Pre-order

A pre-order lets customers buy a product before it's available to ship. The brand collects payment (or a deposit) at order time and commits to fulfillment at a future date — typically when production completes or inventory arrives at the warehouse.

Why brands run pre-orders

• Demand validation: testing whether a new product has real market interest before committing to a full production run.
• Working capital relief: customer payments fund the production order rather than tying up the brand's cash.
• Bridging stockouts: capturing demand from customers who would otherwise leave when a hero SKU sells out, by pre-selling the next inbound shipment.
• Launch hype: creating scarcity and urgency around new product drops, especially in fashion, sneakers, and limited-edition categories.

Pre-order vs. backorder

• Pre-order: for products that have not yet been produced or launched. Future delivery date is communicated upfront, and the customer is buying with eyes open.
• Backorder: for existing products that have temporarily sold out. The customer is buying an existing SKU with a delay rather than a new one.

Both involve collecting payment for inventory not yet available, but the customer expectation and operational discipline required differ. Pre-orders are typically planned campaigns; backorders are reactive responses to stockouts.

How to run a pre-order well

• Communicate the ship date prominently. Not at checkout — on the product page, in the cart, in the order confirmation, and in every subsequent email. Customers who don't realize they pre-ordered are the ones who file chargebacks.
• Hold a realistic Capable to Promise (CTP) view of your production schedule. Pre-orders work when promise dates are accurate; they fail when production slips and customers find out via silence.
• Send proactive update emails when the schedule changes. A 2-week delay communicated 4 weeks in advance is acceptable. The same delay communicated the day before the original ship date is a refund event.
• Decide on payment timing intentionally. Charge-now is simplest but creates the largest customer-trust burden. Charge-at-ship reduces refund pressure but creates payment failure risk on long pre-order windows.
• Cap pre-order quantity if production is constrained. Selling more pre-orders than capacity creates a CTP failure and a wave of refunds.

Common pre-order failure modes

• Date promises that the production schedule can't keep. The biggest single source of pre-order chargebacks.
• Silent delays. Customers will absorb a slipped date if told in advance; they will not absorb one they discover after it's missed.
• Pre-orders mixed into the regular catalog without distinction. Customers expect items in their cart to ship in a few days; surprising them with a 6-week wait at checkout creates abandonment and chargebacks.
• No cap on pre-order volume. Selling 5,000 units of a 3,000-unit production run guarantees a refund event.