A preorder is a product that shoppers can purchase before the product is actually released or available for general sale on your store. Preorders allow you to build excitement for your product before the product is released to the market. Preorders are often done for products like movies, music, games, and other products with a definite release date.
How Preorders are Billed
When a shopper orders a preorder product, the payment for their product may be processed at the time the order is placed, or when the product is released depending on which setting you select for the preorder site setting. In some cases and depending on the payment method we do collect payment when the order is placed and payment received. For example, if a shopper sends a check as payment for a preorder, we will process that check upon receipt.
Preorder Release Email
When a preorder product is finally released, shoppers who purchased the product are sent an email (notification) informing them their product is ready and they will be billed. The notification will contain information or instructions about how to download their product or when their product will be released and shipped to them.
Allowing Shoppers to Preload a Preorder Product
You can set up a preorder product so that shoppers can preload (download) the product before it is released. This is commonly used when the product is a large download file and you want shoppers to have more immediate access to their purchase upon release.
When preload is enabled for a preorder product, shoppers will receive a notification that contains a link to begin the preload for the product when the preload period begins.
Important! To use the preload option for preorders your store must be specifically set up to support preloads. Contact your Store Operations team for more information.
Being Notified of Preorders Placed
Managing the pre-release of a product is important to the success of the product launch. You can set up your preorder product so that you get a report of the orders placed for the product. To do this you simply enter your email address in the Audit Email Recipient field and define how many days before the preorder release date you want to get the report in the Audit Number of Days field.
Setting the Release Date
The release date for a preorder product is set by date, time, and time zone. When the release date occurs, preorders for the product will stop, fulfillment for all preorders will begin, and the product will begin selling on your store as any other product.
Note: Your time zone preference (as set on the My Info page) will automatically be selected when you set the release date, however you can change the time zone to be whichever zone you want.
Editing the Release Date
Once you deploy a preorder product you should be careful making any changes to the preorder details, especially the release date. You can change the release date after a preorder product is deployed if needed but you will have to deploy the product again for those changes to take effect on your store.
Note: Your store can be set up to send an email (notification) to shoppers (who have purchased the preorder product) when the release date changes. To learn more how to get this set up on your store, contact your Store Operations team.
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