The thing everyone wants is the thing you're out of. Your page reads "sold out," and the shopper leaves. The demand you paid ads to create is gone, with no record it was there.
Sell tomorrow, today.
Sledge sells a product before it arrives, whether that's one item, a whole drop, or a curated bundle as one set. The page keeps selling while you're out of stock. The shopper reserves now. Closing the campaign puts back exactly the variants Sledge changed. Take the full amount, or a deposit with the balance later, where your gateway allows.
14-day free trial · Uses Shopify selling plans · Works with any theme · Uninstalls clean
// Three ways to pre-order
One product, a whole drop, or a bundle as one set.
- A single product. Keep one item selling while it's out of stock or not yet shipped. The shopper reserves, you bank the order, and closing the campaign restores the setting.
- A whole drop in one campaign. Add every product in the launch to the same campaign so they share dates and terms. Pick them all in one pass from the product picker; collections can't be targeted directly.
- A bundle as one set. Pre-sell a curated box as a single reservation while one item is still in production.
// The demand that walked
"Sold out" is a closed door with no record of who knocked.
A shopper lands on the product they came for, sees "sold out," and leaves. Nothing is logged. There is no email, no reservation, no count of how many wanted it. You paid for the click. You can't say how much you lost. The restock lands weeks later, to an audience that moved on.
A drop is hottest before it ships and right after it sells through. That is exactly when "sold out" turns your most ready buyer away.
Sledge keeps the product available for pre-order while it is out of stock. The shopper sees a pre-order button and reserves the item. You bank the order while stock is on its way. Demand then converts into reservations instead of a dead "sold out" page.
See Back in Stock
// The full-price wall
A reservation six weeks out, and you ask for the whole price now.
Native pre-order captures the full amount at checkout. For a $25 item, that's fine. For a $140 product that ships in six weeks, you're asking someone to part with the whole sum today for something they won't hold for a month. They hesitate, then close the tab.
Sledge takes a deposit on a pre-order instead. You name a fixed amount in your own currency. The balance comes due on a date you set. You ask for less up front, so more shoppers say yes before the product exists. Deposits run on Shopify Payments and PayPal where they support partial capture, not every gateway or country. Where they don't, take full payment up front.
// Closing it is one action
"If I switch a product to pre-order, will I forget to switch it back?"
It's a fair thing to ask. The manual version is a sticky note. You flip "continue selling when out of stock" on a handful of products and take reservations for a month. By the time stock lands, you are reconstructing from memory which ones you touched.
Sledge records every variant whose inventory policy it changed. You close the campaign and Sledge restores exactly those and nothing else. You get a thirty-variant drop back in one action. The variants that were already set that way before you started stay untouched.
Closing the campaign is the moment the store goes back to normal. Put it on the calendar next to the ship date. Close it and the whole drop resets in one go. You write the button text and the pre-order note. The shopper knows it's a reservation and when it ships.
// Pre-sell a whole set
Your launch day is the one day your store has nothing to sell.
The hype for a drop peaks before it ships, exactly when the product isn't made yet. The demand has nowhere to go. You chase it all launch week instead of banking it. You have the audience and no clean way to take their money.
Pre-order turns that lost window into a selling one. Your launch might be a whole set, with the tee, the cap, and the tote in one box. Sledge pre-sells that whole multi-product bundle as one set through its own engine, so you skip split SKUs and the per-child "continue selling" toggles. The box stays buyable while the drop is in production. You can take a deposit on it where your gateway supports one. You collect launch demand at peak hype instead of losing it.
Questions, answered
How do I take a deposit instead of full payment on Shopify pre-orders?
Use Sledge. Sledge takes a fixed deposit you name in your own currency, taken through Shopify selling plans, with the balance due on a date you set. This depends on your payment gateway and country. Partial capture runs on Shopify Payments and PayPal where they support it, and that is not available everywhere.
Can I keep selling a product while it's out of stock?
With Sledge, yes. The product stays available for pre-order while it is out of stock, so shoppers reserve it instead of hitting a sold-out page. When the drop is done, you close the campaign and Sledge restores the inventory policy.
Will it switch the inventory setting back when I'm done?
It will, and only for what it changed. Sledge tracks every variant whose inventory policy it touched, so closing the campaign restores those and leaves everything else alone. Close it when the drop ships and the store is back to normal in one action.
Can I customize the pre-order button and note?
The pre-order button text and the note are yours to write in Sledge, so shoppers know the item is a reservation and when it ships.
Can I pre-sell a bundle?
Yes. Sledge pre-sells a multi-product bundle as one set through its own engine, so you skip split SKUs and per-child "continue selling" toggles. The set stays buyable while its items are open for pre-order.
Can I open pre-order on more than one product at once?
One Sledge campaign can hold many products, so a whole drop runs on the same dates and terms. You pick the products in bulk from the product picker; what you can't do is point the campaign at a collection.
Why does my Shopify bundle show sold out when one item is on pre-order?
A native Shopify bundle reads its stock as the lowest stock among its items, so one pre-order child marks the whole box sold out. Sledge pre-sells the set as one item through its own engine, so the box keeps selling while the pre-order runs.
Is pre-order an extra charge?
No. Pre-order is included in the Sledge plan. Development stores are free, and every plan has a 14-day free trial.
Don't let "sold out" turn buyers away.
Install free. Open your next product for pre-order, and take a deposit where your gateway supports it. Bank the demand while the stock is on its way.
14-day free trial · No code · Works with any theme · Uninstalls clean