What Is a Backorder on WooCommerce?
A backorder is when a product is out of stock and a customer orders it anyway. The customer’s order is placed on hold until the product comes back in stock. Backorders can be placed for products that are:
- out of stock
- on backorder
- pre-ordered
WooCommerce backorders are managed from the Backorders screen. This screen can be found by going to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory. From here, you can set how WooCommerce should handle backorders.
How to Set Up Backorders in WooCommerce
- Enable backorders:
By default, backorders are disabled in WooCommerce. To enable them, check the “Enable Backorders” checkbox. This will allow customers to place orders for products, even if they’re out of stock.
- “Out of Stock Threshold”:
This setting allows you to define when a product should be considered “out of stock”. The default value is 0, which means that as soon as a product’s inventory reaches 0, it will be considered out of stock.
You can change this setting to 1 or higher if you want to give customers a chance to order a product before it goes out of stock.
For example, let’s say you have a product with an inventory of 10. The “Out of Stock Threshold” is set to 5. This means that when 5 or more units of the product are sold, it will be considered out of stock.
- “Notify Customers”:
This setting allows you to choose whether or not you want to notify customers when their backordered product comes back in stock.
By default, this setting is turned off. If you turn it on, customers will be notified via email when their backordered product comes back in stock
When a product is out of stock and a customer orders it anyway, their order is placed on hold until the product comes back in stock – this is called a ‘backorder’. Backorders can happen for products that are:
- out of stock
- on backorder
- pre-ordered
If you are running a WooCommerce store, it is important to set up your backorders correctly to avoid any issues.
You can manage WooCommerce backorders from the ‘Backorders’ screen in WooCommerce settings. From here, you can enable or disable backorders, as well as set how WooCommerce should handle them.
