Enable Preauthorization for Waitlisted Products

Waitlists allow shoppers to express interest in sold-out items, which allows your shop to determine which items to re-order.

Waitlist authorization takes this a step further by allowing shoppers to preauthorize automatic payment for waitlisted items as soon as you re-stock them. Preauthorizing is the easiest way for a shopper to get to the front of the line for a must-have item.

How Waitlist Authorization Benefits Your Shop

Allow shoppers to be "first in line" by preauthorizing waitlist items so their order automatically processes once you restock the item(s).
Know how much of an in-demand item to restock based on preauthorized reporting data. This minimizes the risk of storing inventory that may or may not move.

Enable Waitlist Authorization

Before you can enable waitlist authorization, you will need to enable either Stripe or CS Payments as your payment gateway. If you currently have Square enabled, you will need to disable it as you cannot have Square and Stripe or CS Payments active at the same time.

You will not be able to see the below Waitlist Authorization settings until you've connected Stripe or CS Payments.

Select Setup in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Select Shop in the menu at the top of the page.
In the Shopping Cart section on the right side of the page, select the Waitlist Authorization toggle to appear Enabled.
If desired, you can also choose to enable Allow Store Credit on Waitlist Authorization. If enabled, CommentSold will use a shopper's available account credit as payment for preauthorized waitlist items.
If desired, you can edit the Waitlist Preauth Expiration value. This value represents the number of days after which CommentSold will remove a preauthorization for an item. The item will still remain on the shopper's waitlist. Select Edit to update the value.

Troubleshooting Issues

Expand this section to know about the common errors and how to troubleshoot them.

Having trouble?

Here are some common questions and resolutions.

Issue: Pre-authorized order was created using customer's store credit.

If Allow Store Credit on Waitlist Authorization is enabled, any available store credit the customer has will automatically be applied to a pre-authorized order when the item is restocked.

Issue: Customer pre-authorized but no order was created when the item restocked

This happens due to an authorization failure. A pre-authorization can fail if:

The coupon applied during pre-authorization is no longer valid.
The customer’s card was declined.
The card was deleted by the customer.
The price of the authorized item increased after the authorization was placed.

Are customers notified when authorization fails?

If the Waitlist Activated email template is enabled, customers will receive an email explaining why their authorization failed.
If the failure is due to a price increase, the item will not be authorized but will instead be carted for the customer. They will receive an email letting them know about the new price and giving them the option to check out.

Authorization will fail under the following conditions:

The applied coupon is no longer valid.
The card is declined or has been deleted.
The item's price is increased after the initial authorization.

If you have the Waitlist Activated email template enabled, the customer will be notified via email when an authorization fails.

For example, if the item's price changes, the authorization will fail, and the item will be added to the customer's cart. The email will include a link to their cart, informing them of the price change and providing the option to complete the checkout.