How to Enable Products for Pre-Orders?

With our new Pre-Orders feature, you can easily set up your out-of-stock products to accept orders before they're back in stock. This helps you capture sales and gauge demand!

You have two flexible options to enable pre-orders for your products, giving you control over which items appear with a pre-order button.

Step 1: Ensure Shopify's "Continue selling when out of stock" Setting is Active

Before either method below will work, you must make sure that the product (or specific variant) in Shopify is set to "Continue selling when out of stock."

• How to check/set this in Shopify:
  1. Go to your Shopify Admin.
  2. Navigate to Products.
  3. Select the specific product you want to enable for pre-order.
  4. In the product details page, scroll down to the "Inventory" section.
  5. Check the box next to "Continue selling when out of stock."
  6. Click Save.
• If this setting is not enabled, the Pre-order button will not appear, regardless of your BIS app settings.

Step 2: Choose Your Pre-Order Button Visibility in Your Back In Stock App

Once the Shopify setting is active, go to your Back In Stock app's pre-order settings (under "Pre-orders" then "Configuration"). You will see the two options from the screenshot:

Option 1: Enable Pre-Orders for ALL Products "Continuing to Sell When Out of Stock"

• How it works: If you select this option, any product or variant that you've marked as "Continue selling when out of stock" in your Shopify product settings (as described in Step 1) will automatically display a pre-order button when its inventory hits zero.

  When to use this: This is the quickest and easiest method if you want most or all of your out-of-stock products that are allowed to oversell to be available for pre-order.

  To enable: Simply click the radio button next to:

  • "All out-of-stock products with "Continue selling when out of stock" in product settings"

Option 2: Enable Pre-Orders for ONLY Specific Tagged Products

• How it works: If you prefer more granular control, this option allows you to pick and choose exactly which "Continue selling when out of stock" products will show a pre-order button. To do this, you'll use a specific product tag.

  When to use this: This is ideal if you only want to offer pre-orders for a select few products, or if you want to test the feature on a limited basis.

  To enable:

  1. Click the radio button next to:

     • "Only out-of-stock products where "Continue selling when out of stock" is set and are tagged with preorder-enabled

       Go to your Shopify Admin:

     • Navigate to Products.
     • Select the specific product(s) you want to enable for pre-order.
     • In the "Tags" section (usually on the right sidebar), add the tag preorder-enabled (or whatever specific tag you've configured).
     • Click Save.
• Now, only products with both "Continue selling when out of stock" and the specific tag will display the pre-order button when inventory is zero.

Choose the option that best fits your inventory management and pre-order strategy. Once configured, your pre-order buttons will start appearing on your product pages, helping you turn missed sales into captured revenue!

If you have any questions, please reach out to our support team!