The pre-order that ran ahead of the factory
You opened pre-orders for the new trench coat three weeks before the shipment was due. It sold well, better than planned in a size 10. The factory made the quantities on your purchase order, not the quantities your website sold. When the cartons landed, there were fewer 10s than pre-orders, the shipment was ten days late, and customers who were promised 'dispatching mid-October' were writing in to ask where their coat was.
Now someone has to go through the pre-order list in date order, work out who gets a coat and who does not, email the unlucky ones, and refund or offer an alternative. That someone is usually you, late in the evening, with a spreadsheet export and a highlighter.
Where pre-orders come unstuck
- The pre-order limit is set per product, not per size, or it is not set at all.
- The limit is typed in once and never linked to the purchase order quantities.
- Delivery dates on the page are fixed text, not updated when the factory slips.
- Pre-order items mixed with in-stock items in one basket create split shipments nobody planned for.
- When the stock lands, allocation is done by hand from an export.
Many pre-order apps handle the 'buy now, ship later' button well. What they rarely know is your purchase order: how many of each size are actually coming, and when.
What goes wrong when it slips
| Moment | Problem |
|---|---|
| Selling | More sold in popular sizes than the factory is making |
| Waiting | Customers chasing a date that has quietly moved |
| Arrival | A late night working out who gets the short sizes |
| Dispatch | Mixed baskets held up or sent in two parcels |
| Aftermath | Refunds, disappointed first-time buyers and public comments |
How we connect pre-orders to the real shipment
- Your purchase order quantities per style, colour and size are held in one place, whether that is an inventory system, a spreadsheet or your factory portal.
- Pre-order limits in the store are set per size from those quantities, with any buffer you choose held back for faults and samples.
- When a size reaches its limit, the button switches to a waitlist, so you keep collecting interest without overselling.
- The expected ship date shown on the page and in confirmation emails comes from the purchase order's current status. When the factory or forwarder moves the date, one update changes the page and triggers a polite email to everyone waiting.
- Baskets that mix pre-order and in-stock items follow a rule you choose, such as shipping together or in two parcels, instead of a packer guessing.
- When the goods are received, units are allocated to pre-orders in the order they were placed. Any shortfall produces a list of affected customers and a drafted message for you to approve.
The wording of every customer message is yours, and anything involving a refund or a substitution waits for a person to approve it.
Arrival day, done calmly
The cartons are counted in and the receipt is entered against the purchase order. The system allocates the stock to the pre-order queue and produces pick lists. If a size is short, you already have the list of the customers affected, in pre-order order, with a message ready. You choose what to offer, and the rest of the pre-orders start shipping the same afternoon.
Customers who pre-ordered were told about the delay when it happened, not when they chased. That changes the tone of the whole thing.
The details that matter
Taking payment at pre-order versus at dispatch is a commercial choice with its own rules, and card authorisations expire, so we build around whichever model you use and flag where your payment provider limits it. Pre-orders from wholesale stockists are kept separate from retail pre-orders so a boutique's order does not take units promised to a website customer, unless you decide it should.
Is this your pre-order week?
- Pre-order limits are not tied to the factory quantities per size.
- You have oversold popular sizes on a pre-order.
- Ship dates on product pages are rarely updated when the factory slips.
- Allocation on arrival is done from an export by hand.
- Customers chase you before you tell them about delays.