Preauthorizing waitlist items allows shoppers to be first in line for a waitlisted item when you restock it in your shop. With preauthorization, shoppers essentially give your shop permission to automatically charge the card they selected for payment and process the order as soon the item is available.
Allowing shoppers to preauthorize waitlist items can also help your shop determine which items to re-order as you replenish inventory.
You will need to enable waitlist preauthorization in order to let shoppers preauthorize their waitlist items.
How Preauthorization Benefits Shoppers
- Preauthorization means the shopper is first in line when your shop restocks a waitlisted item.
- Preauthorized orders automatically process meaning the shopper doesn't have to come back to the app or their account page to complete the order.
Preauthorize a Waitlist Item
There are two places a shopper can preauthorize a waitlisted item: from their account page and within your mobile app.
The bottom half of a shopper's account page functions as their checkout. Shoppers can also easily view items on their waitlist.
- Your shopper will need to scroll to the bottom of their account page to view their Waitlist Items.
- If there are one or more items the shopper wishes to preauthorize the purchase of, they will select Be First on Waitlist to the right of the item.
- On the pop-up, the shopper will need to select which card to authorize either from the Choose Card to Authorize drop-down or they can select Add New Card.
- If the shopper wishes to use a discount code, they will need to enter it in the Enter a Coupon Code field to have it apply to the preauthorized purchase.
- Once done, they will need to select Select.
Shoppers will see a confirmation banner in the bottom-left corner of their account page notifying them that they are now at the top of the waitlist. Once your shop restocks the item, the shopper will receive an order confirmation email letting them know your shop is processing their preauthorized order.
Shoppers can either preauthorize waitlist items by after checkout or by visiting the Waitlist tab in your shop's mobile app.
- When a shopper goes through checkout and an item is out of stock, they will see an error, and the out-of-stock item will automatically be moved to their waitlist.
- The shopper will complete the checkout process with the items that are in stock.
- After the checkout is complete, the shopper will see an option to pre-authorize the item that was moved to the waitlist.
- Once the checkout is complete, the shopper will be presented with the option to Pre-authorize the waitlisted item.
- The shopper taps Pre-authorize Now under the item they want to preauthorize.
- On the next screen, the shopper can choose to Edit their payment and shipping information, if necessary.
- If the shopper has a discount code, they can tap Add in the Coupon Code field to apply it to the preauthorized purchase.
- Finally, the customer will need to slide the Slide to Preauthorize slider at the bottom of the screen to confirm the preauthorization.
Here are a few different messages/errors shoppers might see.
In Cart > Attempt to Checkout > "One Item Out of Stock" message |
In Cart > Attempt to Checkout > "MULTIPLE Items Out of Stock" message |
In Cart > Attempt to Checkout > "Item Out of Stock" message when USER IS NOT LOGGED IN / GUEST CART |
If you wish to skip pre-authorizing waitlist items right after the checkout, you can always return and do it later.
- Shoppers will need to tap on an item marked as Waitlist in a live sale (or live sale replay) or access their previously waitlisted items via the Waitlist tab at the bottom of the app.
- On the item page, they will need to tap the Preauthorize Now button at the bottom of the app.
- On the next page, the shopper can choose to Edit their payment and shipping address in the corresponding boxes.
- The shopper can tap Add in the Coupon Code field to have a discount apply to the preauthorized purchase.
- Last, the shopper will need to slide their finger along the Slide to Preauthorize slider at the bottom of the app.
Shoppers will see a confirmation in the app that they are now at the top of the waitlist. Once your shop restocks the item, the shopper will receive an order confirmation email letting them know your shop is processing their preauthorized order.
Learn More
- Enable Waitlist Preauthorization. Learn how to enable waitlist preauthorization for your shoppers.
- Connect a Payment Gateway. Learn how to connect a payment gateway to accept payments from your shoppers.