Preorders

Preorders allow you to take forward orders on items that have not yet been made. 

Preordered items are held back and do not reduce stock levels or appear in the Dispatch area for fulfilment until they are released.

A preorder window represents a specific season or drop that customers are buying for. In Orderspace you can take orders for multiple preorder windows and also sell from stock on the same items at the same time.

Creating a Preorder Window

Preorder Windows are created from Settings > Preorders in the admin.

Name - This should be a short name describing the preorder window such as Spring/Summer 2021 or SS21 Drop 1. It is used on ordering tables and order summaries to describe the preorder.

Ordering Deadline - An optional deadline date for this preorder window. This will be shown to customers and preordering will automatically stop after this day.

Due Date - An optional date to inform customers when the preordered items are due to arrive. Shown for information only.

Categories - Products in the selected categories will become preorderable in this preorder window. Create specific categories for the preorder window, or use the existing categories that you have depending on how you want the preorders to be shown to your customers.

How Preorders Work

For each category selected in an active Preorder Window customers will be able to preorder directly from the ordering view on the category. If multiple preorder windows are active on the same category customers will see a separate ordering table for each preorder window on each product.

When viewing a product page on the ordering site, customers will see a separate ordering table for each active preorder window. If stock is available on the product or backordering is enabled, a separate "From Stock" ordering table will also appear.

Backordering and preordering at the same time is designed for the scenario where you have stock arriving soon (backorder) and also want to take orders for future seasons that have not yet been made (preorders). To turn off backordering when preordering is enabled, uncheck Backorder from the Inventory tab on each product in the admin, or in bulk using a product import.

When the ordering deadline for a preorder window has past the preorder window ordering tables will disappear and products will revert to "From Stock" ordering on the category and product pages.

Reporting on Preordered Items

The Sales By Product and Sales By Product Variant reports can be filtered by Preorder Window. This allows you to report separately on the preordered items and export those reports for purchasing.

Dispatching Preordered Items

When preordered items are received and ready to be sent to your customers, the items should be added to stock before releasing the preorders from On Hold.

Use Goods In or Inventory import to add the items received to stock. This will increase both On Hand and Available by the amount received.

On each order with preordered items, use Hold / Release to remove On Hold from the preordered items. This will reduce Available by the quantity ordered and the items will appear in the Dispatch area for fulfilment.

Fulfil the preordered items through the Dispatch area to reduce On Hand. This represents the items leaving your warehouse.