How do I choose which products and variants are on pre-order?
Updated · SMART Preorder & Back in stock (E-TRADE PARTNER)
In the campaign's Products card choose Specific products (whole products or single variants), Collections or All products, with Excluded products for the last two. The Availability card then decides when those variants show the Pre-order button: once sold out, always, only while in stock, or after a coming soon launch.
SMART Preorder & Back in stock is a free Shopify app for pre-orders, deposits, and back-in-stock alerts.
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Pick the products
| Option | What it covers | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Specific products | The products you pick. Each product row covers all its variants or only the ones you choose with Edit variants. | Shopify's picker shows the first 50 variants of a product. On bigger products the app asks whether to keep the variants the picker didn't show. |
| Collections | Every product in the collections you pick. | Products added to those collections later join automatically, usually within about 15 minutes. Add Excluded products to leave some out. |
| All products | Every product in your store. | Use Excluded products for the ones that should never be on pre-order. Gift cards are never added. |
Choose when the button shows
| Availability | What shoppers see | Inventory |
|---|---|---|
| When the product is out of stock (default) | Add to cart while you have stock. Once a variant sells out, the Pre-order button takes its place. | Needs Track quantity on. Sold out means stock at 0 or below. |
| Always | Every purchase is a pre-order, even while you have stock. | Works for tracked and untracked variants. |
| Only while the product is in stock | Pre-orders until the variant's inventory in Shopify reaches 0. Set the inventory to the number of units you want to sell. | Continue selling is never turned on, and inventory is always deducted at checkout. |
| Coming soon (scheduled launch) | A disabled Coming soon button with a countdown until the start date, then every purchase is a pre-order. | Needs a start date: choosing it turns on Set start date so you can pick the launch. |
How the app handles Continue selling
- On the Settings tab, Inventory has Allow purchases while out of stock (on, recommended). While the campaign is live, the app turns on Shopify's "Continue selling when out of stock" for the campaign's variants, so a sold-out variant can still be bought as a pre-order.
- It records each variant's own setting first and puts it back once no live campaign covers the variant.
- Timing: right after you save, or for a scheduled start, in the next status check (every 5 minutes). When a campaign ends, settings go back from the next check; a big campaign takes a while, and meanwhile sold-out variants can still sell as plain full-price orders.
- The app never changes stock counts or Track quantity. Deduct inventory only sets whether Shopify lowers stock When the order is placed or When the order is fulfilled.
- How this differs from a plain backorder with Continue selling alone: Pre-order vs backorder.
One campaign per product
- A product can be in one live or scheduled Specific products campaign at a time. Saving a second one is refused with "[product] is already in [campaign]. A product can be in one campaign at a time".
- Collections and All products campaigns leave out products that a live Specific products campaign holds.
- When campaigns still overlap, shoppers see the more specific one: specific products before collections before all products. On a tie, the older campaign wins.
Warnings under the products
After you save, the Products card shows a line with a Review link when something needs attention. Nothing shows while all is well. For every other reason a button can be missing, see Pre-order button not showing.
| Warning | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Variants may not show the Pre-order button | Track quantity is off (these never sell out), or Continue selling was turned off outside the app, so the variant shows Sold out at 0 stock. | Turn on Track quantity in Shopify, or click Show the button always. For Continue selling, click Save campaign. |
| Products are also sold on other sales channels | Pre-orders only work in your online store. On channels such as Shop, POS, Facebook & Instagram or Google, a sold-out variant can still be bought as a normal order: no deposit, no hold, no pre-order emails. | Open the product and remove those channels under Publishing. |
| Products show another campaign instead | Another active campaign wins on the storefront. | Remove the products from the other campaign. |
| Products can't be added by Shopify | Shopify refused to add them, so they sell as usual. Shopify's message is shown. | Saving the campaign tries them again. |
| Products are in another campaign | A Specific products campaign holds them while it is active. | Remove them from that campaign to add them here. |
Selling plans and other purchase options
Each campaign is a Shopify purchase option on its products. Shopify doesn't let one item combine two purchase options in a checkout, so a subscription can't also be bought as a pre-order (Shopify Help Center).
Put the right products on pre-order
Specific products, collections or your whole store, with exclusions and per-variant control. Free on the Shopify App Store.
Install free on ShopifyFrequently asked questions
›Can I put only some variants of a product on pre-order?
Yes. Choose Specific products, add the product, then click Edit variants and pick the variants. Or keep all variants and use "When the product is out of stock", so only the sold-out ones show the Pre-order button.
›Why does an in-stock variant show Pre-order instead of Add to cart?
The campaign's Availability is set to Always, Only while the product is in stock, or Coming soon after its launch. All three sell every purchase as a pre-order. Choose "When the product is out of stock" to sell stock first.
›Do new products in my collection get the pre-order?
Yes. With Collections, products added to those collections later join the campaign automatically, usually within about 15 minutes.