Fulfil preorders: on hold, scheduled, tags and releasing orders (Essential Preorder app)
This article explains how preorder orders get their fulfilment status, how to release an order that's on hold so you can ship it, and what the order and customer tags do. It's for shop owners who take preorder payments and need to fulfil those orders correctly.
If you need to set up deposits or charge a remaining balance, see Managing Preorder Partial Payments instead. This article covers fulfilment, not payment collection.
Release a preorder order that's on hold
You can also release holds automatically with the Release preorder fulfilment hold action in Shopify Flow, for example on a date or when stock arrives. See Shopify Flow triggers and actions.
This is the most common question, so the fix comes first.
- Go to Orders in your Shopify admin and open the order.
- Find the fulfilment section showing On hold.
- Click Release hold (Shopify's own button on the order page).
- Shopify may show a warning about breaching an app's fulfilment agreement before letting you continue. This warning comes from Shopify, not from Essential Preorder, and it's safe to continue.
- Once released, fulfil the order as normal: print a label or click Mark as fulfilled.
Shopify only lets you release a fulfilment hold one order at a time, from the order page. There's no bulk release option, and this is a Shopify limit that the app can't override. If you have several orders to release, work through them one by one from the Orders list.
Choose how preorder orders are fulfilled
In your preorder campaign, the setting Set fulfilment status for orders with preorder items controls what happens to an order the moment a customer buys a preorder product. It has three types:
| Type | What it does | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| On hold | Order is held. You release it manually when you're ready to ship. | Only works with Shopify Payments |
| Unfulfilled | Order sits as a normal unfulfilled order. No hold is applied. | None |
| Scheduled | Order is held, then automatically changes to unfulfilled after a set number of days. Set this under Due on and days after checkout. | Only works with Shopify Payments |
Both On hold and Scheduled only work correctly if your store uses Shopify Payments as the payment provider. If you use a different payment gateway, use Unfulfilled and manage timing manually.
This setting applies to the whole order containing the preorder item, not just that line item on its own. The app can't hold only the preorder line while the rest of the same order is fulfilled separately.
Orders with both preorder and in-stock items
When a customer checks out with a preorder item and a regular in-stock item together, Shopify keeps this as a single order. The app can't split that order into separate fulfilments: one for the in-stock item and one for the preorder item. The whole order takes on the fulfilment status set for preorder orders (On hold, Unfulfilled or Scheduled).
If you sometimes see an order show as Unfulfilled and then flip to On hold partway through, that's Shopify's own two-stage handling of orders with multiple items, not a fault in the app.
If you need to ship the in-stock item straight away, release the hold and fulfil the shippable item, then come back for the preorder item once stock arrives.
Order tags and customer tags
The app applies two sets of tags automatically, no setup needed beyond checking the option is on:
- Order tags: for orders containing preorder items.
- Customer tags: for customers who placed preorders.
Use these to filter your Orders list or customer segments in Shopify admin. They're internal. Customers never see these tags on their order confirmation or account. Orders from other sales channels (POS, Shop app, Inbox, Facebook & Instagram and so on) only get the tags if that channel is ticked under Accept preorders in channels on the campaign, Starter plan and up. See Accept preorders from POS, Shop app and other sales channels.
Two things the app doesn't do with tags:
- It doesn't tag customers for back-in-stock sign-ups, only for preorders placed.
- It doesn't use customer tags to restrict or exclude who can see a preorder product. Eligibility isn't controlled by tags.
Preorder note: telling customers what to expect
The Preorder note setting is visible in cart, checkout, and transactional emails. Set a Note text and a Note key to show customers a message about the expected ship date or preorder terms, so they see it before and after they check out. This doesn't change fulfilment behaviour. It's purely for communication.
Collecting the remaining balance on partial payments
If your campaign uses Partial payment, the deposit is taken at checkout and the remaining balance is collected manually from the Preorders page. For the full walkthrough, see Managing Preorder Partial Payments.
Don't use bulk 'Capture payments' in Shopify order list. This option does not collect payments. It marks orders as paid and removes the customer data needed to collect the remaining balance later.
Customers can cancel anytime before fulfilment, so don't rely on the order being paid in full until you've collected the balance yourself.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause / fix |
|---|---|
| Fulfilment status setting appears greyed out | The campaign has Use Shopify selling plan (purchase option) turned off under Advanced settings. Scheduled and On hold need a selling plan. Turn it back on, or see Turn Off Selling Plans for what you lose either way. |
| On hold or Scheduled doesn't hold the order | Check that Shopify Payments is your active payment provider, both options require it. |
| Need to release many orders at once | Not possible. Shopify only allows releasing holds one order at a time from the order page. |
| New stock arrived but older preorder orders are still on hold | The app doesn't auto-release existing orders when inventory updates. Release each one manually. |
| Preorder shipped from the wrong location | The app aggregates stock across locations and doesn't route fulfilment to a specific one. It relies on Shopify's default location priority. See Why is Preorder Button not Showing? Check Location Fulfillment Settings for related location issues. |
| Order placed through the Shop app, POS or another sales channel isn't tagged or held | Open the campaign, go to the Content tab and tick the channel under Accept preorders in channels (Starter plan and up). Without the tick, orders from that channel are ignored. The app never changes the button or shows preorder messaging inside other channels. See Accept preorders from POS, Shop app and other sales channels. |
Still stuck?
If a hold won't release, tags aren't applying, or the fulfilment status setting looks wrong for your campaign, contact support with the order number and campaign name so they can check it directly.