

The past few years have highlighted how supply chain issues can cause major problems for even the most established businesses. “Gut feelings” may work for some business geniuses, but for the rest of us, pre-orders provide a fantastic realistic picture of which sizes, colors, and options you should produce in order to meet existing customer demand and be able to ship within a reasonable timeframe. If you’re a merchant looking to fine-tune and make final adjustments to your product before bringing it to market, pre-orders can help you understand exactly what customers prefer before your production run concludes.


Whether you’ve invested in the research, design, and manufacturing of your products or you simply purchased inventory, retailers have a serious financial interest in understanding exactly how much demand exists for each product they offer. Selling a physical product inherently comes with risks. Pre-orders help turn uncertainty into insights by providing data about concrete demand that businesses can trust. This makes it easy to shape your strategy to fit your unique cash flow needs. Plus, pre-orders give you the flexibility to take payment in the form of a deposit, upfront, or once the item ships. You have the power to never say “no” to a customer again, because now, when they’re ready to buy, you’re ready to sell (even if you’re not ready to ship). Pre-orders give you an edge, allowing you to lock-in more sales whether the merchandise is ready to ship or not. If your product is unavailable or out-of-stock when shoppers want it, they’ll simply move on to the next store. Ecommerce has effectively put the entire world at their fingertips, and any product-from one-of-a-kind custom crafts to high-end premium luxury goods and electronics-is available with a single tap.įor retailers, this means competition has never been more fierce. Increase salesĬustomers have more options when shopping than ever before. Pre-order selling offers some major advantages that can deliver big benefits not only to your bottom line, but to your operations and your customer loyalty as well. Why pre-orders make sense for your business Whether the product is out-of-stock or soon to be launched, pre-orders act as a kind of reservation that guarantees customer access to it at its earliest possible availability, while helping you improve your cash flow, build customer loyalty, and better forecast demand. Pre-orders allow customers to order products before they are available. They're shipped to the customer once available. What is a pre-order?Ī pre-order is an order placed for an item that hasn't been released or is not currently in stock. This guide walks you through how pre-orders work and what makes them a good fit for your business, so you can stop waiting and start selling. Shopify makes it easy to enable pre-orders, so you can offer this exciting purchase option in your store today.

They help give your business the clarity and visibility you need to better forecast revenue and predict demand, and let customers enjoy the age-old thrill of anticipating their new favorite product- your product-arriving at their doorstep. Pre-orders allow you to increase sales and strengthen customer relationships by turning a potential sale into a purchase. That’s what makes pre-orders such a powerful way to sell. "The waiting is the hardest part." It isn’t just a song lyric-when it comes to ecommerce, merchants are looking for ways to accelerate the shopping experience, increase sales, and get more products into the hands of people who want them, faster.
