You can sell the out-of-stock products as pre-orders in Shopify by creating a new product template and changing the payment settings.

Note: Check if the theme you are using is Sectioned or Non-sectioned. Head over to Edit HTML/CSS page of your theme to find this out. If the files that you see are in Sectioned Directory, it means you are using a Sectioned theme. Otherwise, it’s a Non-sectioned theme.

Choose the relevant theme button based on what you are using and follow the instructions below.

Authorize Pre-order Payments

You should not capture payments immediately for the pre-orders even before the customer knows that the product is out of stock. Until the product is ready to dispatch, you can allow payments without capturing the funds.

• Head over to Shopify Admin, click Settings, and then click Payments
• Search for Payment Authorization section
• Select Manually capture payment for orders
• Click Save

Note: In Shopify, the authorization period is just 7 days. If you want a longer duration, use a third-party payment method.

Create a pre-order product page template

The Add to cart has to be changed for the pre-order products with a new product page template.

• Head over to Shopify admin, click Online Store, and then click Themes
• Select Actions for the theme you want to edit, and then click Edit Code
• Go to Templates directory and select Add a new Template
• Select product from the dropdown menu, and name the template as pre-order
• Select Create template. Your new pre-order.liquidtemplate will open in the code editor.
• Look for the code:

{% section ‘product-template’ %}

Modify it to:

{% section ‘product-pre-order-template’ %}

• Select Save.
• Section directory > Add a new Section. Enter product-pre-order-template in the field given
• Select Create Section. Code editor will open. Delete all the default to empty the file
• Section Directory > click product-template.liquid > Copy all the content > Paste to product-pre-order-template.liquid
• Search for Add to cart button text, in the product-pre-order-template.liquid file and change it to as below:

Look for this code:

<span id=”AddToCartText”>{{ ‘products.product.add_to_cart’ | t }}</span>

Modify it to:

<span id=”AddToCartText”>{{ ‘Pre-order’ | json | remove: ‘”‘ }}</span>

Then, in the same file find:

addToCart: {{ ‘products.product.add_to_cart’ | t | json }}

Modify it to:

addToCart: {{ ‘Pre-order’ | json }},

• Finally, press Save

Assign template to a product

• Head over to Shopify admin > Click Products
• Click the name of the product you want to make available for pre-order.
• Head over to Theme Templates section, and change products to product.pre-order
• Press Save

Edit Inventory Levels

For the products that have the inventory level 0, you have to edit the inventory level to make it available for the customers. Follow the below steps.

• Head over to Shopify admin > Click Products
• Select the name of the product you want to make available for pre-order.
• Click Edit
• Select Allow customers to purchase this product when it’s out of stock
• Press Save.