Let customers cancel preorders

Use this guide if you want customers to cancel their own preorder instead of contacting you. By the end, a link in their preorder emails sends them to a hosted STOQ page where they can look up the order and cancel it for a full refund.

Before you begin

Requirement	Detail
Email provider	The cancellation setting only applies when your preorder notifications are sent through STOQ. If you send preorder emails through Klaviyo, the cancellation toggle and link-text field are disabled, since Klaviyo controls that email's content instead. Shopify Flow can't be selected as the email provider for preorder confirmation emails.
A "Cancel order link" text	The cancel link only renders in the email if this field has text in it. STOQ ships with a default of "Cancel order" already filled in.
On by default	Allow customers to cancel preorders is on for all shops out of the box. To stop customers self-cancelling, turn it off.

Note

This setting does not send a separate cancellation email. It adds a Cancel order link to STOQ-sent preorder emails. If preorder confirmation emails are disabled, no cancellation link is sent in that email; the setting only matters if another STOQ preorder email, such as a shipping update or payment email, is sent.

What customers will see

The cancel link is added to the footer of any preorder notification email sent through STOQ, including the preorder confirmation email, shipping update emails, and payment collection/failure emails, whenever Allow customers to cancel preorders is checked and the Cancel order link text field is not empty. It does not appear in preorder SMS or push notifications, and it does not appear if the notification's email provider is Klaviyo.

Customer clicks the cancel link in their email

This opens a hosted STOQ page titled "STOQ" with the subtitle "Manage your preorders here." The page is served from your STOQ app domain, not your storefront.

Customer searches for their order

Enter the Order Number/Name, either the order name like #1213 or the numeric Shopify order ID.
Enter the email the order was placed under.
Click Search Order.

STOQ only returns the order if the email matches the email on file for that order.

Customer reviews order details

If found, the page shows the order number, date, contact email, total, payment status, and the preorder product name(s). If the order was already cancelled, it shows a "Cancelled" status badge and the Cancel Order button is disabled.

Customer confirms cancellation

Click Cancel Order to open a browser confirmation dialog ("Are you sure you want to cancel this order?").
Confirm the dialog to send the cancellation request.
On success, the page shows an "Order Cancelled" banner.

When the customer confirms, STOQ cancels the order in Shopify, refunds the customer in full, and restocks inventory that was previously deducted. Shopify sends its own cancellation/refund notification to the customer, separate from STOQ's page.

Set it up

Open the preorder confirmation email editor

In the left menu bar of the STOQ app, click Preorders.
Click the Settings tab.
Open the Notifications sub-tab.
On the 'Preorder confirmed' notification card, click Customize email.

Find the Cancellation section

In the side panel, scroll to the Content section. If your email provider is STOQ, you'll see a Cancellation group with:

Allow customers to cancel preorders, a checkbox.
Cancel order link, a text field for the link's visible text, such as "Cancel order" or "Need to cancel?".

Toggle the checkbox

Check Allow customers to cancel preorders to turn the feature on, or uncheck it to turn it off. Both the checkbox and the link-text field are disabled if your notification's email provider isn't STOQ.

Customize the link text (optional)

Edit the Cancel order link field to change the wording customers see. Leaving this field blank hides the link entirely, even if the checkbox above is checked.

Save

Click Save. The setting is shop-wide: it applies to every preorder email, not just the confirmation.

Check your setup

Place a test preorder order, or use an existing unpaid one, with Allow customers to cancel preorders checked and the Cancel order link field filled in.
Open the preorder confirmation email and click the cancel link, then search for the order and click Cancel Order on the hosted page.
In Shopify admin, open the order and confirm it now shows as Cancelled and Refunded. Its timeline shows two STOQ entries: "Stoq sent an order canceled email to you" (with a View email link), and "Stoq canceled this order", which expands to show the Reason ("Customer changed/canceled order") and a staff note attributing the cancellation to STOQ's self-service page.
In STOQ, go to Reports → Preorders → Orders and confirm the order shows a Cancelled badge in the Payment status column. (For a single offer, you can also check this under Preorders → Offers → open the offer → Orders tab. The cancellation itself doesn't appear in the order's Activity timeline in STOQ.)

Troubleshooting

The checkbox and link-text field are greyed out

Your preorder confirmation email's provider isn't STOQ, most likely Klaviyo. Switch the confirmation email's provider to STOQ to use this setting, or manage cancellation through your own Klaviyo template.

The cancel link isn't showing up in customer emails

Check that Cancel order link has text in it. Leaving it blank hides the link even when the checkbox is checked.

A customer says the link shows "Preorder cancellation is currently disabled"

The setting was turned off after that email was sent. The page checks the live setting, not a snapshot from when the email went out, so they can no longer cancel through it. Cancel the order for them manually in Shopify admin if needed.

A customer can't find their order on the cancellation page

They're likely entering an email that doesn't match the one on the order. STOQ only returns a result on an exact match, so a mismatch shows an error with no order details.

A customer wants to cancel just one item from a mixed order

This flow doesn't support partial or line-item cancellation. Cancel the item for them manually in Shopify admin, or set up separate orders for mixed preorders so cancelling the preorder order doesn't touch the in-stock items.

Limitations

Cancelling through this page always cancels the entire Shopify order, not an individual line item. If the order contains other, non-preorder products alongside the preorder item, those are cancelled and refunded too. STOQ doesn't support partial-order or line-item-level cancellation through this flow.

FAQ

Is this feature paid-plan only?

No. Unlike some other preorder notification features, cancellation isn't gated by plan. It's only gated by using STOQ as your email provider for that notification.

Can a customer cancel just one item from a mixed order?

No. The cancel action cancels the whole Shopify order and refunds it in full. If you split preorder and in-stock items into separate orders (see Separate orders for mixed preorders), a customer could still only cancel the preorder-only order through this page, leaving the other order untouched.

Can I turn this off after enabling it?

Yes. Uncheck Allow customers to cancel preorders in the confirmation email editor (Preorders in the left menu → Settings tab → Notifications sub-tab → Customize email on the 'Preorder confirmed' card → Content). Anyone who already got an email with the cancel link sees a "Preorder cancellation is currently disabled" message if they click it afterward, and won't be able to cancel through the page. You can always cancel the order for them manually in Shopify admin.

Does this affect orders that were placed before I turned the setting on?

The setting controls whether the link appears in new emails going forward, and whether the cancellation page will still process a request at all. It checks the live setting, not a snapshot from when the email was sent, so an old email's link only works if the setting is currently on.

Does cancelling this way notify me, the merchant?

Yes. STOQ sends you an "order canceled" email, the Shopify order timeline logs it, the order itself shows as cancelled and refunded with a staff note attributing it to STOQ, and Reports → Preorders → Orders shows a Cancelled badge in the Payment status column.

Can I customize what the confirmation page looks like, beyond the link text?

Not beyond the Cancel order link wording. The hosted search-and-cancel page itself (title, layout, field labels, and confirmation banner) is a fixed STOQ-branded page and isn't customizable from the template editor.

Preorder confirmation notification

Set up and customize the email that carries the cancellation link.

Preorder analytics dashboard

See preorder revenue, orders, and unpaid/unfulfilled counts in the Overview tab.

Separate orders for mixed preorders

Split preorder items into their own order so a cancellation doesn't affect in-stock items.

Find and read preorder orders

Look up any preorder order's status, including cancellations, from the Reports page.