Wix Stores: Letting Customers Pre-Order Products

Important:

We're in the process of releasing a brand-new product creation page. If the first field you see is ' Images and videos', you have the previous version and should follow these instructions on allowing customers to pre-order products.

Allow customers to pre-order new, anticipated, or out-of-stock products so you never miss a potential sale.

Customers click the Pre-Order button to purchase a product as they would for any other shop item. As soon as it's in stock, you can fulfill it.

Notes:

• Pre-order is not currently available through the standalone Add to Cart button.

• When customers pre-order a product, they pay the full amount in advance. It's not possible to collect partial payment at checkout.

Enabling pre-orders for products without product options

You can enable pre-order while creating or editing a product. This makes the pre-order button appear when the product is out of stock.

For example, you can create a new product with 50 items in stock and enable pre-order. As long as the product is in stock, customers can purchase it. When the product is out of stock, the "Add to Cart" button changes to "Pre-Order".

To enable pre-ordering:

1. Go to Store Products in your site's dashboard.

2. Create a new physical product or edit an existing one.

3. Scroll down to the Inventory and pre-order section.

4. Click the Sell as pre-order when this product is out of stock toggle to enable it.

1. Enter a short pre-order message.

   Tip: Include an availability message, such as 'Ready to ship by mid-May'.The note is displayed above the pre-order button.

1. (Optional) Limit the number of possible pre-orders for this product:

   1. Select the Limit the number of items available for pre-order checkbox.

   2. Enter the maximum number of pre-orders you can accept.

Limiting pre-orders:

• Set a pre-order limit if you anticipate higher demand than you can fulfill.

• To be able to set a limit, you must track specific inventory amounts.

Enabling pre-orders for products with product options

Even if a product has variants, you can still follow the instructions above for products without variants. Initially, the settings will apply to all variants. This means that each variant is available for pre-order, each one displays the same message, and has the same pre-order limit.

When you click Edit Variant, you'll see the settings applied to each variant and you'll be able to customize them individually.

Tip:

You can also enable pre-order per variant from Edit Variants without enabling it for the entire product.

To customize pre-order settings per variant:

1. Follow the instruction in the section above for products without variants.

2. Create the product options you need for the product.

3. Click Edit Variants.

4. Click the Allow pre-order toggle for each variant to enable or disable it.

   Note: If you don't see the pre-order settings, check the FAQ to see how to display them.

5. Enter a short pre-order message.

6. (Optional) Add a product limit:

   1. Click Limit the number of items available for pre-order checkbox.

   2. Enter the maximum number of pre-orders you can accept for this product.

7. Click Done.

8. Click Apply & Continue.

9. Click Save.

Limiting pre-orders:

• Set a limit if you think you might get more pre-orders than you can handle.

• To be able to set a limit, you must track specific inventory amounts.

Fulfilling pre-ordered products and managing inventory

When customers pre-order your product, your inventory (if you're tracking specific amounts) goes into negative numbers. This negative number indicates how many pre-orders you have for the product.

When you get new stock and update the stock levels, you need to take into consideration the products that are pre-ordered.

For example, if you have 12 pre-orders, your stock level is -12. If you get 50 units in, you need to update your stock level to 38 (50 - 12 = 38), rather than updating it to 50.

To fulfill a pre-ordered product and manage inventory:

1. Update inventory to include the pre-orders:

   1. Go to Store Products in your site's dashboard.

   2. Select the relevant product.

   3. Scroll down to the Inventory and shipping section.

   4. Calculate how much inventory you need to add (amount of new units minus the number of pre-orders).

   5. Update the inventory level.

2. Fulfill pre-ordered products:

   1. Go to Orders in your site's dashboard.

   2. Filter your orders to locate orders that contain the pre-ordered product:

      1. Click Filter.

      2. In the Products filter, select the relevant product.

      3. Click Done.

   3. Fulfill the order as you would any other order.

Tip:

In the Orders tab, orders with pre-ordered items display an indication under the product name and SKU.

FAQs

Click a question below to learn more about letting customers pre-order products:

I'm editing product options. Why don't I see some of the settings?

There are many available product option settings. Use the Customize column feature to make sure, and then use the horizontal scrollbar to access them all. You can save your most commonly used selection as your default view along with additional views.

To customize the product option columns:

1. Select a product and click Edit Variants.

2. Click the Customize column icon

   

   .

3. Select the checkboxes next to the columns you want to display and close the window.

4. Click Apply & Continue.

5. (Optional) Save your selections:

   1. Click Manage View.

   2. Select an option:

      • Click Save as default view: Your selections are applied to all products.

      • Click Save as new view: Give this view a name and save it to quickly apply the selections in future.

Where does the 'Pre-Order' button appear on my site?

The 'Pre-Order' button appears in the Product Page. In addition, if you decided to display the Add to Cart button in a Product Gallery, it changes to "Pre-Order" when the stock level goes down to zero.

How can I use ribbons to let customers know about pre-order products?

You can add a ribbon so customers viewing the product in the gallery see that it's available for pre-order.

This isn't necessary if you enabled the 'Add to Cart' button in the gallery, since the button text automatically changes to "Pre-Order".

Important: When a product is back in stock, the pre-order button automatically changes to "Add to Cart". The ribbon, however, won't change automatically. If you added a ribbon to a pre-order product, make sure you remove it when it's no longer relevant.