Pre-order vs backorder on Shopify: what's the difference?
Updated · SMART Preorder & Back in stock (E-TRADE PARTNER)
On Shopify, a backorder is a normal order for an item you're out of stock on: you turn on Continue selling when out of stock, the customer pays the full price, and Shopify adds no pre-order label or ship date. A pre-order is a purchase option added by an app: it's named in the cart and at checkout, can take a deposit or nothing today, and comes with its own delivery message, holds and emails. SMART Preorder combines the two: it turns on Continue selling for a campaign's variants and adds the pre-order purchase option on top.
SMART Preorder & Back in stock is a free Shopify app for pre-orders, deposits, and back-in-stock alerts.
Try it freeOn this page
Side by side
| Backorder (Continue selling) | Pre-order (purchase option) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An inventory setting on a variant. It needs Inventory tracked turned on. | A Shopify purchase option (a selling plan) that an app adds to the product. |
| Payment | Full price at checkout. | Full price, a deposit, or nothing today; the balance is charged later. |
| Payment methods | Every method your checkout offers, including Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay. | Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Adyen on Shopify or Stripe. No Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay or local methods such as Klarna. |
| What the shopper sees | A normal Add to cart and checkout. | A Pre-order button, a delivery message, and the purchase option name in the cart and at checkout. |
| Stock | Goes below 0 as orders come in. | Set by the purchase option: lowered when the order is placed (it can go below 0) or when it's fulfilled. |
| Shipping early | Nothing stops an order from being fulfilled. | Optional fulfillment hold, or a scheduled ship date. |
| How many | Sells until you turn the setting off. | Optional unit limits, enforced at checkout. |
| Afterwards | Looks like any other order. | Tagged and tracked as a pre-order, with its own emails and balance handling. |
Sources: Shopify's help on selling when out of stock and pre-order setup, and the developer docs on pre-order purchase options. Shopify notes that pre-orders need an app; Continue selling is built in.
Which one to use
| Situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| The restock is days away, the price is the same, and you want every payment method to work. | Backorder |
| The product isn't released yet, or the wait is weeks or unknown. | Pre-order, with a delivery message that says when it ships |
| You want a deposit, or to charge nothing until it ships. | Pre-order |
| You want an early-bird price, a cap on units, or orders held until stock arrives. | Pre-order |
| You don't want to take orders at all, just collect interest. | A back in stock waitlist. See Back in stock. |
Telling customers when it ships
Shopify asks merchants to have a reasonable basis for any ship time they state; with no date stated, you should expect to ship within 30 days, and on a delay you must give a new date and explain the customer's right to cancel or get a refund (Shopify Help Center). A plain backorder shows no ship time at all, so a longer wait is usually better sold as a pre-order with a delivery message.
How SMART Preorder handles each
The campaign's Availability card decides when a variant sells as a pre-order:
| Availability | Behaves like | Continue selling |
|---|---|---|
| When the product is out of stock (default) | Normal sales while you have stock, then a pre-order once the variant hits 0. | Turned on by the app while the campaign is live, so sold-out variants stay buyable as pre-orders. |
| Always | Every purchase is a pre-order, even with stock on hand. | Turned on while live. |
| Only while the product is in stock | Pre-orders up to the inventory you enter, then Sold out. Use it to sell an incoming shipment unit by unit. | Never turned on; stock is always lowered at checkout. |
| Coming soon (scheduled launch) | A Coming soon button until the start date, then every purchase is a pre-order. | Turned on once the campaign starts. |
- Allow purchases while out of stock (Settings tab > Orders > Inventory, on by default) is the switch that lets the app manage Continue selling. It records each variant's own setting first and puts it back when no live campaign covers the variant. A variant you already backordered stays on Continue selling after the campaign.
- Deduct inventory chooses When the order is placed (stock goes below 0, like a backorder) or When the order is fulfilled.
- Simple checkout (Settings tab > Advanced > Checkout mode) is the closest thing to a labeled backorder: the item is added as a normal line with a hidden pre-order note, paid in full, and every payment method, gift card and Buy X get Y discount works. The order is still tagged and tracked as a pre-order, with its limits, holds and emails. It can't take a deposit or a campaign discount.
When a pre-order quietly becomes a backorder
- App embed off, for example after you publish a new theme: the campaign's variants still have Continue selling on, so they sell as plain full-price backorders, with no deposit, hold or limit. The app emails you when you publish a theme with its embed off. See Enable the app embed.
- Right after a campaign ends: Continue selling goes back from the next status check (every 5 minutes; big campaigns take longer). Until then, sold-out variants can sell as plain orders.
- Other sales channels: Shopify doesn't support pre-orders on POS or other channels, so a sold-out variant sold there is a normal order. See Markets and locations.
Turn backorders into proper pre-orders
Ship dates, deposits, holds and limits on top of Shopify's Continue selling. Free on the Shopify App Store.
Install free on ShopifyFrequently asked questions
›Do I need to turn on Continue selling myself for a pre-order campaign?
No. With Allow purchases while out of stock on (the default), the app turns it on for the campaign's variants while the campaign is live and puts your own setting back afterwards.
›Can I keep Shop Pay and Apple Pay on items I sell before they're in stock?
Only as a plain backorder or with Simple checkout, which sells the item as a normal line paid in full. Shopify doesn't sell Standard checkout pre-orders through Shop Pay, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
›My product sells at 0 stock with no pre-order button. Why?
It's selling as a plain backorder: Continue selling is on, but the Pre-order button isn't showing, often because the app embed is off or the campaign isn't live. See Pre-order button not showing.