Can Shopify Gift Cards be used to purchase Pre-Orders on Shopify?

Understanding Gift Card limitations for Pre-Orders on Shopify

Shopify does not currently allow gift cards to be used for deferred purchases, including pre-orders, subscriptions, try-before-you-buy, or product rentals. This limitation is due to Shopify processing the payment for gift cards immediately upon checkout, which conflicts with the deferred nature of these purchase models. As a result, customers cannot use gift cards directly to pay for pre-order items.

Alternative solutions for using Gift Cards to purchase Pre-Orders on Shopify

If you’re looking to work around Shopify’s limitations on gift cards for pre-orders, consider these options:

Provide a Discount Code Equivalent to the Gift Card Amount If a customer wants to use a gift card specifically for a pre-order item, you could offer them a discount code for the same amount as their gift card. Once they use the code to purchase the pre-order item, you can cancel the original gift card. While this isn't automated, this approach can accommodate their request.

Encourage Gift Card Usage for In-Stock Items

Since there isn't a direct way for your customers to use gift cards to purchase pre-order items on Shopify, the best alternative solution would be to ask your customers to wait until the pre-order item arrives and becomes a regular in-stock product before purchasing.

Switch to Back-Orders Where Possible Shopify gift cards can be used for back-ordered products. If this is a recurring challenge, consider whether back-orders might suit your business better (as this processes payments immediately but your customers normally expects a delay in shipping for these back-ordered products).

Step 1: Adjust Inventory Settings for Back-Orders

Log in to your Shopify admin dashboard.
Navigate to Products in the left-hand menu.
Select the product or variant you want to make available for back-orders.
Scroll down to the Inventory section.
Under Inventory Policy, check the box for Allow customers to purchase this product when it's out of stock (also known as “Continue selling when out of stock”).
Save your changes.

Step 2: Communicate Back-Order Expectations

It’s important to set clear customer expectations about your back-orders:

Update the product description to indicate that the item is on back-order and include an estimated shipping timeframe.
Use badges or banners on the product page (e.g., "Ships in 2-4 weeks") to ensure transparency.

Step 3: Customize Emails for Back-Orders

Shopify’s default order confirmation emails can be customized to include back-order info
Send updates to customers when their back-ordered items are shipped.

Using Early Bird for Back-Orders on Shopify

Our Early Bird app's Back Order feature is designed to workaround the limitations of Shopify's Selling Plans (pre-orders), so your customers can use Shopify gift cards for back orders without issue.

We also help you streamline your back-order management, such as:

Automatically toggle back-orders on for specific products or across your entire catalog.
Automatically tag orders as "back-orders" and view sales data on a dedicated reporting dashboard.
Customize messaging for customers purchasing back-ordered items.
Capture 10 back-orders per month in our Free Plan, zero commission fees and no app branding.

Our technical co-founder Jay has created a step-by-step 5-minute YouTube video tutorial on setting up back-orders:

The 5-minute video covers:

Installing Early Bird
Activating the app embed
Configuring back-order settings
Customizing display settings
Checking the storefront

If you prefer to read through the steps, you can refer to our Getting Started with Early Bird Help Article.

Need Help?

If you’d like to explore how Early Bird can help with back-orders, pre-orders, or partial payments, feel free to contact us at support@shopside.com.au. We're here to help!