Looking for the best pre-order app for your store?
Read this guide to find out the best ones. In the end, we also have a bonus tip for a successful product launch.
But the basics first.
What is a Pre-order?
Pre-order is a feature that allows customers to place an order for the product before it’s officially available for sale. This helps them book the product and guarantee the purchase once it’s available.
This feature is useful for businesses that manufacture or sell products in limited quantities. Using pre-orders in Shopify, you can also measure the product demand and make restocking decisions. Plus, pre-orders can create a sense of exclusivity among customers, creating hype and sales.
Top Features to Look for in a Pre-order App
If you want to implement a pre-order functionality in Shopify, you’ll need an app. There are plenty of pre-order apps available in the app stores. But here are some essential features you should look at when selecting one:
- Partial payments – Accept a part of the payment for pre-orders as a booking amount
- Email/SMS alerts – Notify the customers as soon as the pre-order products are available
- Customization – Change the pre-order button text, colours, and position
- Reporting & Analytics – Keep track of pre-orders in the store with revenue
Our team tested the most popular Shopify pre-order apps and shortlisted five apps based on average ratings, number of reviews, pricing, and presence of essential features.
In this section, we dive deep into the top five Shopify apps for pre-order functionality that you can use. It will help you understand which app is best for your needs.
1. Stoq: Back In Stock, PreOrder
Stoq is the best Shopify app for earning revenue from out-of-stock products. You can use its ‘Preorder’ or ‘Notify me when available’ widget and tap into customer demand.
The app helps you offer pre-orders, backorders, and presales with partial payments, discounts and more. It automatically sends a confirmation email with shipping and payment information immediately after checkout. The email/SMS back-in-stock alerts with purchase links are automatically sent when the products are restocked.
One thing I love about this app is that it is Built for Shopify. Meaning it’s fast, customizable, well-integrated and fully featured. The 5-star ratings, 24×6 support, 1:1 on-boarding calls and fresh updates every month make it the best choice.
You can start for free today and watch orders come through in just a few minutes.
Pricing:
- Free – Up to 10 pre-orders
- Lite ($10/mo)- Up to 100 pre-orders
- Standard ($29/mo) – Up to 400 pre-orders
- Pro ($69/mo) – Up to 1000 pre-orders
2. PreOrder Globo | Back in Stock
It’s a powerful app with features like pre-order, restock alert, coming soon, presale, and backorders. PreOrder Globo app comes with easy configuration options – it can automatically tag orders and alerts based on inventory and date/time settings.
The back-in-stock notifications are sent to subscribed users once a product becomes available again. Additionally, users can easily enable pre-order buttons for out-of-stock products or any product on Shopify, set up partial payments, apply discounts on pre-orders, and customize delivery notes to inform customers about expected shipping dates.
Overall, PreOrder Globo provides a convenient and efficient solution for managing pre-orders and back-in-stock alerts.
This Shopify preorder app also has a Built for Shopify badge – therefore, it seamlessly integrates with your store.
Pricing:
- Free to use
3. PreOrder Now & Pre-order | PQ
This app provides businesses with a comprehensive solution to manage pre-orders effectively. It allows customers to pre-order products and notifies them when items are available for purchase.
Its key features include partial payments, discounts, and scheduled pre-order dates. Plus, you get options like ‘coming soon’ to plan a successful product launch. You can control pre-orders and restocks based on inventory levels, saving time and reducing the risk of overselling.
You can also set up a countdown timer in the Shopify store to create hype and excitement amongst the visitors.
The best part? The app is totally free and has no limitations.
Pricing:
- Free to use
4. Preorder Wolf | Pre order now
Preorder Wolf is another good tool for pre-order buttons in Shopify. It streamlines the process of accepting orders for unavailable products.
You can enable preorders for specific products, collections, or all products. It helps you create a new revenue stream for the out-of-stock items, create hype for upcoming releases, test demand for new products, or sell made-to-order/custom items without holding inventory.
It’s the best pre-order manager dashboard that helps you automate the pre-ordering feature based on inventory rules. However, it lacks pre-order discount functionality.
It’s free to use and has a Built for Shopify badge.
Pricing:
- Free to use
5. PreOrder Now WOD | PreOrder
This pre-order items app could be a good option to add pre-order stickers to your product pages. It offers all the features offered by other apps mentioned above and also an option to add badges to products.
You can add a custom badge to products that are available for pre-orders. This way, you can make upcoming products stand out from a large catalogue.
The app offers pre-order options like adding inventory-based status, expected shipping dates, automatic discounts, and partial payments. This way, you can communicate the expected product availability and delivery date with your customers. You can also add a mixed cart warning to alert customers when there are normal and pre-order items in the cart.
Pricing:
- Free to use – Only 1 pre-order
- Shopify Basic – $19.95/mo
- Shopify Standard – $39.95/mo
- Shopify Advanced – $59.95/mo
Get started with the pre-order application of your choice and start marketing your upcoming product launches. If you’re unsure, you can just try them one by one. You can also take the 14-day free trial of the apps before you settle for one.
How to Plan a Successful Product Launch Campaign?
If you’re going to announce a product pre-launch in your Shopify store, here are some useful tips for success:
- Offer discounts on preorder items to motivate the customers
- Run social media and paid ads campaigns to generate hype
- Limit the number of pre-orders to accept during a sales campaign
- Plan lucky giveaways and contests to create hype
Lastly, it’s a good idea to identify whether your product is worth pre-order marketing. It should create curiosity and a fear of missing out among potential visitors.
Bonus Tip: Add a Countdown Timer to Your Shopify Store
In addition to the pre-order features, you can use a countdown timer bar in your store to make it a successful product launch campaign. You can use the Meetanshi Countdown Timer Bar app for that.
The app is easy to set up and helps you customize the timer bar in the store. When combined with the pre-order apps in your Shopify store, it becomes a powerful tool to drive more sales. For example, you can create a countdown timer for your upcoming product launches to drive traffic to your product page.
