Limit how many preorders you accept (Essential Preorder app)
This article explains how to cap the number of units a preorder campaign will sell, using the app's stock-level limit. It's for shop owners who want to stop accepting preorders once a set quantity is reached, whether that's per product, per variant, or across a whole campaign.
It also covers what the app cannot do, such as limiting preorders per customer or per order, so you can choose the right workaround if you need one.
Set a preorder limit with "Stop selling when stock level drops to"
The main control for capping preorder quantity is in the Preorder products tab of your campaign.
- Open your campaign and go to the Preorder products tab.
- Find the product or variant you want to limit.
- Check the box for Stop selling when stock level drops to.
- Enter the limit as a negative number equal to the number of units you want to sell on preorder. For example, to allow 50 preorder units, enter
-50. - Save the campaign.
Enter the value as a negative number, not a positive one. A positive number does not match the quantity you want to sell: it's read as a stock count, not a preorder allowance. The field shows your saved value back to you as Current, so you can confirm it is set correctly.
The help text on this setting explains what it does: it Switches "Continue selling" off when the limit is reached, both for manual and automatic preorder types. You don't need to watch stock levels and turn Shopify's setting off yourself. The app does it once the threshold is hit.
If stock is not zero yet
The limit works against the live Shopify inventory count for the product or variant, not against a separate preorder counter. If you want to reserve some existing stock for regular customers and only take a fixed number of preorders beyond that, work out the target stock level as a negative number and enter that. For example, if you're comfortable going 50 units into negative stock, enter -50 regardless of what the current stock figure is.
Set limits per variant, not per product
The limit is enforced per variant, not as one shared total across a product's variants. If a product has three variants, each can have its own Stop selling when stock level drops to value.
- If you leave a variant's limit field empty, that variant falls back to the campaign-wide Stop selling when stock level drops to value. It does not mean unlimited preorders.
- There's no way to pool variants together under one combined limit. If you need variants to share a single cap, you'll need to track that manually and adjust each variant's limit as sales come in.
What happens when the limit is reached
Once the stock level hits your threshold, the app turns Continue selling when out of stock off for that product or variant. Depending on your storefront and theme, this either hides the preorder button or shows the product as sold out. See Shopify "Continue selling when out of stock" and Essential Preorder for how the two settings interact.
If a page in your app has mismatched settings across products, you'll see one of these banners:
| Banner | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Preorder button may not show for some products | Continue selling is off on products where it should be on |
| Some products allow overselling | Continue selling is on where it should be off |
| Preorder button may not show for some products, and some products allow overselling | Both issues are present on the page |
Use the Turn ON/OFF "Continue selling" accordingly button to fix mismatches in bulk, or Turn ON "Continue selling" / Turn OFF "Continue selling" to apply one direction to all flagged products. If nothing happens, check you haven't left products unpublished or unsaved. The app will prompt you to Save first, Publish first, or Add products first as needed.
Stock counting, sync timing and partial shipments
Only fulfilment-enabled locations count
The app totals available inventory only from locations that have fulfilment turned on for that product. A location holding stock with fulfilment switched off contributes nothing to the count, which can make it look like your limit triggered early. See Why is Preorder Button not Showing? Check Location Fulfillment Settings for how to check this.
Sync timing
Inventory updates in the app right after a purchase or a stock change in Shopify, usually within a minute. A full re-check of every campaign also runs a few times a day. If you've just adjusted stock manually in Shopify, use the Sync action on the campaign rather than waiting, and expect a short delay before the change is fully reflected.
Partial shipments
The limit reacts to your live Shopify stock level, not to a separate running total. If a partial shipment changes your available stock, the same threshold value still applies against the new stock figure. You don't need to recalculate the limit unless you actually want to change the total number of units you're willing to sell on preorder. If your count still looks wrong after a stock change, check the sync timing above before adjusting the limit itself.
The monthly plan limit is a separate cap
Your Shopify plan on the app has its own monthly preorder order limit, shown on the Pricing Plans page as a used-of-included preorder counter. This is unrelated to the stock-level limit above. It caps total preorder orders across your store for the billing period, not the quantity on one product.
Reaching your monthly preorder limit unpublishes your campaigns and turns Continue selling when out of stock off store-wide. You'll see a warning in the app as you approach the cap (at 20%, 50% and 70% of the limit), and again once it's reached. Upgrade your plan to republish campaigns and keep selling on preorder.
Large catalogues: campaign product limit
A single preorder campaign can only include a set number of products. If you manage a very large catalogue, you can't remove or raise this limit on one campaign. Split your catalogue into multiple campaigns, each assigned to a specific collection, so every product is still covered.
If you use smart (automated) Shopify collections, double-check the product list when adding products to a campaign. Unrelated products from other collections can appear pre-selected.
What this feature can't do
The stock-level limit controls how many units a campaign or product will sell in total. It is not a per-buyer rule. The table below covers the gaps merchants ask about most.
| What you want | Available in the app? | Nearest workaround |
|---|---|---|
| Limit preorders to 1 (or N) per customer/order | No | Use Shopify's own quantity rules, or a dedicated purchase-limit app |
| Set a minimum order quantity for a preorder | No | Use Shopify's native quantity rules on the product |
| Restrict preorder fulfilment to one Shopify location | No | Enable fulfilment only at the location you want counted: see location fulfilment settings |
| Restrict a campaign to a specific Shopify Market | No | None currently: the campaign applies across all markets the product is sold in |
| Combine multiple variants under one shared limit | No | Set and monitor each variant's limit individually |
Still stuck?
If your limit isn't behaving as expected after checking sync timing, location fulfilment and the variant-level fields above, contact support. Include the campaign name, the product or variant affected, and the exact value you entered in Stop selling when stock level drops to, so the team can check it against your live Shopify inventory.