Allow customers to purchase products or variants as pre-orders when they are not currently available.

The pre-order feature uses Shopify metafields to determine which products or variants are available for pre-order and to display an optional pre-order message.

1. Create the pre-order metafield

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects.
2. Select Products or Variants, depending on where you want to offer pre-orders.
3. Click Add definition.
4. Set the following:
   • Name: Preorder
   • Namespace and key: custom.preorder
   • Type: True or false
5. Save the metafield definition.

Set the metafield to true for products or variants that should be available for pre-order.

2. Create the pre-order message metafield

To display a custom message for pre-order products or variants:

1. Go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects.
2. Select Products or Variants.
3. Click Add definition.
4. Set the following:
   • Name: Preorder message
   • Namespace and key: custom.preorder_message
   • Type: Single line text
5. Save the metafield definition.

Enter the message you want customers to see for the corresponding product or variant.

Product and variant support

Pre-orders can be configured using either product metafields or variant metafields.

• Product metafields: Apply the pre-order status and message to the product.
• Variant metafields: Apply the pre-order status and message to individual variants.

Using variant metafields is useful when only specific variants, such as a particular size or color, are available for pre-order.

Important: Make sure the product or variant has stock available.