How Pre-Orders Work

What actually happens behind the scenes when you run a pre-order: how it is powered, when it shows, how customers are charged, when it ships, and how stock is handled. This is the concept behind the settings in the Preorder article, written so you understand the mechanics without needing to be technical. The pre-order Feature settings are reusable building blocks, this article gives the overview and links to a dedicated article for each block.

The foundation: a Shopify selling plan

Every Timesact pre-order is powered by a Shopify selling plan. A selling plan is Shopify's built-in way to sell a product on different terms than a normal sale, in this case buy now and receive later.

You do not create or manage this yourself. When you enable Pre-Order on a customer experience template, Timesact automatically creates and manages the selling plan and attaches it to the products you assign. The terms you set (how the customer is charged, when the item ships, any discount) are written into that selling plan. When the pre-order is shown (Stock Management, below) is decided by Timesact and is separate from the selling plan.

On the storefront, when a shopper adds a pre-order item to the cart, Timesact attaches the selling plan to that cart line. That attachment is what tells Shopify to treat the order as a pre-order at checkout: defer fulfillment and apply your payment terms. If the selling plan is not attached, the item is sold as a normal product, charged in full and fulfilled immediately.

The building blocks

The pre-order Feature settings are made of reusable blocks. Each one has its own article with the full options and scenarios:

• Stock Management decides when the pre-order shows, per variant, based on the variant's Shopify stock (out of stock, regardless of levels, or only when inventory is available), and drives the Active vs Pending status. See Stock management
• Shipping date sets when the customer is told the item ships (as soon as possible, an exact date, a period, or an interval). See Shipping dates.
• Billing decides how and when the customer is charged, full amount at checkout, or a partial payment with 0, a percentage, or a fixed amount upfront and the balance collected later. This is also where the optional pre-order discount lives. See Billing and Partial Payments.
• Inventory and fulfillment covers when inventory is reserved (on sale vs on fulfillment), the Continue selling toggle that keeps out-of-stock items buyable, and deferred fulfillment. See Inventory and Fulfillment.
• Pre-order limit caps how many pre-orders you accept before the button reverts to normal. See Pre-Order Limit.

The full lifecycle, end to end

1. You enable Pre-Order on a customer experience template and assign products. Timesact creates the selling plan and applies your settings (stock mode, shipping date, billing, discount, inventory policy).
2. A shopper visits a variant whose stock condition is met, so its status is Active and the storefront shows the Pre-Order button, along with the shipping date and any payment option.
3. They add it to cart, Timesact attaches the selling plan to the line.
4. At checkout Shopify charges the full amount, or the deposit, or nothing, depending on your billing setting, and stores the payment method when a balance remains.
5. The order is created with deferred fulfillment, the shipping date, and (for partial) payment terms for the balance.
6. If partial, the remaining balance is collected later per the order's payment terms, automatically where your payment provider supports it, otherwise by invoice.
7. When your stock arrives, you fulfill the order like any normal order.

Known limitations

• B2B and wholesale: Shopify does not support selling-plan pre-orders (or subscriptions or Try Before You Buy) on B2B orders, so pre-orders cannot run on a B2B/wholesale checkout.
• Automatic balance collection depends on your payment provider supporting deferred capture. Where it does not, you collect the balance by invoice.
• Pre-orders are not available through Shopify POS, on draft orders, or with certain local payment methods, these are Shopify platform constraints.
• If the selling plan is not attached at add-to-cart (for example when another app or widget intercepts the add-to-cart), the item is sold as a normal product. See the Testing and Troubleshooting article.

Learn more

• For the step-by-step setup of all of the above, see the Preorder article.
• For collecting and managing the deferred balance on the Shopify side, see Shopify's guide: Managing orders with deferred payments.

Updated on: 07/01/2026