts, so ask the vendor which feature a POS or B2B entry refers to.

A custom build is possible with one constraint. Shopify’s model page says “Custom apps created in the Shopify admin can’t use subscriptions, pre-order or TBYB because these apps can’t use extensions or request access to protected scopes,” so a single-store solution has to be built in the Partner Dashboard. Shopify’s build guide (opens in new tab) lists seven access scopes for a preorder app, and Shopify’s purchase options overview marks four of them as requiring Shopify approval.

The prices below are App Store listing figures as of October 2026, and vendor pricing changes. The listings use three metering models, and each one prices a launch month differently.

Some apps meter on preorder count. The STOQ listing (opens in new tab) shows a Lite plan at $10/month with “100 preorders per mo.” and “$0.25 per preorder above limit”. At that list price, a 1,000-preorder launch month on Lite comes to $10 plus 900 overage orders at $0.25, or $235 for the month. The same listing shows an Unlimited plan at $69/month.

Others meter on revenue. The PreProduct listing (opens in new tab) prices its Starter plan as free to install plus “+5.0% of paid pre-order revenue”, and its $59.99/month Scale plan at “0% commission on up to 5k of monthly paid pre-order revenue, then 0.5% afterwards.” On a launch that takes $100,000 in paid preorder revenue, Starter comes to $5,000. Scale comes to $534.99, assuming the listing’s 5k means $5,000: 0.5% of the remaining $95,000 is $475, plus the plan fee.

A third model meters on order value processed. The Downpay listing (opens in new tab) describes its $29/month Essentials plan as “Up to $5,000 in total order value processed with Downpay” and its $99/month Pro plan as “Up to $25,000 in total order value processed with Downpay”, with a Scale plan at $249/month. Price a Shopify pre-order app against your largest expected launch month, since that’s the month every one of these meters peaks.

This section covers US federal law only and isn’t legal advice. Shopify’s Help Center says you must comply with the laws of your own jurisdiction and your customers’, and other countries’ rules aren’t covered here. Take the specifics to your counsel.

Three items on Shopify’s requirements list (opens in new tab) concern the ship date. “You must have a reasonable basis for saying that a product can be shipped within a certain time.” “If no date is clearly specified, then you must have a reasonable belief that the product will ship within 30 days of purchase.” “If you’re unable to ship within the promised time, then you must provide a revised shipment date and explain the customer’s right to cancel or obtain a refund.”

Those three items track the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule closely. The rule at 16 CFR Part 435 (opens in new tab) makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to solicit an order “unless, at the time of the solicitation, the seller has a reasonable basis to expect that it will be able to ship any ordered merchandise to the buyer” within the time stated. Where no time is stated, the rule’s window is “within thirty (30) days after receipt of a properly completed order from the buyer.”

A deposit starts that clock. The FTC’s business guide to the rule (opens in new tab) says “An order is properly completed when you receive the correct full or partial (in whatever form you accept) payment, accompanied by all the information you need to fill the order.”

Payment under the rule isn’t limited to money already collected: its definition includes “authorization from the buyer to charge an existing charge account,” and the FTC guide lists “the customer’s authorization to charge an existing account (including one you have created for the customer)” as a form of payment. If your preorder stores the card and charges nothing at checkout, take that case to counsel.

“Shipment” has a specific meaning in the rule: “the act by which the merchandise is physically placed in the possession of the carrier.” The definition turns on the carrier having the merchandise. The FTC guide lists four factors behind a reasonable basis: anticipated demand, supply, your fulfillment system and recordkeeping.

Records carry weight in the rule’s text. Section 435.2(a)(4) says lacking “records or other documentary proof” of systems that assure timely shipment “will create a rebuttable presumption that the seller lacked a reasonable basis for any expectation of shipment within said applicable time.” The FTC’s guide puts it this way: “Although you are not required to keep records, an accurate, up-to-date recordkeeping system can help show that you are complying with the Rule.” Save the supplier confirmation and the freight booking that your launch date rests on.

When you can’t ship on time, the rule requires you to offer the buyer “an option either to consent to a delay in shipping or to cancel the buyer`s order and receive a prompt refund.” The FTC’s guide sets the deadline: “In any event, no notification to the customer can take longer than the time you originally promised or, if no time was promised, 30 days.”

Silence counts as consent only once, and only for short delays. The FTC guide says “If your first delay option notice provides a definite revised shipping date of 30 days or less, you must inform customers that their non-response will be treated as a consent to the delay.” If the revised date is more than thirty days out, or you can’t give one, the rule requires the notice to say the order will be treated as canceled unless you ship within thirty days of the original time or the buyer specifically consents. For second and later notices, the guide says “the customer’s silence may not be treated as a consent to delay.”

Refunds have their own terms. For most payment methods the guide says “you must refund the correct amount within seven working days after the order is cancelled.” It also says “When making Rule-required refunds, you cannot substitute credit toward future purchases, credit vouchers, or scrip.” If you can’t ship any of the order, the refund covers the entire amount the customer paid, including shipping.

The FTC’s guide says merchants who violate the rule can be sued for “monetary civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation,” a figure the page notes was edited in January 2025 to reflect inflation-adjusted maximums. The rule also doesn’t preempt state or local laws that give buyers equal or greater rights.

Shopify requires a preorder app to email customers when you push the ship date later. Before launch, read your app’s delay template against this list of what the FTC rule calls for:

A preorder app can only show what the theme gives it room to show. Shopify’s guide to adding pre-orders to a theme (opens in new tab) describes five components: a selling plan selector on the product page, JavaScript that updates the plan as variants change, a selling plan display in the cart, a checkout charge display in the cart, and a selling plan display on customer order pages. For the cart, the guide says to “Display a checkout charge that represents the amount that customers need to pay during checkout.”

Shopify’s UX guidelines for pre-orders (opens in new tab) set the standard for what the customer should be able to read: “Customers should be able to clearly identify how much they will pay at checkout, the total cost of the product, when they’ll be charged a remaining balance amount (when applicable), and when their payment method will be charged.” The guidelines name five storefront surfaces where purchase options show up: product pages, collection pages, search results, featured product sections on the home page, and quick view modals on product cards. A preorder badge that appears on the product page and not on the collection card leaves the customer to find out one click later.

Deposit pricing has two display rules. Shopify says “The main price component should always display the total cost of an item,” and “Don’t use visual styling that suggests money saving pricing tactics, such as price strikethroughs, to represent the full price of a product in relation to the initial deposit.” A $40 deposit on a $200 product can’t be styled as a markdown from $200.

The button and the default selection matter as well. Shopify’s guidelines say “Having a call-to-action (main button text) that reflects the purchasing option type helps customers differentiate between a pre-order or a TBYB and a one-time purchase, even if there’s only one option available.” Where a product offers both a one-time purchase and a preorder, the guidance is “On the first page load, select the one-time option by default.” Shopify’s theme overview for pre-orders (opens in new tab) notes that merchants can also “specify a required selling plan for a product, such as “pre-order-only” offers.”

The selling plan name travels further than the product page. Shopify says “The selling plan name shouldn’t include any marketing text,” because “The text is displayed in multiple areas of the online store, such as cart line items, checkout, and past order details.” Shopify’s guidelines recommend writing the deposit amount and payment due date into the name, and separately warn that “Any prices that are written in strings won’t reflect currency switching or price rounding, and might be incorrect or misleading to customers.” For a multi-currency store, express the deposit as a percentage in the plan name.

Uninstalling the app deletes the setup. Shopify’s pre-orders page (opens in new tab) says “If you uninstall a pre-order app, then any pre-order data (excluding customer payment information) that you’ve created in the app is deleted after 48 hours.” It adds “If the app has a backup mechanism in place, then you can restore the data at a later date.” Don’t switch Shopify preorder apps while orders are open, and confirm the backup before you remove one.

Shopify’s payment reminders skip these orders. Shopify’s deferred payments page (opens in new tab) says “Payment reminders aren’t sent for orders with purchase options such as subscriptions, preorders, or try before you buy.” Since the app is responsible for charging the balance, any balance-due reminder has to come from the app or from your own email platform.

Collecting early is allowed and carries a warning. Shopify’s managing pre-orders page (opens in new tab) says “You can modify the payment due date on a deferred payment to collect it early,” then cautions “Make sure that you clearly communicate to your customer if you plan to collect a payment early. If your customer isn’t expecting a charge, then it could result in a chargeback.” Send the notice before you click Collect payment.

Fulfillment holds change where preorder orders appear in the admin. Shopify’s page on fulfillment holds (opens in new tab) describes a system hold called Unknown delivery date, placed “on orders with a selling plan that requires future fulfillment at an unscheduled date. This hold is usually applied to pre-orders.” The page says “Orders that are On hold are excluded from the list of Unfulfilled orders in your Shopify admin,” so a warehouse team working from the Unfulfilled view won’t see them until the hold is released.

That page also says “You can manually place and release fulfillment holds or you can use Shopify Flow to automate this process.” Shopify’s Flow trigger index (opens in new tab) includes “Fulfillment order placed on hold” and “Fulfillment order holds released”, plus three selling plan group triggers (created, deleted and updated). Our guide to Shopify Flow automations covers the Hold fulfillment order action in a fraud-hold workflow. Some app listings name Flow triggers and actions as plan features, so test them before you rely on them.

Order edits are narrower than on a standard order. Shopify’s managing pre-orders page permits seven edits, including changing quantities, adding or adjusting discounts, removing a preorder product and adding a one-time item, and says “You can’t add a new pre-order product when editing an order.” Shopify’s May 21, 2025 changelog entry (opens in new tab) introduced the quantity and discount edits. The developer limitations list says the Order Edits API only supports removing a preorder product. A customer who wants a second preorder item places a second order.

Cancellations can need two steps. Shopify says “If your customer cancels an order, then you might still need to refund the order manually,” and “After you refund an order from the Orders page, you might need to cancel the order in your pre-order app as well.” Write both steps into your support team’s macro so a refunded order doesn’t still get a balance charge attempt from the app.

Use a selling-plan preorder for any product the customer will wait on past your normal ship window. It comes with a checkout acknowledgment, a stored payment method and app-sent delay emails. The oversell setting alone is the better fit for a short restock gap on a high-volume product, since the checkout restrictions above come with the purchase option. You’d then charge in full at checkout and own the ship-time statement and delay notices yourself.

State a ship date every time, on the product page and in the cart, and keep the supplier evidence behind it. Charge the balance on fulfillment if your app offers it. If it only offers a fixed date, set the date after your realistic arrival window and notify customers before any early collection.

Choose the app on its cancel flow, delay email, failed-payment handling and backup, then price it against your largest launch month. Have the theme work done before the app goes live: the badge on collection and search cards, the full price as the main price, the deposit and ship date in the cart, and a button that says what the customer is doing.

A preorder that reads clearly on every surface is theme work. Our custom Shopify theme development team builds the selector, cart and button behavior a preorder setup needs, and it starts with a free Growth Audit: a no-obligation look at why you aren’t getting found or converting, with a roadmap for fixing it.