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, no further pre-orders are taken and the button goes back to the normal one for that variant's stock level: Sold Out if its Shopify stock is 0 or below, Add to Cart if it still has stock. Because the limit is counted per variant, one size can read Sold Out while the others keep taking pre-orders.
• It works together with When Pre-order shows: it is the cap that stops the "Always, whatever the stock level" 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 When Pre-order shows.

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.

Does an item sitting in a shopper's cart use up one of your pre-orders?

No. A cart does not hold a unit against your limit, the count moves only when a shopper places the order at checkout. An item sitting in someone's cart stays available to everyone else, so two shoppers can have the same last unit in their carts and whoever checks out first gets it, and abandoned carts never touch your cap. Once placed pre-orders reach the limit, the button reverts on its own.

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).

Running one shared pre-sale pool across a whole product

Because the limit is counted per variant, there's no way to set a single shared cap across a product that has variants (sizes, colours). If what you want is one general pre-sale, a single total for the whole launch where customers reserve now and you sort out the exact variant later, run it on a separate product that has no variants:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and create a new product for the pre-sale (for example "Spring Drop - Reserve"). Leave it with a single option, so there's just one thing to pre-order. Set the product to Active so it has a live product page.
2. In the Timesact app, open Products, click Add Products → Specific products, tick your new pre-sale product, and click Add.
3. On the Assign Customer Experiences screen, tick a customer experience template that has the Pre-order functionality (or create one on the Experiences tab first).
4. Still on that screen, under Pre-order quantity, switch Unlimited off and enter your total for the whole pre-sale (for example 115). Because this product has a single variant, that number is your one shared cap, once it's reached the button reverts on its own and no more reservations come in. Click Save.
5. If you'd like to take a deposit rather than full payment up front, open the template's Functionality settings → Billing and choose Split payment, for example a fixed amount now with the balance collected later (see Billing and Split payments).

When you know the final breakdown, create your real variant products in Shopify and fulfil the reserved customers against them there. This gives you one honest count for the launch instead of a separate limit on each size or colour.

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: When Pre-order shows
• Overview of all the building blocks: How Pre-orders Work

Updated on: 08/12/2026