About Waitlist Authorization
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.
Note: Authorization will fail under the following conditions:
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. |
Learn More
- How a Shopper Can Preauthorize Waitlist Items. Learn how shoppers can preauthorize waitlist items to automatically process once you restock the item(s).
- Manage Waitlists. Learn how to configure waitlists, view waitlisted items, clear shopper waitlists, and notify shoppers of restocks.
- Run a Report on Waitlist Items. Learn how to run a report that shows you your most waitlisted items so you know which in-demand items to reorder.