Recently, I came across three similar posts on Reddit asking how to handle pre-orders on Shopify without messing up their inventory.

The merchants were all launching high-demand products and wanted to run pre-orders, but they were worried about having to freeze their existing inventory and causing fulfillment issues.

"We're launching a highly anticipated gadget, and we want to accept pre-orders without freezing in-stock inventory. Apps that mark products as 'pre-order' often make reporting and fulfillment messy, and manual checks slow everything down."

Merchants who are new to Shopify will assume they need to:

• Create duplicate SKUs (one for pre-orders, one for regular stock)
• Set up separate fulfillment locations
• Build custom Shopify Flow workflows
• Manually track two different inventory pools

In reality, you don't need any of that.

The solution is built into the Early Bird preorder app - using a campaign setting that controls when your Shopify inventory gets deducted.

When does inventory get deducted for Shopify pre-orders?

Example:

• You have 100 skateboards currently in stock
• You want to sell those 100 skateboards as regular orders
• You also want to accept pre-orders for your next shipment (arriving in 3 weeks)
• But you don't want pre-order customers buying the skateboards that regular customers could buy today

So the question becomes: When should a pre-order be deducted from your available inventory?

The answer is it depends on your business model.

The solution: Early Bird's inventory reservation settings

When you set up an Early Bird pre-order campaign, there's a setting that allows you to control exactly when the Shopify inventory is deducted.

You have two options:

Option 1: Reserve inventory when the pre-order is placed

When a customer places a pre-order, the inventory decreases immediately - just like a regular order.

Example:

• You have 100 units in stock
• Customer pre-orders 1 unit
• Your available inventory drops to 99 immediately

This means pre-orders and regular orders pull from the same inventory pool, but committed units are locked immediately.

When to use this:

• You have confirmed stock with your supplier or warehouse
• You're running a product launch with limited inventory
• You need accurate inventory across multiple markets (AU, US, etc.)
• You're working with a 3PL that needs real-time allocated counts
• You want to prevent overselling at all costs

This way, your reporting stays clean and your "available inventory" will always reflect what's actually available. You won't need to use a spreadsheet for manual track, and there's no risk of accidentally selling the same unit twice.

Option 2: Reserve inventory when the pre-order is fulfilled

When a customer places a pre-order, the inventory stays the same. It only decreases when you mark the order as fulfilled in Shopify.

Example:

• You have 100 units in stock
• Customer pre-orders 1 unit
• Your available inventory stays at 100
• When you ship the pre-order later, inventory drops to 99

When to use this:

• You're dropshipping and don't physically control the inventory yet
• You're running made-to-order or custom production
• You're taking deposit-only pre-orders with high cancellation rates
• You want flexibility to gauge demand before committing to production

The trade-off is this will be riskier. If regular customers buy stock while you have pending pre-orders, you could oversell. You'll need to manually monitor committed pre-orders vs. available inventory.

Real example: How this works in practice

Let's go through a real pre-order setup in my test Shopify store.

Say you're selling cruiser skateboards with two variants:

• Blue wheels (You've ordered 10 units, arriving in 3 weeks from your supplier)
• Pink wheels (You don't have stock on-hand because you make-to-order for these, by your local workshop)

Here's how you'd set this up in the Early Bird campaign:

Pre-order Campaign A: Blue wheels pre-order

• Availability = "Only sell pre-orders while in stock"
• Fulfillment Setting = "Reserve inventory when the pre-order is placed"
• Why: You have a confirmed supplier order with limited quantities, so you should lock inventory when you receive a pre-order to prevent overselling.

Pre-order Campaign B: Pink wheels pre-order

• Fulfillment Setting= "Reserve inventory when the pre-order is fulfilled"
• Why: Your local workshop manufactures these on-demand, and their production capacity varies week-to-week (e.g. sometimes 50 units, sometimes 200 units). You don't want to lock inventory you can't guarantee producing until you confirm the production slot and ship.

Both pre-order campaigns can run simultaneously on the same product since it's actually for different variants. With this approach, your Shopify inventory tracking will stay accurate to the setting you've selected for each variant. No duplicate SKU or manual spreadsheet tracking required.

One important exception: Stock Limits

If you're using stock limits in your pre-order campaign (e.g. A specific inventory level for the product or across variants), you must use "Reserve inventory when the pre-order is placed".

This is because stock limits need real-time inventory tracking. If you're only reserving inventory at fulfillment, Early Bird app won't be able to enforce limit overselling properly - it doesn't know how many units you've actually committed.

You might have noticed in the first campaign's screenshot above, Early Bird shows you a warning if you try to enable stock limits with the wrong setting:

⚠️ When using stock limits, inventory must be reserved when the pre-order is placed.

How to test if your pre-order fulfillment setting is working?

Before launching your Early Bird pre-order campaign, you can do a quick test:

1. List your pre-order product as "Unlisted" instead of "Draft" (Unlisted means the product is only accessible via a direct URL)
2. Note your current inventory level in the Shopify admin
3. Place a test pre-order through your storefront
4. Check your inventory in Shopify admin:
   • If "reserve on placement" > your Shopify inventory should drop immediately
   • If "reserve on fulfillment" > your Shopify inventory should stay the same
5. Cancel or fulfill the test order to restore inventory

This quick check will take less than 2 minutes but will give you peace of mind before the launch.

Which pre-order fulfillment setting should you use?

For most merchants we've worked with, they typically launch products with confirmed stock and just want to secure cash flow earlier. Therefore "Reserve inventory when the pre-order is placed" is the safer choice.

It prevents overselling, keeps your 3PL happy, and ensures your reporting is always accurate.

Use "Reserve inventory when the pre-order is fulfilled" only if you genuinely don't control the inventory yet (dropshipping, made-to-order, etc.) and you're comfortable with overselling (selling as many as possible).

Setting this up in Early Bird

If you're using Early Bird, you'll find this setting in the Fulfillment section when creating your pre-order campaign.

Need Help?

If you need help deciding which setting to use for your specific situation, or want some guidance with your pre-order setup, connect with me on LinkedIn or get in touch with us at support@shopside.com.au.

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