How do I turn on the app embed?

Updated November 2, 2026 · SMART Preorder & Back in stock (E-TRADE PARTNER)

On the app's Home, click Activate on the App embed card. Your theme editor opens with the Pre-order & Back in stock embed switched on: click Save. Without it, the Pre-order button and the Notify me button don't show on your store. Payment customizations work without it.

Turn it on from the app

1. Open the app's Home. The App embed card shows Active or Inactive for your published theme.
2. Click Activate. The same button is in Home's setup guide (Activate app embed) and in the banner The app embed is inactive on the Back in stock and Pre-orders pages. Your theme editor opens in a new tab with the embed already switched on.
3. Click Save in the theme editor. Nothing changes on your store until you save.
4. Back in the app, click Refresh status. The card now shows Active.

Or turn it on by hand

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes and click Edit theme on your theme.
2. In the sidebar, click the App embeds icon.
3. Turn on Pre-order & Back in stock with its toggle.
4. Click Save.

These are Shopify's steps for any app embed (Shopify Help Center). There's no theme code to edit.

What the embed does

• Shows the Pre-order button, badge, countdown and payment details on product pages and product cards (Pre-order button, badge and countdown).
• Makes sure an item added to the cart from those pages carries its pre-order.
• Shows the Notify me button and signup form on sold-out products (Set up Notify me).
• Applies the custom CSS from Settings > Theme compatibility, if you added any.

Payment customizations run inside Shopify checkout and never need the embed. If you only use payment rules, an Inactive embed card on Home is fine.

When the embed is off

• The Pre-order button, badge and countdown don't show, and neither does Notify me.
• Variants that a live campaign set to Continue selling can still be bought with your theme's normal button, as regular orders at full price: no deposit, no fulfillment hold, and they aren't tracked as pre-orders.
• Payment customizations keep working.

When you change or publish a theme

App embeds are switched on per theme. Shopify notes that when you change your published theme, you need to turn your apps on again in the new theme, because they aren't on by default.

• Turn the embed on and save in the new theme before you publish it.
• If you publish a theme with the embed off while you have an active campaign or back in stock on, the app emails the store owner once, with a link that opens the theme editor with the embed switched on.
• Home's App embed card checks your published theme only.
• If you set app embeds per market in the theme editor, check that the embed is on for every market that sells pre-orders or uses Notify me. Changes made without picking a market apply to the store default.

On, but nothing shows?

• For Notify me: back in stock is Active and the variant is sold out. See which variants show it.
• For pre-orders: the campaign is active and covers the product. See Set up a pre-order campaign.
• Hard-refresh the product page, and make sure you're looking at the published theme, not a preview of another one.
• On a heavily customized theme, the button can land in the wrong place. Contact us by chat or email and we'll fix it with the Theme compatibility settings (Get support).

Frequently asked questions