How do I set up pre-orders for made-to-order or custom products on Shopify?

If you sell products that aren't kept in stock, e.g. custom car parts, handmade items, or anything manufactured on demand, Early Bird can handle this workflow. While there's no specific "Made to Order" button in the app, the pre-order campaigns cover the same use case.

Why this works

Selling made-to-order on Shopify is functionally a pre-order: your customers pay before the product exists, you manufacture it, then ship it to them. The key difference here from standard pre-orders is that you're not waiting for stock to arrive - you're waiting to make it.

Setup options

Option 1: Ongoing made-to-order (most common)

Best for: Custom parts, artwork, or made-to-order items with a consistent 2-3 week lead times.

Visit Early Bird's Pre-order section and create a pre-order campaign
Select "Keep selling pre-orders until campaign ends" (This will enable you to sell pre-orders regardless of your product's inventory levels.)
Leave the campaign end date blank (since you'll be selling ongoing made-to-order pre-orders)
Set your payment structure (a deposit + deferred balance, or full payment upfront)
If you're running made-to-order batches, you select an Expected Fulfillment Date under Fulfillment
If you're running pre-orders for your made-to-order as BAU (business-as-usual), you can choose "ASAP" and customise the display text under Localisation (e.g. Ships in 2-3 weeks)

Early Bird Availability settings showing — Select "Keep selling pre-orders until the campaign ends" to sell made-to-order products regardless of inventory levels.

Early Bird Information settings showing Expected ship date prefix, ASAP label, and Unknown label fields — Customise the ASAP label under Localisation to show your lead time (e.g. "Ships in 2-3 weeks").

Important note: This is best suited for selling as many pre-orders as possible. If you have a limited capacity of how many products you can make to order, you should sell in limited quantities (See Option 2 below.) Otherwise, you'll need to manually pause the campaign if orders exceed your production capacity.

Option 2: Limited quantity made-to-order

Best for: Limited production runs where you can only make X items per week/month. E.g. Bakeries

Create a pre-order campaign
Select "Only sell pre-orders while in stock" (This will automatically switch your Preorder Now button to Sold Out and prevent overselling.)
Set inventory to your production capacity (e.g., 20 units)
Set a campaign end date if you're running a batch
When inventory hits 0, your product page will show "Sold out" instead of "Preorder Now"
We recommend you activate Early Bird's back in stock feature to capture email sign-ups while you've sold out

Important note: Limited quantity pre-orders will only work when your inventory is 1 or above.

Payment collection

For made-to-order with lead times, most merchants would:

Collect a $ or % deposit upfront
Then auto-capture the remainder X days later or on a specific future date
Example: 50% deposit, auto-capture remaining 50% after 14 days.

With Shopify Flow, you also have the option to charge customers when their pre-order ships instead of on a fixed date (although Shopify's checkout system will still require you to show customers a specific payment date in order to maintain transparency about when they'll be charged and reduce payment dispute risks.)

Early Bird Purchase options settings showing Pay a deposit selected with deposit type, amount, and final payment date fields — Configure deposits under Purchase options. Set a percentage or fixed amount, then choose when to auto-collect the remaining balance.

Check out our help article here to learn about how to set up pre-orders and enable partial payment options on Shopify.

Check out our help article here to learn about how to collect payment upon fulfillment for Shopify pre-orders (charge when ship).

Need help?

If you have further questions about setting up to sell made-to-order, email us at support@shopside.com.au and we'd be happy to walkthrough your specific workflow.