Inventory-based sales strategies help eCommerce businesses bridge the gap between customer demand and product availability.
Whether you're launching a new product, dealing with stockouts, or restocking popular items, how you manage these moments directly impacts revenue and customer experience.
For Shopify merchants, understanding these inventory-based approaches is crucial for avoiding lost sales, improving fulfillment, and maintaining open communication with customers.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the differences between preorders, backorders, and restocks to help you keep sales moving and customers informed.
A preorder is the process of selling a product before it is available for fulfillment. The item is not yet in stock or ready to ship, but customers are given the opportunity to reserve it in advance. This approach helps businesses capture interest and secure early payments before the official product release.
Preorders are particularly valuable when there is confirmed interest in a product that is not yet available for immediate shipping.
For example, a brand preparing for a product launch may generate early demand through marketing campaigns, influencer partnerships, or teaser content. Rather than waiting for inventory to arrive, opening preorders allows the business to convert that interest into actual sales.
Key use cases for preorders include:
- New Product launches
- Seasonal or time-sensitive items
- Limited edition collections
- Made-to-order or custom goods
- Hype drops
When placing a preorder, customers pay in advance either fully or partially for a product that will ship at a later date. Unlike regular purchases, fulfillment is delayed, so clear communication around timelines and order status is essential to maintain trust.
From a business perspective, preorders offer several operational and strategic advantages:
1. Generate early revenue
Accepting payments before the product is available can help offset production costs and improve cash flow.
2. Gauge demand before production
Preorders provide real data on customer interest, allowing you to forecast demand and adjust inventory planning accordingly.
3. Build marketing momentum
Announcing a preorder launch creates a sense of urgency and anticipation, which can amplify brand visibility and drive engagement across channels.
A backorder allows customers to purchase an item that is temporarily out of stock, with the promise of delivery once inventory is replenished. The order is placed and confirmed at checkout like any standard transaction, but shipping is deferred until the product becomes available again.
Backorders are most useful in short-term stockout situations. These typically happen due to:
- Unexpected demand spikes where inventory sells out faster than anticipated
- Temporary supply delays, such as shipping disruptions or production holdups
Here are some benefits of using backorders for merchants:
1. Continue Generating Sales
Allows you to accept orders even when inventory is temporarily out of stock, minimizing lost revenue.
2. Maintain Customer Interest
Prevents shoppers from abandoning your store by offering an option to buy instead of seeing a “Sold Out” message.
3. Keep the Sales Pipeline Active
Ensures sales momentum continues while restocking is in progress, keeping your business operations uninterrupted.
While backorders can keep sales moving, they also require careful handling to avoid damaging the customer experience. Here are some common risks and challenges:
- Clear communication on delivery delays is essential to avoid confusion and set accurate expectations.
- Prolonged restocking times can lead to customer dissatisfaction, cancellations, or loss of trust.
A restock refers to the process of replenishing inventory for a product that has previously sold out. Once new stock is added, the item becomes available for purchase again, restoring its visibility and accessibility on your store.
When a product is restocked, it reappears as available for purchase with the standard checkout process. Customers who were previously met with a "Sold Out" message can now complete their orders as usual. If restock notifications are in place, interested shoppers are alerted automatically when the item is back in stock.
Here are some benefits of restocks for businesses:
1. Recapture missed sales
Restocking allows you to convert previously lost interest into actual purchases, especially from customers who were unable to buy during the initial stockout.
2. Drive urgency and FOMO with scarcity
Limited or scheduled restocks create a sense of urgency, encouraging quicker buying decisions from customers who fear missing out again.
3. Increase customer trust through proactive communication
Notifying customers when products are restocked reinforces reliability and keeps them engaged with your brand.
Here are some key differences between preorders, backorders, and restocks:
Yes, but it needs to be done strategically. While preorders, backorders, and restocks serve different purposes, they can complement each other when layered correctly across a product’s lifecycle. Using all three in coordination allows you to manage demand, maintain revenue flow, and improve the customer experience, regardless of inventory status.
Here’s how each method can be used at the right moment:
1. Preorders for upcoming products
Use preorders to generate early interest and revenue before the product is available. This is ideal during the launch phase, when inventory is still in production or awaiting delivery. It allows you to gauge demand, plan stock levels, and build momentum ahead of release.
2. Backorders during short-term stockouts
Once the product launches and sells faster than expected, you can switch to backorders. This allows continued sales while restocking is in progress, avoiding missed opportunities due to temporary stockouts.
3. Restock alerts to re-engage high-intent shoppers
When new inventory arrives, trigger restock alerts to notify customers who showed interest but couldn’t purchase during the sellout. This helps convert waiting customers into buyers and creates a renewed sense of urgency, especially if stock remains limited.
Example Workflow:
Let’s say you’re launching a limited-edition graphic t-shirt. Two weeks before the release, you open preorders to build anticipation and gauge demand. On launch day, the product sells out within hours due to strong interest.
Rather than halting sales, you switch to backorders while waiting for the next inventory shipment. Once new stock arrives, you fulfill all pending backorders and trigger restock alerts for customers who have signed up for notifications, bringing them back to complete their purchase and driving additional conversions.
STOQ is designed to help Shopify merchants implement and manage preorders, backorders, and restock alerts. Here’s how it helps you do all three within the platform:
STOQ allows you to set up preorder functionality on products that are not yet in stock. You can choose to collect full payment or only a partial deposit at checkout. This is ideal for managing incoming or unreleased inventory where fulfillment will occur at a future date.
When a product is temporarily out of stock, STOQ enables you to continue accepting orders through backorders. You can customize the messaging shown on product pages and at checkout, clearly informing customers of the delayed fulfillment timeframe.
STOQ includes built-in restock alert capabilities that automatically notify subscribed customers once a product is back in stock. Notifications can be sent via email or SMS, and the system tracks interest at the variant level to ensure accurate targeting.
Managing preorders, backorders, and restock alerts through separate tools can quickly lead to inconsistent messaging, operational friction, and a fragmented customer experience.
By bringing all three into a single platform, you maintain full visibility over your inventory status and customer demand in real time. This unified approach allows for better coordination between sales, fulfillment, and marketing, ensuring that customers always know what to expect and you always know how to respond.
It simplifies workflows, reduces manual effort, and gives you the flexibility to switch strategies as inventory levels change.
Preorders, backorders, and restocks each serve a unique role in how you manage product availability. Preorders capture early demand, backorders keep sales going during stockouts, and restocks help you recover interest once inventory is back.
The key is knowing when to use each based on how your customers shop and what they expect. STOQ brings all three strategies into one platform, making it easier to stay responsive, consistent, and in control.
Install the STOQ app to simplify your inventory flow and sell smarter at every stage.