How Do I Manage Pre-Orders in Shopify?

Pre-orders are an option you provide customers that allows them to purchase items that you don't have in stock yet. Follow the below steps to make sure that you correctly configure your Shopify account to accept pre-orders, as well as use Deliverr to fulfill them when you do have the item in your inventory.

Overall, the process is similar to using Multiple Locations in Shopify. We'll ask you to create a dummy location that will hold these orders. When you do have the inventory in Deliverr, you'll reassign those orders to the Deliverr location.

Before you get started

Before moving forward with the instructions in this article, be sure to follow the instructions in Multiple Locations in Shopify. This includes:

1. Within your Shopify seller account
   1. Disable automatic fulfillment
   2. Create a new “Deliverr USA” location
   3. Set “Deliverr USA” as the default location and the top priority warehouse
2. Within your Deliverr Seller Portal account
   1. Go to the Shopify integration details page and enable “Multiple Locations”

Notes: 

• Deliverr only supports pre-orders with the Shopifydirect integration.
• Upsell apps are not compatible with our recommended pre-order setup
• Deliverr will only import backorders from the last 60 days.

Step 1: Create a new location

In Shopify, click ‘Settings,’ then ‘Locations.’ 

Click ‘Add Location’ to create a new location. 

Create a new location. Give the location the name “Pre-orders ABC Location” since this location will be used only to temporarily hold your pre-orders. Leave the fields in the Address section blank. Click 'Save' when done.

Step 2: Set your pre-order location as the last fulfillment priority

Go to ‘Locations,’ then ‘Fulfillment Priority’ and make sure that the new location is the last in priority. To edit the fulfillment priority, select ‘View or edit fulfillment priority,’ drag and drop your warehouses in the suggested order, then click ‘Save.’

Please NOTE that you should not include “Deliverr” in any new location name you create

Step 3: When creating Dummy Location

Dummy location should be added to the following: 

'Shipping from' under Settings > Shipping & Delivery > Manage

Step 4: Assign pre-orders to your Deliverr location for fulfillment

For each SKU for which you want to accept pre-orders, give the “Pre-orders ABC Location” 10,000 units of that SKU in Shopify. 10,000 is just an arbitrarily large number meant to accept all the orders until you are ready to actually fulfill them.

For each of the SKUs in Shopify, go to the Inventory section. Select the “Pre-orders ABC Location” from the dropdown in the top righthand corner, click the number in the Available column, set the quantity to 10,000, then click ‘Save.’

Step 5: Assign pre-orders to your Deliverr location for fulfillment

Double check that you have available inventory for the pre-ordered products (positive values in the Available column) in the Inventory page of your Deliverr Seller Portal account. If you do not have inventory of this product in Deliverr, create an inbound of this item to begin the process of shipping the product to Deliverr.

Note: If you do not have inventory of these items in Deliverr yet, then Deliverr will import the orders and then cancel them because the product is seen as out of stock.

If you do have inventory of the product in Deliverr, go to the Orders page in Shopify and select the pre-order you wish to fulfill. Click the 3-dot menu at the top right-hand corner of the order and click ‘Change location.’ 

Select the “Deliverr USA” location to reassign the order, then click ‘Save.’ Deliverr will then begin importing these orders so they can be fulfilled.