How to Take Pre-Orders as a Small Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Short answer: to take pre-orders, post the item with five facts. Give the price, the open and close dates, and the ready date. Then say how many you will make and how to pay. Take every order in one list and confirm each one in writing. Close the pre-order when you reach your limit or your end date. In the US, the date you promise must be one you have a reasonable basis to meet. If you give no date, the FTC expects you to ship within 30 days.

A pre-order lets customers order and pay before the item is ready. You make what has sold, not what you hope will sell. For a small business, that means less waste and money in hand before you buy supplies.

It works well for seasonal batches, limited drops and anything you make in rounds. Think of holiday candles, cookie boxes or a new print run. It works less well when you cannot say when the item will be ready. This guide shows the method step by step, with sample messages you can copy.

1. Decide if a pre-order fits

A pre-order is a promise with a date on it. Before you open one, check three things.

• You can name a date. You know when your supplies arrive and how long the work takes. If a supplier has not confirmed, wait until they do.
• You can count your capacity. You know roughly how many items you can make each week. Without this number you cannot set a limit.
• The item is the same for everyone, or nearly. A batch of one candle scent is a good pre-order. Fully custom work, where every order is different, is better handled one order at a time. Our made-to-order business guide covers that.

A pre-order is different from a backorder. A pre-order is for an item that is not made yet. A backorder is for an item you sold before that has run out and will come back. Both need a date, and the steps below work for both.

2. Write down the five facts

Every pre-order post needs the same five facts. If one is missing, customers will ask in messages, and you will answer the same question many times.

1. The item and the price. Include any options, such as scent or size, and the price of each.
2. The order window. The day the pre-order opens and the day it closes.
3. The ready date. The day you will ship, or the first day of pickup. Give one date, not “early December”.
4. The limit. How many you will make in total. Say it plainly, so “only 60” is true and not a sales trick.
5. The payment terms. Full payment now, or a deposit now and the rest later. Say when and how they pay.

Here is an illustrative example for a candle maker. It is not a real seller’s post.

Pin the post while the pre-order is open. When it closes, edit it to say so. Then nobody orders after you have stopped. For platform tips, see how to take orders on Instagram and on Facebook.

3. Choose how customers pay

There are three common ways to take payment for a pre-order. Each one moves the risk to a different person.

Full payment is the simplest. One payment, one record, and no balance to chase. It suits a $28 candle or a $40 cookie box.

A deposit suits larger orders. It shows the customer is serious and pays for your materials. There is no fixed rule for the size. In WISMO orders that started with a deposit, the median deposit was half the price.

Median 50%

That median hides a wide spread. Sellers’ own medians ran from 8% to 97%. For help choosing yours, see how much deposit to take for a custom order.

If you sell through a website, check whether it supports pre-orders. Square Online has a “Sell as preorder” setting on its Plus and Premium plans. You can set a pickup or delivery date from 24 hours to 365 days ahead. Shopify’s own guide says pre-orders on Shopify run through an app from its App Store, and the app sets the payment terms. If you take orders in messages, you do not need either. A payment link, a bank transfer or cash at pickup works, as long as you record each payment.

4. Set a date you can keep

Work back from the ready date. Count the days you need to make the whole batch, not one item. Then add a few spare days for late supplies or a sick day. If the pre-order is for the holidays, start from the carrier’s last shipping day. Our guide to holiday order cut-off dates shows how.

In the US, the date is also a legal promise. The FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule covers most goods ordered online, by phone or by mail. The FTC’s business guide says:

• You must have a reasonable basis for any shipping time you state.
• If you state no time, you must have a reasonable basis to ship within 30 days.
• The time starts when you receive a complete order, which means the payment (full or partial) and all the details you need.
• If you cannot ship on time, you must tell the customer, give a new date, and offer the choice to cancel for a full, prompt refund. Store credit does not count as a refund.

Say a pre-order opens on November 2 and ships on December 5. That is fine if you state December 5 and have a real reason to expect it. A pre-order with no date, paid on November 2, is expected to ship by about December 2. The guide also says the rule does not cover services, or orders paid cash on delivery. If you are not sure whether it covers your orders, ask a lawyer. This guide is not legal advice.

The FTC guide also covers selling an item before you are sure it will exist. It calls this “dry-testing”. It is allowed only in narrow cases. You must not suggest that it will ship, and you must say it is only planned. Customers must also be able to cancel if it does not ship in a reasonable time. If you are only testing interest, ask customers to join a list instead of taking money.

In the UK, section 28 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says goods must arrive without undue delay. If you agreed no date, that means within 30 days of the contract. If you agree a date, keep it.

5. Count every order against your limit

The limit is the part that most often goes wrong. Orders arrive in messages, comments, a form and in person. If they live in four places, you cannot see when you reach 60.

Keep every pre-order in one list, with one row per order. Each row needs the customer’s name and contact, the item and options, the quantity, the amount paid, and pickup or shipping. Give each order a number. A number is quicker to find than a name on a busy pickup day.

Check the total after every new order. When you reach your limit, close the pre-order at once, even if the end date has not come. Then reply to late messages with a short, kind no.

A small bakery on Square’s seller forum described what happens without a limit. On holiday pickup days, it normally allows only a set holiday menu. When it opened the full menu on those days, orders more than doubled, from about 150 to over 300. The team worried that orders would be missed. A limit protects your customers as much as it protects you.

6. Confirm each order in writing

When a customer orders, send a short confirmation. It turns a chat into a clear agreement, and it gives you both something to look back at. Include the order number, the item, the amount paid, any balance, and the date.

If the customer paid a deposit, say the balance and when it is due. For a template with the deposit and the balance laid out, see the custom order invoice guide.

7. Keep customers updated until the date

A pre-order customer waits longer than usual, so they check in more. “Is it ready yet?” arrives most often in the last week. One update at each step answers that before they ask.

Send an update when the pre-order closes, when you start the batch, and when the items ship or are ready for pickup. Across 262 WISMO orders whose tracking page was opened at least once, customers opened it a median of 5 times. That is five questions they did not need to send as a message.

Median 5 opens

8. If the date slips

Sometimes supplies arrive late or a batch fails. Tell every customer as soon as you know, before the date you promised. Say sorry, give the reason in one sentence, and give a new date you are sure you can keep. Then offer a choice: wait for the new date, or cancel for a full refund.

In the US, the FTC rule says when a customer’s silence can count as agreeing to a delay. If the new date is 30 days or less after the old one, your notice can say that no reply means they agree. If the delay is longer, or you cannot give a date, silence does not count. Read the full method in what to tell a customer when an order is late.

How WISMO helps with pre-orders

You can run a pre-order with a notebook and a spreadsheet. WISMO is one way to keep it on your phone.

Each pre-order becomes an order in WISMO with its due date, items, price and payments. Record a deposit when it arrives, so you can see who still owes a balance before pickup. The calendar shows every order on its due date. The item filter shows every order for one catalogue item, which helps you count against your limit.

Each order has a tracking link. Your customer opens it in any browser and sees which step their order is at. You can also publish a free store page. Customers see your items, with a price or “Price on request”, and send you an enquiry. You accept it into an order. If you track stock on an item, the store page shows “Sold out” when it reaches zero.

WISMO does not take payments and has no checkout. Customers pay you the way they already do. Your first 30 orders are free. WISMO Pro is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and adds unlimited orders, photo updates and customer emails. You can try Pro free for 7 days.