PreProduct app: Shopify Pre-Orders, Deposits, Charge Later

What PreProduct Does for a Pre-Order, and What It Doesn't

Shopify needs an app for this: its Help Center says that to use pre-orders you install a pre-order app and then manage the orders in the Shopify admin. PreProduct is that app. You create a listing for a product, pick a payment timing, and its types-of-pre-order page describes four, set on the listing form below.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. New Listing

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Charge later and a deposit save the card rather than hold an authorization. A standard card authorization on Shopify Payments has to be captured within 7 days; only Shopify Plus stores get longer periods, and only on some cards. For pre-orders, Shopify's pre-order help page says collecting payment stores the customer's payment method so you can collect the rest later, and its developer docs describe that charge as a payment against the customer's saved mandate.

In our October 28, 2026 test, the charge-later order's timeline showed new payment terms and no authorization. PreProduct's own feature page says nothing is counting down while you wait; whether a live card still clears months later is something a test gateway can't show.

What PreProduct can't change are the limits Shopify puts on every pre-order sold through a purchase option:

These limits come from Shopify, so they bind every pre-order app, not only PreProduct. If you're still choosing an app, our guide sets out five questions to ask and five pre-order apps to compare.

Which gateways carry a saved card is where the sources part ways. Shopify's Help Center lists Shopify Payments and PayPal Express; its developer docs add Adyen on Shopify and, for some merchants, Stripe; PreProduct's own pages name three different sets.

All of them agree on Shopify Payments and PayPal Express, so on any other gateway confirm with PreProduct before your first listing. Our pre-order guide explains why Shopify's two pages give two answers.

Three Pre-Order Launches and How PreProduct Handles Each

The payment timing follows from how much money you need at checkout. Each launch below gives the setup in three steps, what to combine it with, and where it breaks.

A New Product Before the First Batch Arrives

This is the launch where you want to measure demand without taking money for stock that doesn't exist yet.

1. List the product as Charge later and set the days until it ships; the form starts at 150 days, and checkout shows the customer a charge date counted from them.
2. When the batch lands, charge from the Customers screen: filter by product, open Actions, choose Charge customers. PreProduct warns that, by default, a deferred charge applies to the whole Shopify order, so every pre-order item from that cart is paid at once; only Shopify Plus stores can charge selected line items.
3. Or let stock trigger the charge. PreProduct's automations page says it charges automatically when stock is added in Shopify.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. Customers

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Auto-charge sits in Setup under Automations. In our October 28, 2026 test both Auto-charge automations were off until you press Activate, and each runs four times a day (PreProduct says Shopify Plus stores get hourly runs; our development store, on PreProduct's Scale Plus plan, showed four), so a run follows a restock within hours rather than instantly. Auto-charge reads Available stock, not On hand, so start pre-orders from zero stock and restock more than the units already pre-ordered: a restock that only reached 0 Available didn't release the hold when we tried it.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. Setup

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Combine it with per-variant and per-customer limits, so the first batch isn't oversold, and with Klaviyo if you email from there: PreProduct's listing puts 10+ Klaviyo events on Scale and Scale Plus. A drop scheduled for a set hour can use Shopify's own Future publishing, which publishes an Active product to the Online Store at the date and time you set; PreProduct's docs describe drops with the separate JD Auto Schedule app, which starts from a draft product.

Where it breaks: a card that fails months after checkout (see when a saved card fails), and the upcoming-charge email, which sends nothing while its delay is 0 hours, the default.

Made-to-Order and Long Lead Times

Custom pieces and long production runs need money for materials before anything ships, which is what a deposit is for.

1. Choose Deposit upfront and enter either an amount or a percentage of the price; PreProduct's deposits page describes the balance as charged later from the same card.
2. Write the ship statement as a number of days that counts down every 24 hours, or as a phrase such as a season.
3. Set the date under the phrase. Customers read the phrase, but checkout takes the charge date from the Expected ship date under it. On October 31, 2026 we moved that date to May 14, 2027, and checkout said the card would be charged on 14 May 2027 while checkout still read late spring 2027.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. New Listing

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In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. New Listing

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A long lead time also carries Shopify's rules on shipping dates. With no date clearly stated, Shopify says you must reasonably believe the product ships within 30 days of purchase. Our guide covers how long a pre-order can wait under US, UK and EU rules.

Shopify also requires pre-order apps to tell customers when shipment is delayed, and PreProduct's Customers screen has a Send update emails action for it. Where it breaks: a deposit on a custom quote sent as a draft order, or on a B2B order, falls outside what a Shopify purchase option supports. Our deposits guide shows which deposit mechanism fits each of those cases.

A Sold-Out Best-Seller Waiting on a Restock

Where an app isn't needed: if you only want a sold-out product to stay buyable, Shopify's built-in setting does that on its own. Read whether to let Shopify sell when stock hits zero before you install anything for a restock.

A restock usually has a short, known wait, so taking the money now is the simplest choice.

1. List the variant as Charge upfront. In our test the order was Paid and held for fulfilment.
2. Cap the variant at the incoming quantity with a pre-order limit.
3. Decide on mixed carts: PreProduct can split a mixed cart into separate orders only for Charge upfront, once you tick Split pre-orders into their own order after checkout, and it lets mixed carts through by default.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. New Listing

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Check the product's inventory settings after you list it. On October 31, 2026, a new product showed Sell when out of stock off before we listed it and on about two minutes after we created the listing. When we finished the listing, the setting was off again when we checked about two minutes later.

When a Saved Card Fails at Charge Time

A charge-later or deposit order can sit for months before you charge it, and a card can expire in the meantime. Shopify's developer docs put the job squarely on the app:

Shopify.dev's About pre-order and TBYB page makes scheduling the charge and automating payment failures the app's responsibility. None of the Shopify Help Center and Shopify.dev pre-order pages we read on October 27, 2026 sets a retry schedule, so the cycle below is PreProduct's, from its failed-charge email docs and the app as it stood on October 28, 2026.

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2. PreProduct pre-order
3. Setup

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The app and its docs describe the follow-up differently. The docs describe a manual flow with opt-in extra attempts or cancellation for pre-orders still unpaid after 10 days; the Customers screen we checked on October 28 and 29, 2026 offered only a Failed charge filter, and we didn't try the Retry charges action the docs place on a listing's dashboard. Treat the email card's 24-hour re-charge as the app's current wording, not a tested result.

A charge with no card on file can sit at processing. Shopify's test gateway wouldn't save a card that declines, so on October 29, 2026, on Scale Plus with the Automatic failed charge flow active, we deleted the test customer's saved cards and triggered the deferred charge from PreProduct. About 40 minutes later the Shopify order's timeline showed no charge attempt and the Failed charge filter listed no one; almost two hours later PreProduct still showed the charge as processing, with $0.00 paid, and on October 31, two days on, it still did, with the Shopify order at Payment pending. With no failed attempt recorded, the failed-charge flow had nothing to queue. PreProduct told us that at processing it has asked Shopify to open the transaction with the customer's bank and polls for the result, so with a card on file part of the wait can sit with the bank; we had no card saved, so that doesn't explain our two days. After you trigger charges, open the order's Payments panel in PreProduct and chase any charge that stays processing yourself.

PreProduct customer portal listing a customer's pre-orders

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In the Shopify admin you can ask a customer to update their payment information from their profile after a failed payment, and Shopify's managing pre-orders page warns that the customer's bank can challenge later billing attempts until the customer confirms the purchase.

The portal also lets customers cancel unpaid pre-orders by default, while cancelling paid orders and refunding portal cancellations are off. A refund made in Shopify Orders may still need cancelling in the app too; our guide covers editing, cancelling and refunding a pre-order.

Our own test· November 2, 2026

What Our Test Store Showed

Key takeaway

We ran this test on our Shopify development store with the Dawn theme and Shopify's test payment gateway, first on PreProduct's free Partner Development plan, which unlocks every feature, then on Scale Plus, which PreProduct gave us free for testing. Starter and Scale may not include every feature we tried, so check the plan section before you rely on one.

The order statuses matched the three timings we placed orders for in the table above; all four test orders, the mixed cart included, carried the tag pre-order. This is what showed only after installing:

What we tried, and what came back

What we tried	What came back	What it means for you
The Pre-order support app embed in Dawn, the store's live theme	Off after install; on the Setup screen, Reveal Shopify link brings up a second button that opens the live theme's editor with the embed already switched on, and you still press Save	No pre-order button until you do this step yourself
A charge-later checkout	Due today 0, with the date the card will be charged; the order timeline showed only "New payment terms were added", no authorization	The card is saved and nothing is held against it
A ship statement written as a phrase, "late spring 2027"	The storefront and the order showed the phrase; checkout named the charge date from the Expected ship date set under it, 150 days out by default	The phrase is display text; set the Expected ship date under it to the day you plan to charge
A mixed cart: an in-stock item plus a charge-later pre-order	The order was Partially paid; the in-stock line was Unfulfilled with Mark as fulfilled, the pre-order line On hold	You can ship the in-stock item first (we saw the button, we didn't press it)
Charge customers from PreProduct, filtered to one product	A confirmation that the charge applies to the whole Shopify order; the deposit order turned Paid and its hold was released	One action collects the balance and frees the order for fulfilment
A declined test card	Checkout stopped with a payment error and no order was created	A card declined at checkout never becomes a pre-order; the risk sits at the later charge (see failed charges)
On Scale Plus, a deferred charge triggered after we deleted the customer's saved cards, with the Automatic failed charge flow active	About 40 minutes later, no charge attempt on the Shopify order and no one under the Failed charge filter; two days later PreProduct still showed it as processing and the Shopify order as Payment pending	A charge with no card on file may not show as failed, so check charges left at processing yourself
On Scale Plus, with Auto-charge as stock is added active, a restock that only reached 0 Available	The hold wasn't released	Auto-charge reads Available stock, not On hand, so start pre-orders from zero stock and restock more than the units already pre-ordered
A 10% early-bird discount plus a 10%-off code set to not combine	Both applied at checkout	Pre-order discounts stack with codes even when the code says it can't combine
A market priced in Ukrainian hryvnia	Storefront, checkout and the deferred charge all in hryvnia	Local currency worked end to end on the one market we tried

One test on a Shopify development store, Dawn theme, Shopify's test payment gateway: PreProduct Partner Development plan on October 28, 2026, Scale Plus (free from PreProduct, Shopify test charge) on October 29, 2026, with follow-up checks on October 31 and November 2, 2026; every result read in the Shopify admin, PreProduct, the storefront or checkout.

Storefront product page in the Dawn theme

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Shopify checkout for a charge-later pre-order on a test gateway

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In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Orders

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In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Orders

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The test did not cover live cards on Shopify Payments or PayPal, a saved card declined at the later charge (the test gateway wouldn't save a card that declines), the failed-charge email and re-charge, a charge more than 7 days after checkout, Auto-charge on a deposit order, Shop Pay, B2B, POS, the Horizon theme, a second market, or uninstalling the app.

Which PreProduct Plan Fits Your Pre-Order Revenue

PreProduct's plans differ in their monthly fee, the share of paid pre-order revenue they take and their features, not in how many listings you run. The plans, with USD prices as PreProduct's own pricing section showed them on October 29, 2026, and features from PreProduct's App Store listing:

Where Starter stops being cheaper: 5% of $1,999.80 is $99.99, so at the rates PreProduct's pricing section lists, Starter costs less than Scale below roughly $2,000 of paid pre-order revenue a month, and Scale costs less above it, whichever way its 0.5% is counted above 5k. The listing doesn't say whether Scale's 0.5% applies only above 5k or to the whole month, so we don't give a break-even between Scale and Scale Plus. Turning on pre-ship upsells adds 1% of paid upsell revenue on any plan.

The in-app plan screen ticked charging on automation for Scale and Scale Plus; PreProduct's automations page marks only its Listing manager "available on plus and platinum-plus plans", plan names the App Store listing no longer uses, and that listing puts Listing Manager automation on Scale, so check Starter's access to Auto-charge on the plan screen before you count on it.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order

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PreProduct's own pages disagree on what Scale lacks. On the in-app plan screen a development store saw on October 28, 2026, Scale missed only four Scale Plus features: location-aware pre-orders, a custom email sending domain, API access, and a setup check with a developer over Zoom. The App Store listing puts API access on Scale, while PreProduct's pricing section lists it under Scale Plus; PreProduct's Shopify Flow page keeps triggers for Scale Plus, and the pricing section places multi-step payment plans and pay-early on Scale Plus.

Go by the plan screen you subscribe from, and ask PreProduct about any feature you depend on; multi-step plans also need a Shopify Plus store.

The free trial differs too: the listing shows a 7-day free trial on Scale and Scale Plus, while PreProduct's docs footer says every plan has one. A development store isn't offered Starter, so our test couldn't check it; the plan screen at install shows what applies to your store.

Set These Up Before Your First Pre-Order

Most of what goes wrong with a pre-order goes wrong months later, at the charge, so the order of these steps matters: every one of them is cheaper before the first customer pays than after. PreProduct's own demo video, published September 22, 2026, walks the same path from install to a test order; take it as the developer's walkthrough of the screens.

The app embed is per theme, so PreProduct's theme-change page asks you to switch it on again after changing themes. Tick each step off as you go:

Step 2 happens in the theme editor, not in PreProduct: in our test the embed was off after install and PreProduct's Setup button didn't switch it on.

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1. Online Store
2. Themes
3. Customize
4. App embeds

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Step 6 lives under Email Flows and the Setup delay setting: while the delay before a deferred charge is 0 hours, the default, the upcoming-charge email doesn't send.

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1. Apps
2. PreProduct pre-order
3. Email Flows

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The Bottom Line

In our October 28, 2026 test on a development store, PreProduct did what the pre-order job needs: the checkout showed customers exactly what they pay now and when, the orders waited On hold, and one charge collected a deposit order's balance and freed it for fulfilment. What it leaves to you is the setup around that moment.

Frequently Asked Questions