thread Re: Pre-Orders in Retail & eCommerce

Pre-Orders

sacredheart926 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:19:32 GMT

Please can someone explain to me how to set up pre-orders. I have a certain amount of product that I am pre-ordering and how do I put that I have only 100 of that item coming? So that it doesn't keep going with orders after the 100 is purchased?

Re: Pre-Orders

Alli548 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:07:23 GMT

Personally, something I would do is set your inventory for that item at 100 units and inform customers that the purchase is a pre order and that they will get further shipping information when you're ready to ship. Then you won't have customer buying more than 100 items.

Re: Pre-Orders

sacredheart926 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:21:05 GMT

But that should be a feature that is already implemented, I shouldn't have to go and manually tell every customer that orders that the shipping will be updated.

Re: Pre-Orders

homeprogreen — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:33:42 GMT

Best way I can think of would be to setup the item something like this “ sun chaser stained glass PRE-ORDER “ in the item description put in the fact that it’s a pre-order item with only 100 units available and expected to ship after such and such date. Set inventory quantity to your 100 units and toggle the box that only won’t let you sell item that’s not in stock. Haven’t played with this in a long time since I don’t do preorder but that’s how it used to work. Might be a feature that’s only available in Square for Retail so depending on what version you’re using

Re: Pre-Orders

eatunicookies — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:15:21 GMT

There's new added feature. Please see screenshots.

You can follow old school Big Cartel method and list as @homeprogreen said,

Item Name (Pre-Order) and first thing in description is to share expect s shipping date before item description. Collect payment as usual.

Alternatively, there's a new PreOrder feature that requires Upgraded subscription. It's in the item edit page at the very bottom around the fulfillment section. Listing convention and transparencyAdd stock as usualNew features.Skip this. Do not date. It will show out of stock.

Re: Pre-Orders

sacredheart926 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:20:45 GMT

Put pre-order is already an option feature it's just annoying that you can't set the amount to be pre-ordered.

Re: Pre-Orders

Creationsbyjay — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:22:29 GMT

What are you trying to pre- order? my clocks are custom made. my new website is www.creationsoftheheartart.com

I left square online store. for more information call 574-213-5176 my name is Jeanette

Re: Pre-Orders

KellySo — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:39:00 GMT

Just here to say that I completely understand what you're saying and I 100% agree! There is so much to square that doesn't make sense to me at all, like the people working on this have never worked retail in their life. I don't use the pre-order option simply because we can't set a limit on qty. I've always wondered why there's a pre-order option if we can't set limits. I enter pre-order items like others have mentioned and make sure it's obvious that it is a preorder and customers won't receive product right away. I don't like doing that for many reasons, especially since it changes #s, etc to show that I have inventory costs I don't have yet, but I don't see any other options.

Re: Pre-Orders

Twiggy — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:32:15 GMT

If you're using Pre-orders (especially as I was part of the Beta and one of the first to use this feature), it's best practice to name your items clearly, e.g. 'Pre-order – Mother’s Day Bouquet.' This makes it clear to customers and easier to manage later- and will appear with a black box under on your square web site.

When the stock actually arrives, you’ll need to duplicate the item in your system because pre-order items can’t be merged directly into regular inventory.

Also, if you use the 'Shop All' feature, all pre-order items will appear first on your website (even if you have a custom layout).

Including 'Pre-order' in the item name also helps with reporting and makes it simple to reuse the listing in future (e.g. for the same product next year)."

Re: Pre-Orders

Twiggy — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:34:12 GMT

Also if say for example the date is on a day you are closed - say Sundays you’ll need to amend your opening times, to allow for this as the pre order will change it to the Monday.

Re: Pre-Orders

Twiggy — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:42:07 GMT

This is especially important if you’re duplicating an item (e.g. creating both a physical item and a pre-order version). For example, instead of just 'Halloween Witches Outfit,' label the pre-order version 'Pre-order – Halloween Witches Outfit.' This is particularly useful for items with a specific delivery date or for local delivery."

Re: Pre-Orders

homeprogreen — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 13:42:25 GMT

Good to know that they finally added a preorder option for sellers to use instead of having to rely on the workaround that I mentioned