WooCommerce Pre Order is a powerful extension that enables store owners to offer products for pre-order before they are officially available. With this tool, customers can reserve items in advance, helping businesses gauge demand and manage inventory more effectively.
The extension supports automatic or manual order fulfillment and allows for flexible settings like setting release dates, charging upfront or upon release, and customizing messaging. It’s ideal for product launches, limited releases, and boosting early sales.
Video Tutorial
Watch the tutorial video below for a quick walkthrough of the add-on’s features and setup process.
For detailed instructions, please continue reading the full documentation. If you still have any questions, feel free to submit a support ticket.
Installation
- Install and activate the WooCommerce plugin.
- Install and activate the “WooCommerce Pre Order” extension.
- There will be a new entry under the WooCommerce menu, “Pre Order”.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Main Menu
Activate Your License Key
The license key can be configured from the License tab, found on the “Pre Order” sub-menu. The license key will be sent to your email address when you purchase the add-on.
Insert your license key in the text field and then click on the “Activate License” button.
WooCommerce Pre Order – License Configuration
General
Navigate to the “WooCommerce” menu and its “Pre Order” sub-menu. Here, administrators will be able to set general options related to the addon.
Enable Activity Logs
Here, administrators will be able to enable/disable the activity logging functionality related to license activation. When this option is enabled, a new tab “Activity Logs” will become visible.
Manage Pre-Orders
Navigate to the “WooCommerce” menu and its “Pre Order” sub-menu. Here, administrators will be able to view the order-related information of all the pre-order products. In this tab, you will be able to view, search, and filter all the pre-orders.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Manage tab
Actions
This tab allows administrators to send an email message to all customers who have pre-ordered a specific product. To send the email, please follow these steps:
- Select a product from the “Product” option.
- Type the message you want to send to all the customers in the “Message” option.
- Press the “Send emails” button.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Email tab
WooCommerce Pre Order – Customer(s) pre-order Email
Change Release Date
This tab allows administrators to change the release date for all pre-orders of a specific product. This will send an email notification to each customer(s) informing them that the pre-order release date was changed, along with the new release date. To send the email, please follow these steps:
- Select a product from the “Product” option.
- Select the new availability date in the “New availability date” option.
- If you want to send an email to all the customers as well, then type the message you want to send to all the customers in the “Message” option (This step is optional). You can disable the “Send email notification” toggle if you don’t want to send any emails to any customers.
- Press the “Change release date” button.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Change Release Date tab
WooCommerce Pre Order – Pre-order Release date changed Email
Complete
This tab allows administrators to complete all pre-orders for a specific product. This will send an email notification to each customer(s) informing them that their pre-order has been completed. To send the email, please follow these steps:
- Select a product from the “Product” option.
- If you want to send an email to all the customers as well, then type the message you want to send to all the customers in the “Message” option (This step is optional). You can disable the “Send email notification” toggle if you don’t want to send any emails to any customers.
- Press the “Complete pre-orders” button.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Complete tab
WooCommerce Pre Order – Customer pre-order completed Email
Cancel
This tab allows administrators to cancel all pre-orders for a specific product. This will mark the order(s) as cancelled and send the customer(s) an email notification.
Note: If pre-orders were charged upfront, the administrator must manually refund the orders.
To send the email, please follow these steps:
- Select a product from the “Product” option.
- If you want to send an email to all the customers as well, then type the message you want to send to all the customers in the “Message” option (This step is optional). You can disable the “Send email notification” toggle if you don’t want to send any emails to any customers.
- Press the “Cancel pre-orders” button.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Cancel tab
WooCommerce Pre Order – Customer pre-order canceled Email
Pre-Orders Settings
Navigate to the “WooCommerce” menu in its “Settings” sub-menu. In the “Pre-Orders” tab, the administrator will be able to change all the settings related to pre–orders on the frontend pages.
WooCommerce Pre Order – “Pre-Orders” Settings tab
Add to cart button text
The administrator can edit the button text of the shop page and product page using this text field.
WooCommerce Pre Order – button text product page
WooCommerce Pre Order – button text product page
Place Order Button Text
The administrator can edit the button text of the checkout page using this text field.
WooCommerce Pre Order – pre-order product Checkout page
Single product page message
The administrator can edit the text on the product page using this text field.
WooCommerce Pre Order – product message product page
Shop loop product message
The administrator can edit the text on the shop page using this text field.
WooCommerce Pre Order – product message Shop page
Availability date title text
The administrator can edit the text on the cart and checkout page under the product name using this text field.
WooCommerce Pre Order – Availability Date Cart page
WooCommerce Pre Order – Availability Date Checkout page
Charged upon release order total format
The administrator can edit the text on the cart and checkout page right next to the order total amount using this text field (for the products with the “Upon release” option selected in the product edit page).
WooCommerce Pre Order – Upon release Cart page
WooCommerce Pre Order – Upon release Checkout page
Charged upfront order total format
The administrator can edit the text on the cart and checkout page right next to the order total amount using this text field (for the products with the “Upfront” option selected in the product edit page).
WooCommerce Pre Order – Upfront Cart page
WooCommerce Pre Order – Upfront Checkout page
Enable pre-orders for products that get out of stock
Enable this option if you want customers to be able to pre-order when a product becomes out of stock.
Note: Variable products need to have all variations out of stock.
How to set a product as a preorder product
To set a product as a preorder product, go to the product edit page. Navigate to the Pre-orders tab and set the following fields
- Enable pre-orders
Enabling this toggle will set the product as a preorder product. - Availability date/time
Set the upcoming release date of the pre-order product. - When to Charge
Set whether to charge the customers when the product is released or to charge the customers upfront. You can select from the options “Upfront” and “Upon release”. - Deposit Type
Set the deposit type for the pre-order product. If the “Upfront” option is selected, you only have one option available, which is “Fixed Fee”. Similarly, if the “Upon release” option is selected, you can select from the options “Fixed Fee” and “Percentage Deposit”. - Pre-Order Fee
Set the Pre-Order Fee to be charged to customers who are ordering the product in advance. This option will be available when the “Fixed Fee” option is selected. - Deposit Percentage
This option will be available when the “Percentage Deposit” option is selected. Here you can enter the percentage of the product price to charge upfront (0-100). The remaining amount will be charged upon product release.
Some payment methods do not support splitting the pre-order payments. The payment methods that support splitting the pre-order payments are “Direct bank transfer” and “Check payments”.
Note: All the fields must be filled to create a preorder product. Also, currently, the pre-order functionality is only compatible with the “Simple product” and “Variable” product types of WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Pre Order – “Pre-Orders” Product Edit page tab
Payment upon pre-order product release
If the administrator wants to set a pre-order product amount to be charged upon release, then he needs to navigate to the “WooCommerce > Settings > Payments” tab. Here, you need to enable the “Pay Later” payment method.
Once the partial payment has been made by the customer for the pre-order, the administrator will need to navigate to the respective order’s pre-order metabox to manually edit its information.
FAQ’s
1- Does the WooCommerce Pre Order extension have any dependent plugin(s)?
WooCommerce Pre Order requires the WooCommerce plugin to be installed before activating it.
2- Can I set different pre-order dates per product?
You can set a specific release date and time for each product.
3- Will customers be charged immediately?
You can choose to charge customers either immediately or when the product becomes available.
4- How to disable the “Pre-Order Fee” feature for any product?
You cannot disable this feature; instead, just enter 0 as the fee amount to be charged. This way, the customers will not be charged any amount for the pre-ordered product.
5- Does this addon introduce any new payment method in WooCommerce?
Our addon introduces the “Pay Later” payment method upon activation.
Changelogs
1.1.2
- Fix: Improved Licensing Module.
1.1.1
- Fix: Fixed an issue related to licensing.
1.1.0
- New: Added partial payment system for percentage deposit pre-orders charged “Upon Release” – customers pay deposit upfront and remaining balance on release date.
- New: Enhanced cart/checkout display showing “charged Now” for upfront payment and remaining balance separately.
- New: Admin deposit information metabox with payment status tracking and manual override options.
- New: “Pay” button on customer “My Pre-orders” page for deposit and remaining balance payments.
- New: Full WooCommerce Blocks checkout support with custom cart total formatting.
- Fix: Fixed cart total display showing “charged [date]” instead of “charged Now” for percentage deposits.
- Fix: Fixed payment gateway availability – percentage deposits now show all gateways, not just “Pay Later”.
1.0.0
- Initial Release.
