Preorder in PrestaShop – how to set up preorders for your online store

What is a preorder, and when does it make sense?

A preorder allows customers to purchase a product before its official release or before it becomes available in the store’s warehouse.

In practice, the retailer already has a product listing, knows its specifications, and has an estimated availability date, but hasn’t received the inventory yet. Despite this, the product can be displayed in the store and made available for purchase.

New gaming consoles, video games, and electronic devices such as smartphones are good examples. Manufacturers announce a release date, and retailers start accepting orders in advance. Customers can secure their products without waiting for general availability.

Preorders also work well in other industries:

• Fashion and apparel – new collections and limited-edition releases.
• Collectibles – models, figurines, and other products produced in limited quantities.
• Electronics – devices with announced launch dates.
• Gaming and entertainment – upcoming games, consoles, and accessories available to order before release.

For online retailers, preorders provide an opportunity to generate sales earlier and gauge customer demand before inventory arrives.

However, accepting preorders also comes with responsibilities. Customers need to understand that their products won’t ship immediately and that the stated delivery date is an estimate.

A well-organized preorder process therefore involves more than simply allowing customers to place orders. It also requires clear communication and a reliable fulfillment plan.

How to enable preorders in PrestaShop

Setting up preorders in PrestaShop doesn’t necessarily require additional modules or custom development.

The platform includes built-in features that allow stores to accept orders for products that are currently out of stock. This means customers can purchase items before they become available in the warehouse.

PrestaShop’s standard functionality allows you to:

• accept orders even when a product has no available inventory,
• configure product availability messages,
• display estimated delivery or fulfillment times,
• manage availability settings for individual products.

If your store uses a standard checkout process, enabling preorders is relatively simple. Customers add the product to their cart, place an order, and make a payment. The store then handles the order through its existing sales process.

When are PrestaShop’s built-in features not enough?

Things become more complicated when preorders require custom business logic.

For example, a retailer may want to send preorder information to its ERP system only after the product physically arrives in the warehouse. Another scenario involves automatically splitting orders that contain both in-stock products and preorder items.

These requirements may call for changes to the store’s integrations or order management workflows.

Enabling preorders in PrestaShop is usually straightforward. The more significant challenges tend to arise when managing and fulfilling those orders.

Should customers pay before a product is released?

One of the key decisions when introducing preorders is determining when to collect payment. Should customers pay when placing an order, or only when the product is ready to ship?

From an operational perspective, collecting payment when the preorder is placed is generally the more practical approach.

Why?

When customers can reserve products without paying, the store has no guarantee that those reservations will turn into actual sales.

Imagine a retailer accepting 200 reservations for a limited-edition product. When the shipment finally arrives, some customers cancel, fail to complete payment, or are no longer interested.

As a result, the number of reservations doesn’t accurately reflect actual demand.

When preorders are paid upfront, the retailer has greater confidence in customer commitment and can plan fulfillment more accurately.

PrestaShop supports upfront payments through its standard checkout process, provided product availability and payment methods are configured appropriately.

However, retailers should establish transparent preorder terms, clearly communicate expected fulfillment dates, and comply with applicable consumer protection laws, including cancellation, withdrawal, and refund requirements.

How to communicate preorder shipping dates

One of the most important elements of a well-organized preorder process is communicating the estimated shipping date.

Customers must understand that they’re purchasing a product that isn’t currently available in the warehouse. They shouldn’t discover this only after completing payment.

Preorder information should be clearly displayed on the product page, ideally close to the price and Add to Cart button.

For example:

Available for preorder
Estimated shipping: starting November 15, 2026.
Order now to reserve yours before the official release.

It’s also worth displaying the extended fulfillment time in the shopping cart and during checkout.

This is particularly important because unclear communication can lead to customers contacting support to ask why their orders haven’t shipped.

From their perspective, they’ve already paid, so they may expect standard delivery times.

Every additional inquiry creates work for the customer service team. With a large number of preorders, this can result in significant operational costs and negatively affect customer satisfaction and store reviews.

The clearer your preorder communication, the lower the risk of misunderstandings and unnecessary customer support requests.

Can preorder products have different prices?

Yes. A product offered for preorder can have a different price from the one applied after its official release.

This approach is commonly used in marketing campaigns promoting new product launches. Retailers can offer a lower price to customers who purchase before a specified date.

For example, a product that will normally cost PLN 499 could be offered for PLN 449 during the preorder period.

Importantly, PrestaShop supports this pricing scenario without requiring custom development.

You can use the platform’s specific prices feature to define the period during which the promotional price applies.

Once the specified period ends, the price can automatically return to its standard value.

This allows retailers to use preorders not only to accept orders in advance but also as part of a broader product launch campaign.

When advertising price reductions, stores must also comply with applicable pricing transparency regulations, including the requirements introduced under the EU Omnibus Directive.

How to label preorder products in your store

Should preorder products be placed in a separate category?

Not necessarily.

In many cases, keeping them within their regular product categories is a better approach. This allows customers browsing a particular category to see both products available for immediate shipping and those scheduled for a future release.

The key is to make the difference clear.

You can use dedicated product labels such as:

• “Preorder”
• “Available for preorder”
• “Coming soon”
• “Order before release”

These labels should be visible on product listing pages, not just after customers open an individual product page.

However, a preorder badge alone isn’t enough. Customers should also be able to easily find the estimated shipping date.

Mixed orders require particular attention. These are orders containing both products available for immediate shipping and items that are still on preorder.

In such cases, the store should clearly explain whether the entire order will ship once all products are available or whether items will be dispatched separately.

What happens when a product’s release date is delayed?

Preorders rely on estimated product availability dates. Unfortunately, even with careful planning, manufacturers or suppliers may experience delays.

However, changes to release dates shouldn’t be treated as a normal part of preorder operations. If a store commits to a particular fulfillment timeline, it should make every effort to meet it.

But what should you do if the delivery date does change?

First, update the product’s availability information in your store.

That alone isn’t enough, though. Some customers have already placed orders based on the original estimated date.

You therefore need to identify all affected orders and inform those customers about the change.

The message should explain the reason for the delay, provide a revised estimated fulfillment date, and outline the available options.

For stores processing large volumes of preorders, manually identifying affected customers can be time-consuming.

That’s why businesses that regularly run preorders should consider implementing a way to filter orders by specific products.

The biggest mistake isn’t necessarily the delay itself. It’s leaving customers without clear information about what’s happening with their orders.

Should you automate preorder notifications?

PrestaShop supports mechanisms for notifying customers about product availability. However, not every type of notification is necessary for preorders.

It’s useful to distinguish between two scenarios.

Notifications when preorders become available

The first scenario involves customers interested in an upcoming product who don’t yet know when preorders will open.

For example, a retailer selling collectible models might notify interested customers when a new model is announced and preorders become available.

This type of notification serves a clear marketing purpose: reaching potential buyers as soon as the product becomes available to order.

Notifications when the product is back in stock

The second scenario concerns customers who prefer not to preorder and would rather wait until the product is physically available.

In this case, the store can use a back-in-stock notification feature, supported in PrestaShop through an appropriate mechanism or module.

However, that doesn’t mean every preorder process requires a sophisticated notification system.

If a customer has already placed an order and knows the estimated fulfillment date, additional messages may not provide much value.

What’s more important is communicating when an order’s status changes or when something happens that requires the customer’s attention.

How to manage preorders in your ERP and warehouse

From a technical perspective, one of the most important aspects of preorder management is how orders are handled by the ERP system.

If your PrestaShop store is integrated with external sales and inventory management software, you need to decide when preorder information should be transferred for fulfillment.

There are two main approaches.

Model 1. Preorders are sent directly to the ERP system

In this model, the online store sends an order to the ERP system immediately after it’s placed, regardless of whether the product is physically available.

The ERP system then manages the fulfillment process.

If the product isn’t in stock, the order remains pending until the inventory becomes available.

Once the shipment arrives at the warehouse, the ERP system can release the relevant order items for picking, packing, and shipping.

The main advantage of this approach is a relatively straightforward data flow between PrestaShop and the ERP system.

The online store doesn’t need to determine when individual products can be dispatched.

However, this model depends on the ERP system’s ability to handle orders containing out-of-stock products and manage their subsequent fulfillment.

Model 2. Preorders are sent to the ERP system only when inventory becomes available

The second approach gives the online store greater control over order management.

In this model, an order can be divided into two parts: products that are currently in stock and products available for preorder.

In-stock items can be transferred for fulfillment immediately, while preorder items remain on hold until sufficient inventory becomes available.

Only then does the store send the preorder portion to the ERP system.

This approach provides greater flexibility, but it also requires more advanced logic within the store and its integrations.

Among other things, the system must correctly split orders, monitor available inventory, and prevent the same order items from being transferred to the ERP system more than once.

Which preorder management model should you choose?

There’s no single approach that works for every online store.

If your ERP system can manage orders waiting for inventory, the first model will generally be easier to implement and maintain.

However, if your sales process requires more detailed control over order fulfillment directly within PrestaShop, the second approach may be worth considering.

In both models, the warehouse is primarily responsible for physically handling the products.

Once inventory arrives, warehouse employees carry out the fulfillment instructions issued by the system responsible for managing orders.

That’s why your preorder management strategy should be based primarily on your company’s overall system architecture rather than just the capabilities of the eCommerce platform itself.

Conclusion – how to plan a successful preorder process in PrestaShop

Setting up preorders in PrestaShop doesn’t have to be a complicated project.

In many cases, the platform’s built-in features are sufficient to accept orders for products that haven’t arrived in the warehouse, communicate estimated availability, and configure special prices for the preorder period.

However, the key to success is planning the entire process properly.

Customers should know from the outset that they’re purchasing a preorder product and when they can expect to receive it.

Meanwhile, the retailer needs to ensure reliable payment processing, efficient order management, and clear communication if delays occur.

For larger online stores, integrations with ERP and warehouse management systems become particularly important.

The way data flows between these systems determines whether preorder fulfillment runs smoothly or becomes a source of additional work and errors.

A well-designed preorder process should be simple for customers and as automated as possible for the retailer.

The goal isn’t to add more features for the sake of it, but to make effective use of PrestaShop’s existing capabilities and adapt the process to your actual business needs.