Pre-orders and inventory

[encsportscards]

We use the pre-order function for a lot of our incoming products. Is there a way to load the full inventory but only make a portion available for the preorder? For example, I am getting 20 of an item in stock, I want to add all 20 but only have 10 available to order until release day.

[MayaP]

Hey @encsportscards, thanks for reaching out! That’s a great question.

From what I can see in my demo account, the preorder setting applies to the entire stock, so there isn’t currently a way to make just a portion available.

A possible workaround would be to create a duplicate of the item and set only that version for preorder. @Candlestore , have you come across any other workarounds that might be useful here?

[encsportscards]

I have thousands of items in inventory and they change daily. I'd rather not have to double the amount of items I have. It would be a nice feature to add with an update.

[MayaP · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for waiting @encsportscards. I checked on this for you, and it looks like this isn’t a feature we currently offer. I completely understand how helpful that would be for managing preorders.

As a workaround, you can set the item’s available inventory to the number you want to offer for preorder (for example, 10 units). Once the preorder period ends or the item is released, you can manually update the inventory to add the remaining units and make them available for regular purchase.

I know that’s not the most seamless option, but I really appreciate you sharing how this impacts your business. I’d definitely recommend submitting a feature request for this — it’s great feedback for our team. And of course, if you need anything else, please let me know.

[encsportscards]

Thank you for the response. We are currently adding the inventory once the preorder is over, but we have more than one store and with transfers and having up to 20+ items on preorder, it would be easier to be able to put it all in at once. Also, allowing the items to go live and available once the preorder window had ended would be nice. 

[MayaP]

Thanks for following up. Everything you’re saying makes sense, and I can see why this feature would be useful. Feel free to include all your feedback in your submission. If you need anything else, please let me know.

@encsportscards