SellRules / Blog
Find practical guides to taking preorders, limiting purchases, sending back-in-stock alerts, and shipping orders. Start with the task you need help with.
Start here: choose how to sell
Understand preorders, early access, and back-in-stock alerts, and decide what to set up before you begin.
29 articles
When pre-orders for your pricier items stall, one cause is the burden of paying the full price before anything arrives. How to read the survey figures, how to check whether it's happening in your store, how full prepayment, deposits and charging at shipping differ, and what a deposit doesn't change.
For stores taking fully prepaid pre-orders with SellRules: how to switch to deposits on the Pro plan. What happens to open orders, whether to switch mid-run or from the next pre-order window, what to check right after, and how to switch back.
Six Shopify apps for pre-orders with a deposit and balance, compared on no-deposit pre-orders, charging at fulfillment, automatic balance collection, what happens when a charge fails, holding unpaid orders, supported payments and pricing. Includes a quick table to shortlist apps by your store's needs.
What to do when the balance on a pre-order or made-to-order item can't be collected automatically: the first step for each status (Collection failed, Action required, Can't auto-charge), what to tell the customer, charging again, how long to wait, cancelling and refunding the deposit, and shipping once it's paid.
With deposit and balance payments, what do customers read on the product page, at checkout, in their emails and on the cancellation page, and when is the balance charged? The gaps in the built-in wording, and the text your store should add so the balance never looks like an unknown charge, in the order customers receive it.
How to take only a deposit at checkout for pre-orders and made-to-order products, and collect the balance automatically on its due date. Which products it suits, what customers and your store receive, what happens when the balance can't be collected, which payments work, and how to set it up on the Pro plan and test it.
Why SellRules places Shopify fulfillment holds on pre-order and made-to-order orders, how to release them, when regular items in a fully paid order can ship first, and what changes when fulfillment units cannot be split or a balance is unpaid.
How to hide cash on delivery at Shopify checkout only when a pre-order or made-to-order product is in the cart. Covers whether to stop it, which payment methods are hidden, setup and test orders, and what to check when cash on delivery still shows.
How to decide what share of the price to take as a deposit on pre-orders and made-to-order items, and when to charge the balance, based on your price, the money you pay out before shipping, the time until shipping and what you refund on cancellation. With a decision table, three worked examples and how to choose between a specific date and days after checkout.
Card authorizations on Shopify Payments expire after 7 days. If you ship within that window, capturing at fulfillment still gets you paid. For pre-orders a month or more out, choose between full payment up front, a deposit and balance, or charging at shipment, using a table based on your capture method and lead time and formulas you can fill in with your own numbers.
On Shopify, pre-order deposits and balance payments only work with Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Adyen and Stripe (for some stores). See what happens to cash on delivery, bank transfer and Shop Pay, how to check your own store before switching to Pro, and what to do instead if your payments aren't supported.
When a customer says the back-in-stock email never came, check the signup, then stock and the sold-out switch, then the Delivery log, then the inbox. What each status means, and when you can and can't resend.
For shops that keep taking pre-orders but can't decide what to change next. How to run a weekly review: check sales, open orders, inventory and intake limits under the same conditions, then pick one setting to adjust.
Learn when regular items in a Shopify order with a preorder can ship first, why an unpaid balance holds the whole order, and how to check fulfillment splits, shipping rates, and customer messages.
For stores selling pre-orders to customers in multiple languages. Learn how to check your published Shopify languages, review product-page wording and notification emails per language, and test by switching languages.
SellRules pre-order button missing from your product page? Start from what the page shows right now, then check the theme app embed, sales schedule, limits and free quota, and the theme's purchase form, in that order.
For stores comparing Shopify pre-order apps: when customers pay (in full at order, a deposit first, or at shipping) plus selling rules, notifications and pricing — SellRules compared with 3 pre-order apps on the same criteria.
For shops thinking about moving to a different pre-order app. Learn how to record open orders and promised shipping dates, test only with new orders, and switch safely with a responsibility-scoped checklist.
For shops that want to collect email addresses for a new product before it goes on sale. A signup is not a purchase guarantee — it is a way to tell people when pre-orders begin. Learn what to say, how to build the schedule, how to test the notification and what to check after the start.
For stores running members-only sales or early access that need to limit who can buy. The difference between Shopify's sign-in requirement and customer tags, how to set purchase eligibility per product, and how to prepare messaging for shoppers who can't buy.
For stores that make items after the order comes in. How to line up promised ship dates with your orders, decide what to make first, handle date changes and delay notices, and reconcile shipped orders against what's left.
Pre-order and made-to-order sales leave a gap between checkout and shipping where follow-ups get missed. Here's how to wire SellRules triggers through Shopify Flow so the right person hears about them.
For stores that want to curb bulk buying and reseller orders on limited-edition products. Learn when Shopify's built-in cart limit is enough, when per-product and per-customer limits call for an app, and how to set it up in SellRules.
Set up Shopify back-in-stock notices with tracked inventory, an out-of-stock rule, signup form, email copy, and a test of the restock and delivery flow.
Installed SellRules but not sure what to try first? Learn how to check switches and notifications with 1 product on the Free plan and decide whether to keep using it.
For shops tired of opening the admin and editing the product page at launch time. Learn how to set announcement, pre-order and regular-sales schedules in SellRules and leave the switching to it.
Not sure whether to accept pre-orders or offer restock alerts after a Shopify product sells out? Learn how to choose based on the restock plan and automate the switch with SellRules.
The 5 things to decide before you take pre-orders on Shopify (products, dates and limit, ship-date wording, when you get paid, delay notices), and what customers see and receive, in order, once one product is set up in SellRules.