Overview
A pre-order allows you to capture sales before a product is ready to ship. While it is a highly effective launch strategy, its success relies on managing expectations: customers must know their estimated delivery timeline upfront, and your team must have a realistic, locked-in fulfillment plan before going live.
Why we recommend launching a pre-order
For new brands that haven't yet accumulated e-commerce sales data, we recommend launching with a pre-order period of at least ~4 weeks to optimize the starting retailer inventory per SKU and the experience for your initial customers.
While we handle the sell-in of your products to our retailers, it's up to each retailer to determine how much product they want to take in - typically determined by past 30 days sales volume. Meanwhile, we've historically seen a larger volume of orders following a brand's launch due to pent-up demand for previously unavailable products. This launch period volume is then followed by a more steadied pace that's more reflective of the expected, year-round sales velocity.
Retailers typically don't want to take on excess product until they have sales data to work off of. Without prior sales data, retailers are likely to limit their initial purchase order to a single case per SKU. So, if many orders flow in at launch, and if a retailer has only ordered a case of each SKU, then there's a greater chance that an out-of-stock will occur. If that happens, the retailer will have to place another PO and the fulfillment time for your first customers will increase.
In the event of a self-distributed scenario, the pre-order period also helps to alleviate the time it takes to get product to retailers.
A useful rule: If a customer could reasonably misunderstand when the order will ship, repeat the timing in one more customer-facing place rather than one fewer. Clear expectations are part of the launch setup, not an afterthought.
Before you build the offer
Confirm the on-sale date and expected ship date.
Confirm available quantity, retailer participation, and the language that will appear on the product page and in the confirmation email.
Avoid using a shipping date that has not been operationally approved.
Set up the pre-order
Submit the product through the normal product upload process.
Name the product in Flaviar Checkout as “Pre-Order: [Product Name]”.
Label your buy buttons as “Pre-Order” rather than “Buy Now”.
Make sure the product description on your website has clear pre-order copy, including estimated shipping timelines. (See verbiage examples below).
Update your Shopify order confirmation email to include pre-order messaging (see instructions here).
Our team will then work on retailer approval and technical setup before letting you know you are ready to complete the next steps.
Important pre-order/pre-sale verbiage:
This [Product] is currently available for presale. By placing a presale order, you are reserving your [Product] before inventory officially arrives.
Orders are expected to begin shipping in [range]
Presale orders will be fulfilled in the order they are received once inventory becomes available.
If your order includes both presale and in-stock items, the entire order may ship together once the presale item is available.
Estimated ship dates are subject to change based on production and logistics timelines. You will be notified if there are significant updates.
For Buy Buttons integrations
For Buy Buttons integrations
Set the Profile button text to “Pre-Order” and place the shipping message in Checkout Text 1.
Confirm the hard quantity and sold-out behavior for a limited release.
Test the cart and confirmation email.
End the pre-order period
When the product becomes ready for standard fulfillment, you must remove the Pre-Order title prefix, the pre-order language from your website descriptions, and any custom Checkout Text from your Flaviar Checkout buttons.
Run a fresh test order to confirm that regular inventory and fulfillment behavior is active before continuing standard sales. This prevents new customers from seeing outdated timing while earlier customers are still waiting for their original pre-orders.
Questions? Please email your dedicated PSM or [email protected] for assistance. |