Pre-orders are a great way to generate interest and excitement for a new product release, and can be a useful tool for managing inventory and gauging customer demand. WooCommerce makes setting up pre-orders easy, with a few simple steps:
1. Choose your product
The first step is to choose the product you want to offer for pre-order. This can be any type of product, from physical goods to digital downloads.
2. Set up your pre-order product page
Once you’ve selected your product, it’s time to set up your pre-order page. This is where customers will go to learn more about the product and place their orders.
There are a few things to keep in mind when setting up pre-orders on WooCommerce:
1. Make sure you have the product details finalized before you start taking orders. This includes the price, product description, shipping information, etc.
2. Be clear with your customers about when they can expect to receive the product. Pre-orders are not always shipped immediately, so make sure your customers are aware of the estimated shipping date.
3. Keep an eye on your inventory levels. Once a pre-order is placed, that product is considered sold and should be removed from your inventory count.
4. Offer customer support during the pre-order process in case there are any issues with orders or products.
To set up your pre-order page:
- Select the “Pre-Orders” tab from the WooCommerce left-hand menu.
- Click the “Add Pre-Order” button.
- Enter a “Pre-Order Name”. This will be used internally to help you identify the pre-order, so choose something descriptive.
- Choose the Product: Select the product you want to offer for pre-order from the dropdown menu.
- (For digital products only): If you’re offering a digital product for pre-order (such as an ebook or software), you’ll need to upload the file that will be delivered to customers once their order is processed. To do this, click the “Upload File” button and select the file from your computer.
- (For physical products only): If you’re offering a physical product for pre-order, you’ll need to set an estimated shipping date. To do this, enter the date in the “Estimated Shipping Date” field. This date should be an estimate of when you expect the product to be available to ship.
- (Optional) Set a price: If you want to charge a different price for your pre-order than what you plan to charge when the product is released, enter that price in the “Regular Price” field. Otherwise, leave this field blank and your regular price will be used when the product is released.
- (Optional) Set sale dates: If you want to offer a special price for your pre-order, enter those dates in the “Sale Starts” and “Sale Ends” fields. These dates should correspond with your special pricing.
- (Optional) Enter Pre-Order notes: If you want to include special instructions or notes for customers placing a pre-order, enter them in the “Pre-Order Notes” field. These notes will be displayed on the checkout page.
- (Optional) Set stock options: If you want to limit how many pre-orders can be placed, enter a number in the “Stock Qty” field. This number will represent the maximum number of orders that can be placed.
Once this number is reached, no more orders can be placed until additional stock becomes available (if applicable). You can also check the “Backorders allowed?” box if you want customers to be able to place orders even when stock is not available.
3. Set up payment options
Customers need a way to pay for their pre-orders, so it’s important to set up your payment options before making your products available for purchase.
If you’re using WooCommerce Payments, all of your configured payment methods will be available for use with pre-orders.
If you’re not using WooCommerce Payments, or if you want to offer additional payment methods specifically for pre-orders, follow these instructions.
To set up payment options:
- Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Payments.
- Select one or more payment methods from the Available Payment Gateways section.
- Note that not all payment methods support pre-orders.
- Configure your selected payment methods as needed.
- Save changes.
4. Make your products available for purchase
Once you’ve configured everything on your end, it’s time to make your products available for purchase! To do this:
- Go back to: WooCommerce > Pre-Orders.
- Find the pre order(s) you want to make available and click Edit.
- Scroll down to Status and select Active from th dropdown menu (If Active is not an option here, make sure that all required fields have been filled out – see above).
- Update.
5. Sit back and relax!
That’s it! Your products are now available for purchase as pre orders.
Conclusion
Pre orders are a great way generate interest and excitement around new product releases while also giving customers who may have missed out on earlier release dates a chance snag their favorite items before they sell out again!
