Do you know the best way to start your business and not even invest a lot of money? Pre-orders! By enabling WooCommerce pre-order on your eCommerce store, you can take orders for products that are not even manufactured yet or available on your site. Through pre-order, you can book sales for products that have an estimated arrival time, could be weeks or months, and sell those in your store. This helps in ensuring a certain level of sales and revenue that will be generated and also helps in identifying customer demands.
In this article, we will cover the best WooCommerce pre-order plugins and also list some other advantages of enabling pre-orders on your site.
Best WooCommerce Pre Order Plugins
- WooCommerce Pre Orders Plugin
- WooCommerce PrePurchase
- WordPress WooCommerce Pre Order Plugin by WebKul
- Yith Pre-Order for WooCommerce
- WooCommerce Advanced Order Status
- WooCommerce Order Approval
- Pre-Orders for WooCommerce
- WooCommerce Pre-Order Sales, Bulk Discount & Time Counter
1. WooCommerce Pre Orders
WooCommerce Pre Orders plugin enables you to sell products before they are released and manually or automatically fill in the orders with the help of this plugin. It is very easy to manage pre-orders and you can charge customers in two ways, upfront or when released.
In the upfront method, the customer pays for the complete order during booking. Whereas, in the “upon release” option, payment is automatically deducted with the help of a supported payment gateway, or a customer is notified to return to the shop to complete the purchase.
Key Features
- You can set a release date or time for the pre-ordered product.
- Supports both simple and variable products.
- You can customize the add-to-cart button with customizable CSS.
- Send an email or notification to customers once the product is released.
- You can show a product message and countdown timer with the help of shortcodes.
- With supported payment gateways, you can automatically charge for products upon release.
To download, click here.
2. WooCommerce PrePurchase
This is another WooCommerce pre-order plugin that enables you to set up items as prepurchase-able on your store and take bookings from customers before it’s released to set a certain sales and revenue limit.
It is also easy to use and set up and provides you multiple options on how to display the product. It allows two types of payment methods; the upfront method requires the customer to make the full payment before its release, whereas the availability date payment gives the customer the option to make the payment later.
Key Features
- You can set the availability date and countdown timer.
- You can also customize the button text.
- Customers are sent an email when the product is released if they pick the “charge me later” option.
- Customers are also sent emails if there is an update in the product release date or price.
- Email template is also customizable.
To download, click here.
Offers deals, discounts, and sales. Use WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing Plugins for that.
3. WordPress WooCommerce Pre Order Plugin by WebKul
With the WordPress WooCommerce Pre Order plugin, you can take orders for products that are not yet released or out of stock. It supports multiple product types and is extremely easy to use. You can also display the pre-order and availability status and notify customers when the products have arrived at your store.
Moreover, customers have the option to either pay the full or partial amount for the pre-ordered product.
Key Features
- Customers can also order out-of-stock products.
- Customers can make full or partial payments.
- Admins can display the availability date and order status.
- Along with pre-order products, customers can add in other products.
- Registered customers are notified by email when the product is available.
- Supports simple, variable, grouped, virtual, and downloadable products.
To download, click here.
4. Yith Pre-Order for WooCommerce
Yith Pre-Order triggers the scarcity marketing technique and offers customers pre-order products that are extremely popular or in demand. This is also an effective technique to retain customers and prevent them from looking for another seller.
This plugin is jam-packed with amazing features such as displaying pre-orders overview, setting discounted or increased prices for pre-orders, etc.
Key Features
- Admins can set a pre-order date and price.
- You can customize the pre-order button text and add an expiration date.
- Supports simple and variable products.
- You can set a schedule for accepting pre-order product bookings.
- The automatic email system is for notifying customers about updates or arrival.
- Can combine pre-order and normal products in the cart.
To download, click here.
Allow your customers to modify their products using Product Add-Ons for WooCommerce.
5. WooCommerce Advanced Order Status
With this plugin, you cannot enable pre-orders, but you can define the status of each order to see its progress. This helps in dividing the orders based on their status and also improves workflow. The most commonly used order statuses are completed, on-hold, pending payment, failed payment, processing, canceled, etc.
Moreover, you can also custom create new order status and add action buttons and icons on your order page.
Key Features
- An interactive user interface that is easy to use.
- Enables you to create and edit new order statuses.
- You can set the time when the new order status will be displayed.
- Adds action buttons and icons on the order page.
- You can create a workflow of “next statuses” columns on the backend for easy processing.
- Sends customers emails when the order status changes.
To download, click here.
6. WooCommerce Order Approval
This plugin gives you the ability to approve or reject orders placed by customers. Customers can either pay for the order upfront and wait for approval or they can place the order first, wait for approval, and then make the payment. This feature is great for products that can run out of stock and thus requires time before approval.
You can also approve payments, shipping methods, products, etc.
Key Features
- Add three new statuses: waiting for approval, approved, and rejected.
- Displays a timeline showing the approval status update.
- Get approvals regarding orders, products, payment and shipping method, categories, etc.
- Customers are sent an email when the order status is approved or rejected.
- You can automatically cancel an order if payment is not made at a specified time.
To download, click here.
Related: Best WooCommerce Make An Offer Plugins For Your Store
7. Pre-Orders for WooCommerce
This is a feature-filled WooCommerce pre-order plugin that enables you to display not-yet-released products on your site in an attractive way and gain sales and increased revenue.
This plugin has 4 pre-order modes. The first one treats the whole order as a pre-order and ships them all out at once. The second mode separates orders for in-stock and pre-ordered products and sends them out at their respective mentioned time, whereas the third mode generates separate orders for each preorder product and the last mode allows only pre-orders.
Key Features
- You can set and change the release dates.
- Admins can charge payment when the products are released.
- Supports both simple and variable products,
- You can enable/disable customers to add in-stock products along with pre-order in the cart.
- Email notifications are sent to customers when the product is available.
- Email notifications are sent to admins when the product pre-order deadline is nearing.
- You can customize the “add to cart” button text.
To download, click here.
8. WooCommerce Pre-Order Sales, Bulk Discount & Time Counter
With this WooCommerce pre-order plugin, you can sell products and services for pre-orders and retain customers. Like others, this plugin also provides two methods of payment; upfront and upon release. Moreover, you can set a time and date and also offer discounts on pre-orders.
You can also customize the button on the shop page and set a maximum/minimum limit on pre-orders.
Key Features
- Supports simple and variable products.
- You can create a list of pre-order products and show them to your customers.
- Admins are sent an email notification for pre-order inquiries.
- You can set discounts, both fixed and percentage format, on pre-order products.
- A Pre-order button can be added for out-of-stock items.
To download, click here.
Related: Best WooCommerce Upsell Plugins + Best Upselling Techniques
Benefits of Enabling WooCommerce Pre-Orders
1. Accurate Sales
One of the major advantages of enabling WooCommerce pre-order products on your store is the assurity of the number of sales. As opposed to launching a new product and worrying about its success, with pre-order, the demand and popularity are already on top, so it’s a guaranteed success and even if it isn’t, you won’t have the problem of overstocking.
2. Customer Demand
WooCommerce pre-orders are also great for getting to know your audience and what are their interests. This technique is employed by multiple big brands where they carry out surveys and queries to know the customer demand. Third-party sellers can also use the opportunity to stock similar products in their stores in the future.
3. Better Promotion
Pre-order products are easier to promote. Since the hype is already created, there isn’t much you have to do yourself. Thus, some high-quality images and videos, detailed product descriptions, and a countdown timer to create urgency results in the perfect promotion and increased sales.
Final Words
As you can see, enabling WooCommerce pre-order plugins can be great for your business and revenue. It helps you generate accurate sales and you have a higher chance of customer retention. Knowing that it is also important to fulfill the pre-order at the mentioned time or it could lead to lost sales and customers for the future.
