Selling a pre-order

This walkthrough follows a single pre-order product from setup to the order that lands in your fulfilment queue.

1. Set up the product

Edit the product and open Product data → General:

1. Tick Pre-order.
2. Set a release date if you know when stock arrives — say, three weeks out.
3. Optionally set a button text for this product, or rely on the store default.
4. Save.

The product is now purchasable even though its stock status is out of stock. You did not have to fake a stock figure or set a backorder — the pre-order flag handles purchasability on its own.

2. What the shopper sees

On the product page:

• The add-to-cart button reads your label, for example Pre-order now, instead of the usual “Add to cart”.
• If Show release date is on and the product has a date, an estimated-availability notice appears, so the shopper knows this is a reservation, not a same-day purchase.

This sets expectations up front, which is the whole point — a shopper who knows they are pre-ordering does not open a support ticket asking where their order is.

3. The cart and checkout

When the product is added to the cart, the line is flagged as a pre-order and shows the release date alongside it. The flag carries through the classic cart and the Cart/Checkout Blocks alike. The shopper sees, right up to payment, that this line ships later.

4. The order

After checkout, the pre-order flag and release date are written onto the order line item as order item meta. When you open the order in WooCommerce → Orders, the pre-order lines are identifiable, so your fulfilment process can hold them until stock lands rather than trying to ship immediately.

Because the data lives on the order item, it survives in HPOS (Custom Order Tables) and is available to any export or fulfilment tooling that reads order item meta.

5. Pausing or ending a launch

Two ways to wind a pre-order down:

• Pause everything — turn off Enable pre-orders under WooCommerce → Pre-orders. Every flagged product reverts to normal behaviour at once, and you can turn it back on later without re-flagging anything.
• End one product — when stock arrives, untick Pre-order on that product and let normal stock management take over. The product becomes a regular in-stock item.

Variable products

The pre-order flag, button label and release-date notice apply at the product level. When a shopper buys a variation of a pre-order product, the cart and order flagging carry through to that variation, so the order line is still marked as a pre-order.

A typical pattern

1. Flag the product as a pre-order and set a release date a few weeks out.
2. Promote it; orders accumulate against the pre-order line.
3. When stock arrives, fulfil the held pre-order lines and untick Pre-order so the product sells normally from then on.