How can I offer pre-orders on Shopify in limited quantities?

"We want to set up pre-orders on Shopify but only sell products in limited quantities. What do I need to do?" This help article will take you through how to do using the Early Bird app. Early Bird will automatically switch your pre-order button to "Sold Out" when you hit your quantity limit - no manual work required.

If you're new to running pre-orders on Shopify, read our complete campaign set up guide first to understand how it works.

Before you start

You will need to adjust the stock levels first for your pre-order product and variants before setting up your campaign. You can also do this before you publish your campaign instead.

  1. Go to Products in your Shopify admin
  2. Visit your pre-order product
  3. Set the quantity for the product (or each variant) you're pre-selling
  4. Early Bird will enforce these limits once your pre-order campaign is live

Alternatively, if you're selling the same quantities across all products and variants, you can authorize Early Bird to do this for you, in bulk.

Setting up your Shopify pre-order campaign

1. Create your campaign

Go to Pre-orders in Early Bird > Click Create Campaign > Name your campaign

2. Configure inventory settings

  • Choose Only sell pre-orders while in stock
  • Under "Continue selling when out of stock", choose Early Bird should automatically manage this (recommended)

3. Choose stock management method

Option A: Automatic (recommended for simple campaigns)

  • Enter a stock level number to apply across all products/variants
  • Early Bird automatically manages stock levels for you

Option B: Manual

  • Choose this if you have multiple products/variants with different quantity limits
  • You'll manage stock levels individually in Shopify admin

4. Set campaign schedule (optional)

Under Schedule, choose an End date and time if you want pre-orders to close on a specific date, even if you haven't sold all units.

Example: Your production window closes March 15th regardless of orders received.

Most merchants using quantity limits don't need this.

5. Select products and variants

Choose which products/variants to include in this pre-order campaign

6. Choose purchase options

Select what you want to offer customers:

  • Pay in full
  • Partial deposit
  • Both

7. Set expected fulfillment date

This date shows to customers on:

  • Product page
  • Add to cart
  • Cart page
  • Checkout

8. Publish campaign

Click Save and Publish

Your pre-order button will automatically change to "Sold Out" when you hit your quantity limit.

Need help?

If you have further questions about selling pre-orders in limited quantites on Shopify, feel free to reach out to us at support@shopside.com.au!

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