Use Preorders to Inform Product Ordering

Click on any of the images or GIFs in this article for a closer look.

See a new product you want to offer to your shoppers? Run a preorder campaign to generate excitement and gauge customer interest ahead of ordering!

With preorders, you can offer a product to your shoppers before it's available for purchase. Offering products as a preorder gives you time to promote and hype the release while simultaneously gauging your customers' interest in the product. You can use those findings to determine how much of the preorder product to actually order.

Preorders are perfect for:

"Coming soon" products from a beloved or customer-favorite brand.
When you're at market and want to feature products in a live sale that vendors will be sending you.
If you don't have excess capital and want to be very strategic with your purchasing.
You want to try out a new category of product (e.g., home decor, beauty, etc.) and want to gauge your customers' interest.

A word of caution on preorders: We do not recommend running preorders on products you receive from vendors who are prone to shipment delays or order issues (e.g., incorrect variants, canceled shipments, etc.) as this can create a negative shopper experience and make customers less inclined to preorder with you in the future.

Create a Preorder Product

You will set up a preorder product just as you would any ready-to-order product in CommentSold with one exception: the All Product Variants Received checkbox. CommentSold default selects this checkout, but you will need to deselect this checkbox.

Why is this important? Deselecting this checkbox ensures orders don't move on to the Processing part of fulfillment. Since the product isn't in stock yet, you don't want all the preorders taking up space in your Orders/Fulfillment page and impacting your fulfillment data.

Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Select Add Product in the top-right corner of the page.
Complete the required fields just as you would with a standard, ready-to-order product.
In the Details section on the right side of the page, locate the All Product Variants Received checkbox and deselect it.

Decide When Customers Should Pay for Their Preorder

You have two options for when customers can pay for their preordered product: at the time the customer places the order and at the time you receive and stock the product.

Prepay for Preorder. Any customer who completes their purchase will be automatically invoiced.
Pay for Preorder When In Stock. Shoppers who comment to claim or cart this product will be added to the waitlist for the product. They'll get an email when you've stocked the product and can make their purchase then! (Psst! They can also preauthorize their purchase if you have Waitlist Authorization enabled).

Check out the tabs below to see how to set up each of these options!

If you do want your customers to prepay for the product, enter a high number for the quantity. Once your customers have paid, you can update the quantity to remove any extras. Using this method, you will know exactly how many you need to order and run no risk of having excess inventory.

Note: You run the most risk with preorders when customers prepay in advance. If your vendors do not deliver product(s) on time or if the order is incorrect, you may have unhappy customers. If requiring prepayment, have a communication and customer service plan in place for potential hiccups in the fulfillment process.

On the product's Edit Inventory tab, select the + sign beside the Add/Remove Stock column header.
Complete the following fields on the pop-up:
- Quantity. Enter a high quantity number that will allow shoppers to place their preorder without hitting a waitlist.
- Comment. Enter the context for this quantity adjustment. Comments appear in reporting and can be helpful to remind yourself why you added a larger quantity.
Select Add Quantity in the bottom-right corner of the pop-up.
Select Update Product Variants in the top-right corner of the page.

What now? When you're ready to place your order with the vendor, head back to the product's Edit Inventory tab and scroll to the right. You'll see how many products you've sold in each variant in the Sold column. Use these numbers to place your order!

If you do not want customers to prepay for the product, set the product variant quantities to zero (0). Once you have the products in hand, you can update the quantities. This will trigger waitlist email notifications, inviting shoppers to complete their purchase!

On the product's Edit Inventory tab, ensure the Add/Remove Stock column displays a zero (0).
If for any reason you need to zero out the variants, select the - sign beside the Add/Remove Stock column header.
Complete the following fields on the pop-up:
- Quantity. Enter the current quantity displayed. This will subtract the amount and zero out the inventory.
- Comment. Enter the context for this quantity adjustment. Comments appear in reporting and can be helpful to remind yourself why you added a larger quantity.
Select Subtract Quantity in the bottom-right corner of the pop-up.
Select Update Product Variants in the top-right corner of the page.

What now? When you're ready to place your order with the vendor, head back to the product's Edit Inventory tab and scroll to the right. You'll see how many products shoppers have waitlisted in each variant in the On Waitlist column. You can also run a Waitlist by Variant Report (CSV #16). Use these numbers to place your order!

Process Those Preorders!

Once you have received the preorder product, you'll need to set the product as received in CommentSold. We walk through two different options below based on what product variants (all or specific) you received.

Note: If you chose to have shoppers waitlist the preordered product so they can pay later, you will also need to update the inventory quantities for the individual variants on the product's Edit Inventory tab.

Typically you will receive all product variants you ordered. In this scenario, you'll simply select the All Product Variants Received checkbox.

Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Locate and select the product record for your preorder product.
In the Details section on the right side of the page, select the All Product Variants Received checkbox.
Select Update Product in the top-right corner of the page.

While rare, it might happen that you only receive some of the product variants you ordered. Instead of marking all variants as received, you'll want to mark specific variants received on the product's Edit Inventory tab.

Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Locate and select the product record for your preorder product.
Select Edit Inventory at the top of the page.
Locate the specific variant(s) you received and select the checkbox in the Variant Received column.
Select Update Variants in the top-right corner of the page.

Once received, CommentSold will process prepaid orders or notify waitlist customers based on how you had your payment preference set up.

Learn More

Let Shoppers Preauthorize Waitlist Products. Offer shoppers a "pay later" option for preorders that'll immediately process their order when you stock the product.
How Shoppers Can Preauthorize Waitlist Products. Walk through the customer experience of preauthorizing the immediate purchase of a waitlist product once restocked.

Use Preorders to Inform Product Ordering

See a new product you want to offer to your shoppers? Run a preorder campaign to generate excitement and gauge customer interest ahead of ordering!

Create a Preorder Product

Decide When Customers Should Pay for Their Preorder

Process Those Preorders!

Learn More

We're here to help