Pre-Order Limit

The pre-order limit caps how many pre-orders you accept, so you do not commit to more than you can deliver. It is one of the reusable pre-order building blocks, for the overview see How Pre-Orders Work.

How to set it

Pre-order quantity is Unlimited by default. To cap it, turn Unlimited off and enter a number in the pre-order quantity setting (available when you configure the customer experience template on a product).

How it behaves

• Pre-orders are counted as they come in.
• Once the limit is reached, the button reverts to Add to Cart or Sold Out, so no further pre-orders are taken.
• It works together with Stock Management: it is the cap that stops the "Pre-order regardless of levels" mode once you have taken enough reservations.
• The limit caps how many pre-orders you accept, it does not split a single cart line into in-stock and pre-order units. For how pre-order reacts to the quantity a shopper adds, see Stock Management.

Scenario: you can produce 200 units. Set the limit to 200. Shoppers pre-order until 200 are placed, then the button stops offering the pre-order automatically.

Is the limit per variant or per product?

The pre-order limit is counted per variant, not as one shared total for the whole product. If a product has several variants, say three sizes, and you set the limit to 100, each of those variants can take up to 100 pre-orders on its own, so the product as a whole could take up to 300, not 100. There is no single product-level cap that adds up across every variant.

If you want a rough total for the product, split your target between the variants. For example, to keep a product to about 100 pre-orders across 5 variants, set the pre-order quantity to 20 on each variant. Treat this as an approximation, not an exact ceiling: shoppers won't spread their orders evenly, so one variant can reach its cap while others still have room, and the combined total can land above or below your target.

To set it: in the Timesact app, open Products, open the product, expand its variant rows, and set the pre-order quantity on each variant (see Adding Products).

Known limitations

• The limit caps the number of pre-orders, it is not a live Shopify inventory count. Treat it as a ceiling on commitments, not a replacement for stock tracking.
• It is counted per variant, so each variant has its own count against the limit.

Related

• When and how the pre-order shows: Stock management
• Overview of all the building blocks: How Pre-Orders Work

Updated on: 07/13/2026