B2B preorders in Shopify with Essential Preorder
Use this guide to make your preorder campaign visible to B2B customers shopping through Shopify catalogs.
Before you start
- Your B2B customer must be logged in and shopping from an assigned catalog that includes the product.
- The product must be included in the catalog assigned to the customer’s company location.
Setup in 3 steps
1) Add the product to the B2B catalog
In Shopify admin:
- Go to B2B > Catalogs
- Add the product (and variants) to the relevant catalog
- Make sure that catalog is assigned to the correct company location
If the product is not in the catalog, B2B customers will not see it (or the preorder button).
2) Create and publish a preorder campaign in Essential Preorder
In Essential Preorder:
- Create a Preorder campaign
-
Select the products/variants
Choose when the preorder offer should show:
- Only when out of stock
- Only when in stock
- Always
- Publish the campaign
How it looks for B2B customers
When the customer is logged in and the product is in their catalog:
- The preorder button and messaging will display based on your campaign’s “show when” setting.
- Checkout follows the company’s payment terms and B2B checkout rules.
Shopify B2B limitations
Due to Shopify compatibility limits for B2B preorders, these Essential Preorder campaign settings do not work with B2B orders:
- Discounts - use price decrease functionality in B2B catalogs;
- Partial payments - use B2B deferred payments for that;
- Fulfillment rules / fulfillment scheduling - use Shopify Flow to create rules for B2B orders and their statuses.
B2B orders follow Shopify’s company terms and workflows instead.
Quick troubleshooting
- No preorder button? Confirm: customer is logged in, product is in their catalog, campaign is published, and “show when” matches the product’s stock status.
- Can’t buy out of stock? Confirm: Continue selling when out of stock is enabled on the variant.