Preorders overview

Sell before stock arrives, with flexible payment, fulfillment, and notifications.

Last updated October 27, 2026

Get started

Build your offer

+22 more in the sidebar

Payment and discounts

+1 more in the sidebar

Fulfillment and shipping

+9 more in the sidebar

Notifications and integrations

+14 more in the sidebar

Manage and troubleshoot

+22 more in the sidebar

STOQ Preorders lets you sell products before they’re in stock by adding a Preorder button to out-of-stock (or in-stock) products. Customers buy today, pay in full or partially, and stay informed through automated notifications, so you capture demand instead of losing it to a “sold out” page.

You manage everything from Preorders in the left menu of the STOQ app. If you’re setting this up for the first time, start with How to set up preorders.

Before you begin

Some preorder features are limited on the free plan. Automatic payment collection, bulk fulfillment actions, and Hold all fulfillments all require a paid plan.

What do you want to do?

Find your goal and jump straight to the right article.

I want to…	Start here
Sell a specific product (or a few) before it’s back in stock	Set up preorders → Add products to an offer
Automatically offer preorder on all out-of-stock products	Preorder inventory settings (the All products type)
Charge the full amount at checkout	Set up payment
Take a deposit now and collect the balance later	Set up payment → Collect remaining payments
Control when preorders ship (now, on a date, or held)	Choose a fulfillment setup
Run preorders without Shopify’s purchase option	Hold without the purchase option
Sell preorders on Shopify POS	Preorders on Shopify POS
Show the button on collection / home / search / Quick Buy pages	Show the button on store pages
Require customers to accept preorder terms	Set order limits
Offer a discount on preorders	Preorder discounts

The articles above get your offer live. Once orders come in, manage them elsewhere: find and read preorder orders, collect remaining payments, and handle failed charges. Before you publish, test your offer; if the button doesn’t show, see Troubleshooting the Preorder button.

The four tabs

The Preorders section has four tabs.

Tab	What it’s for
Overview	An analytics dashboard: total sales, average order value, orders, preorder sales, unpaid and unfulfilled orders, plus revenue charts and a products-by-revenue table
Products	The products in your offers, where you add or remove products from an offer and toggle Continue selling when out of stock
Offers	Your preorder offers, each with a status (Live, Scheduled or Off), markets, products, and revenue
Settings	Notifications, storefront Pages (the Preorder button), Integrations, and other options

Key concepts

Offer: the rule set you apply to products: button design, inventory, payment, shipping/fulfillment, schedule, markets, and more. A product becomes a preorder by being added to an offer.
Continue selling when out of stock: the Shopify setting that lets an out-of-stock product still be purchased. The Preorder button relies on it, so STOQ helps you turn it on when you add products to an offer.
Fulfillment status: when the preorder fulfills: Unfulfilled, ready to fulfill right away; Scheduled, on a specific date or a set number of days after purchase; or On hold, held until you release it. See Choose a fulfillment setup.
Payment: full payment, a partial payment or deposit, or both. See Set up payment for preorders.
Notifications: automated emails/SMS: preorder confirmed, shipping update, and payment-collection-failed.

Stuck on setup or have a question? Click the purple chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the app and choose Ask Quinn, STOQ’s AI assistant. It can walk you through setting up an offer or answer questions about how Preorders works. See Ask Quinn, your AI assistant.

FAQ

Can I use preorders for in-stock products too?

Yes. An offer can apply to in-stock products (for example, to take a deposit or sell ahead of a launch), not just out-of-stock ones.

What's the difference between a product and an offer?

An offer is the configuration (payment, fulfillment, button, schedule). Products become preorders by being added to an offer. One offer can cover many products.

Do customers know it's a preorder?

Yes. The storefront shows a Preorder button, and you can display a shipping timeline and payment breakdown. Customers also get a preorder confirmation notification.

Where do I see preorder orders and revenue?

Preorder analytics are on the Preorders page’s Overview tab; individual orders are under Reports → Preorders (or open an offer from the Offers tab and use its Orders tab), where you collect payments and manage fulfillment.