The thing everyone wants is the thing you're out of. The page reads "sold out," the shopper leaves, and 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, and closing the campaign puts every inventory setting back the way it was. Take the full amount, or a deposit with the balance later.
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, deposit and all, 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: no email, no reservation, no count of how many wanted it. You paid for the click and 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, exactly when "sold out" slams the door on your most ready buyer.
Sledge keeps the product available for pre-order while it is out of stock: the shopper sees a pre-order button, reserves the item, and you bank the order while stock is on its way, so demand 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, 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: a partial payment from 1% to 99% via Shopify selling plans, with the balance due on a date you set, so you lower the bar and 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, take reservations for a month, and by the time stock lands you are reconstructing from memory which ones you touched.
Sledge remembers for you. It records every variant whose inventory policy it changed, so closing the campaign restores exactly those and nothing else. A thirty-variant drop comes back in one action, and 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, so put it on the calendar next to the ship date and the whole drop resets in one go. The button text and pre-order note are yours to customize, so 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. So the demand scatters, and 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. When the launch is a set, the tee, the cap, the tote in one box, Sledge pre-sells the whole multi-product bundle as one set and takes a deposit on it. No split SKUs, no flipping "continue selling" on each child: the box stays buyable through its own engine while the drop is in production. You collect launch demand at peak hype instead of letting it leak away.
Questions, answered
How do I take a deposit instead of full payment on Shopify pre-orders?
Use Sledge. Sledge takes a deposit or partial payment from 1% to 99% via Shopify selling plans, with the balance due on a date you set. This depends on your payment gateway and country, since 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?
Yes. Sledge keeps a product 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?
Yes. Sledge tracks every variant whose inventory policy it changed, so closing the campaign restores exactly 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?
Yes. The pre-order button text and the note are customizable, 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 and takes a deposit on it 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?
Yes. One 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, take a deposit where your gateway supports it, and bank the demand while the stock is on its way.
14-day free trial · No code · Works with any theme · Uninstalls clean