STOQ Preorders: Complete Feature Overview for Shopify Merchants

STOQ preorders let you sell products before they are available or in stock. Customers place orders at checkout with clear preorder terms, and you fulfill them once the product is ready. Whether you are launching a new product, managing seasonal demand, or continuing to sell items that are temporarily out of stock, STOQ preorders give you full control over payments, shipping timelines, and inventory.

What Are STOQ Preorders?

STOQ preorders replace your product's default Add to cart button with a customizable Preorder button. Customers can purchase the product at checkout even though it is not available to ship yet. STOQ handles the entire lifecycle — from the storefront widget through to order management and fulfillment.

Here is the flow at a glance:

1. You create a preorder offer and assign products to it.
2. STOQ replaces the Add to cart button with a Preorder button on your storefront.
3. Customers purchase through Shopify's normal checkout with clear preorder terms displayed.
4. Once the product is ready to ship, you fulfill the order from Shopify admin or STOQ.

How to Get Started

Setting up your first preorder offer takes just a few minutes.

Step 1: Enable the App Embed

STOQ uses Shopify's app embed system to display the preorder button on your storefront.

1. In the STOQ app, go to Home.
2. Follow the onboarding checklist — click the step to Enable app embed.
3. This opens your Shopify theme editor. Toggle STOQ's app embed on and click Save.

Step 2: Create a Preorder Offer

Each offer defines the rules for one set of preorder products — including the button text, payment terms, shipping timeline, and limits.

1. Go to Preorders in the STOQ sidebar.
2. Click the Offers tab.
3. Click Create offer.
4. Give your offer an internal name (customers will not see this).
5. Configure the offer sections (see below), then click Save.

Step 3: Assign Products

After saving, add products to your offer.

1. In the offer editor, go to the Products section.
2. Choose your product assignment mode:

• Specific products — Manually select individual products or variants.
• Collection — Automatically include all products in a Shopify collection.
• All products — Apply the offer to your entire catalog.

3. Click Save.

Offer Configuration Sections

Each preorder offer in STOQ has several configuration sections. Here is what each one controls.

Widget

Customize the look and text of your preorder button. Options include:

• Button text — Change from "Preorder" to any label (e.g., "Pre-order now", "Reserve yours").
• Button colors — Set custom background and text colors to match your brand.
• Description text — Add a line below the button (e.g., "Pre-order before it's gone").
• Preorder badge — Show a visual badge on the product card to indicate preorder status.

Inventory

Configure whether the offer applies to out-of-stock or in-stock products.

• Out of stock (default) — Show the Preorder button only when inventory is 0 or less. "Continue selling when out of stock" must be enabled on the product in Shopify.
• In stock — Show the Preorder button while inventory is still available. Useful for products that are in stock but ship later (e.g., upcoming releases).

Shipping

Set the shipping timeline and fulfillment behavior for preorder items.

• Delivery type — Choose when the product will ship:
• As soon as possible — Ship when ready, no specific date.
• After specific number of days — Ship X days after the order is placed.
• Specific date — Ship on an exact date.
• Not sure — Shipping date to be confirmed.
• Shipping text — Displayed to customers on the product page (e.g., "Shipping: March 2025").
• Hold fulfillments — Automatically put preorder items on hold in Shopify so they are not accidentally fulfilled early.
• Split orders — Separate preorder items into a new order so in-stock items in the same cart can ship immediately.

Payment

Set up how customers pay for preorder items.

• Full payment — Collect the entire price at checkout. No remaining balance.
• Partial payment or deposit — Collect a percentage or fixed amount at checkout. Collect the remaining balance later (manually or automatically).
• Full & partial — Offer both options and let the customer choose at checkout.
• Preorder discount — Offer a percentage or fixed discount for preorder customers as an incentive.

Status

Control whether your offer is active and schedule it to start and end automatically.

• Enabled / Disabled — Manually turn the offer on or off.
• Scheduled — Set a start date, end date, or both. STOQ automatically enables and disables the offer on your chosen dates.

Limits & Terms

Set guardrails for your preorder offer.

• Quantity limits — Set a global limit on how many preorder units can be sold, or limit per customer.
• Progress bar — Display a visual bar showing how many units have been claimed out of the total.
• Mixed cart — Allow or block customers from combining preorder and regular items in the same cart.
• Order tags — Automatically tag preorder orders (default: STOQ-preorder) for filtering and automation.
• Preorder acknowledgement — Require customers to accept terms before adding to cart.

Countdown Timer

Add urgency to your preorder page with a live countdown timer.

• Choose between text style or visual style.
• Count down to the offer's start date, end date, or a custom date.
• Customize colors and border radius to match your storefront.

Markets

Restrict your preorder offer to specific Shopify Markets.

• Select which markets the offer should appear in (e.g., only US, only EU).
• Products will only show the preorder button to customers in the selected markets.

Advanced

Optional settings for technical or custom use cases.

• Use without Shopify purchase option — Bypass Shopify's selling plan mechanism for compatibility with managed markets, gift cards, or buy-X-get-Y discounts.
• Custom cart properties — Add custom line item properties for downstream integrations.
• Developer settings — Advanced configuration for headless or custom implementations.

POS, B2B & Bundles

Sell preorders across additional channels.

• Shopify POS — Enable a preorder tile for in-store staff to place preorders on behalf of customers.
• B2B — Allow wholesale/B2B customers to place preorders.
• Bundles — Compatible bundle apps and configuration.

Reports and Analytics

STOQ provides detailed reporting on your preorder performance.

Preorder Overview Dashboard

Go to Preorders → Overview tab to see a visual dashboard with:

• Summary cards — Total sales, average order value, orders, customers, preorder sales, products sold, unpaid orders, and unfulfilled orders.
• Revenue chart — A time-series chart of preorder revenue over time.
• Top products table — See your highest-performing preorder products sorted by revenue or orders.

Products Tab

Go to Preorders → Products to view and manage all products currently assigned to preorder offers. See which offer each product belongs to, its inventory status, and selling plan state.

Reports Page

Go to Reports → Preorders for deeper reporting:

• Products — See revenue and orders per preorder product.
• Orders — View all preorder orders with payment status, fulfillment status, and attributed offer.

Engagement Analytics

Go to Reports → Preorders → Products → Engagement view to track:

• Impressions — How many times your preorder button was seen.
• Add to carts — How many customers clicked through to add the preorder item to their cart.
• Add to cart rate — Conversion from impression to add-to-cart.
• Orders — Completed preorder orders.
• Order rate — Overall funnel conversion rate.

Integrations

STOQ preorders work with your existing tools and workflows.

• Shopify Flow — Trigger automations when a preorder is placed, fulfilled, or when payment is collected.
• Shopify POS — Accept preorders in-store via a dedicated POS tile.
• Klaviyo — Sync preorder customer data for email/SMS marketing campaigns.
• Omnisend / Mailchimp — Sync preorder subscriber data.

Key Features at a Glance

A quick reference of what STOQ preorders include.

Known Limitations

• STOQ requires an Online Store 2.0 theme. Online Store 1.0 themes do not support app embeds and are not compatible.
• In-stock preorders are only available when using the "Specific products" assignment mode. Collection and All products modes do not support in-stock preorders.
• Partial payments require Shopify's selling plan (purchase option) to be enabled. If you disable the purchase option, only full payment is available.
• Scheduled offers rely on STOQ's background process — start and end times may vary by a few minutes from the exact scheduled time.
• The preorder discount feature is not compatible with Shopify's automatic discounts or discount codes on the same item.
• Quantity limits are enforced at checkout. In high-traffic launches, slight overselling is possible before Shopify processes the limit.

Troubleshooting

FAQs

Q: Can I have multiple preorder offers active at the same time?

A: Yes. You can create as many offers as you need, each with different settings. Assign different products to different offers for different shipping timelines, payment terms, or limits.

Q: What happens when inventory arrives and I'm ready to ship?

A: If you used "Hold fulfillments," go to the order in Shopify admin and release the hold. The order moves to Unfulfilled and you can fulfill it normally. You can also release holds in bulk from STOQ's Reports page.

Q: Can customers cancel a preorder?

A: STOQ does not provide a self-service cancellation flow. You can cancel or refund preorders manually from Shopify admin like any other order.

Q: Do preorders work with Shopify POS?

A: Yes. Enable the POS tile in the offer's "POS, B2B & Bundles" section. In-store staff can then place preorders on behalf of customers directly from the POS terminal.

Q: Can I offer a discount to preorder customers?

A: Yes. In the offer's Payment section, enable the preorder discount and set a percentage or fixed amount. The discount is displayed on the product page and applied at checkout.

Q: What is the difference between out-of-stock and in-stock preorders?

A: Out-of-stock preorders show the Preorder button only when inventory reaches zero. In-stock preorders show the button while inventory is still available — useful for products that exist in your warehouse but shouldn't ship until a specific date.

Q: Can I limit how many preorders a single customer can place?

A: Yes. In the offer's Limits section, set a maximum quantity per customer. Shopify enforces this limit at checkout.

Q: Does STOQ work with headless or Hydrogen stores?

A: STOQ's app embed is designed for Shopify's Online Store channel with a 2.0 theme. For headless setups, you can use STOQ's Advanced settings and custom cart properties to integrate preorder logic into your custom storefront.

Updated on: 11/06/2026