WooCommerce guide

WooCommerce Backorders vs Pre-Orders: Which Should You Use?

Published 27 October 2026 · By the PreOrder Pilot team at PLANO

When a product is out of stock, or not released yet, WooCommerce gives you two ways to keep selling it: backorders, which are built into WooCommerce, and pre-orders, which need a plugin. They look similar from the checkout, but they tell the customer different things and land in your order list in different ways. This guide explains how each works, how to set up backorders without any plugin, where backorders cause problems, and when it is worth switching to pre-orders.

The short answer

If you only need to keep a normally stocked item purchasable for a few days, backorders are often enough. If you are selling something that is not available yet and customers need to know when it will ship, a pre-order setup is clearer for them and safer for your fulfilment.

How WooCommerce backorders work

A backorder is an order for a product you do not have in stock right now. WooCommerce lets the customer buy it anyway and expects you to ship once stock arrives. There is no separate backorder process: the order is paid and treated like any other order.

Setting up backorders on a product

1. Open the product and go to Product data → Inventory.
2. If you track stock for the product, enable stock management, enter the quantity and find Allow backorders?. Choose one of three options:
   • Do not allow: the product becomes out of stock at zero (the default).
   • Allow, but notify customer: customers can still buy and see an “Available on backorder” notice.
   • Allow: customers can buy without any notice.
3. If you do not track stock, set the Stock status to On backorder instead.
4. Update the product and check it on the storefront in a private window.

For variable products, the same settings are available on each variation, so you can allow backorders for one size and not another. Store-wide inventory settings, such as stock notifications and the email address that receives them, are under WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory. When a backordered item is ordered, WooCommerce notes the backordered quantity on the order item and sends a backorder notification to that address.

What happens to stock

With stock management on, every backorder lowers the quantity below zero. If you have 0 units and sell 3 on backorder, the product shows −3. When the delivery of 10 units arrives, you add them and end up with 7 available. This is useful bookkeeping, but it also means your stock number is no longer a count of what is on the shelf.

Where backorders fall short

Backorders were designed for a short gap in normal stock. They become awkward when you use them to sell something that has not launched yet:

• No expected date. The customer only sees “Available on backorder”. Many stores add the date to the product description by hand and then forget to update it.
• The order looks ready to ship. Paid backorders normally go straight to Processing, the same status as orders you can ship today. On a busy day, it is easy to pack the in-stock items in that order and miss that one line is not available, or to mark the whole order completed too early.
• The message is easy to miss. The default wording is short and only shown if you chose “Allow, but notify customer”. Customers who do not notice it expect normal delivery times, and that leads to support emails and cancellations.
• No release step. When the stock arrives there is no single action that finds every order waiting for that product. You search your orders or rely on the order item notes.
• Mixed carts. One order can contain items you can ship today and a backordered item. You decide case by case whether to wait or ship in two parcels, and the customer may not know which will happen.

Manual workarounds if you stay with backorders

If a plugin is not an option, these steps make backorders clearer:

• Use Allow, but notify customer, never silent backorders, for items with a long wait.
• Add the expected shipping week near the price and in the short description, and set yourself a reminder to update it.
• Put “Backorder” or “Pre-order” in the product name during the waiting period, so it appears on the order and the packing slip.
• Before you pack Processing orders, check the order item notes for backordered quantities.
• When stock arrives, filter or search orders for that product and email those customers with the shipping date.

What a pre-order adds

A pre-order is a sale of a product that is not available yet, with a clear promise about when it will be. In WooCommerce this needs a plugin, because WooCommerce itself only offers backorders. A good pre-order setup solves the gaps above: it shows a pre-order button and message instead of the normal “Add to cart”, shows an expected availability date, keeps paid pre-orders in their own place in the order list, and gives you one step to release them for fulfilment.

Setting up pre-orders with PreOrder Pilot (free)

PreOrder Pilot is our free WooCommerce pre-order plugin on WordPress.org. The free plugin has no product, order or time limit, needs no account or license key, and makes no remote requests. It works with simple products:

1. Install and activate PreOrder Pilot alongside WooCommerce.
2. Open PreOrder Pilot, choose Add preorder and select a simple product (or open the product and use its PreOrder Pilot section).
3. Enable pre-orders, add an optional expected availability date and choose the button wording. Save.
4. Place a test order on a staging site or with a test payment method.

What changes compared with backorders:

• The pre-order label and availability message follow the customer from the product page to the cart, checkout, order and emails.
• Customers pay in full through your normal WooCommerce gateways and receive a “Pre-order confirmation” email, which you can edit under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails.
• Paid pre-orders get a dedicated Pre-ordered order status (HPOS and legacy order storage), so they are not mixed with orders you can ship now.
• While a product is on pre-order it stays purchasable, and pre-order lines do not reduce your stock count, so the number in your inventory still matches what is on the shelf.
• When the stock arrives, mark the product released and its pre-ordered orders move to Processing for fulfilment. The dashboard also has bulk enable, pause, set-date and mark-released actions.

It supports both the Classic and the Cart/Checkout Blocks checkout and includes translations for nine languages besides English. As with any checkout change, test with your own theme and payment gateway on staging before going live.

When backorders are still the better choice

Pre-orders are not always the right tool. Stay with backorders if:

• the product is normally in stock and the gap is a few days;
• you restock from a supplier on a regular schedule and customers do not need a specific date;
• you want the order to go straight to Processing and ship with everything else as soon as stock lands.

Many stores use both: backorders for everyday items that run out, and pre-orders for launches and long waits.

When you need more than the free plugin

The free PreOrder Pilot plugin covers simple products and full payment at checkout. The separate paid PreOrder Pilot Growth add-on is for stores that need:

• pre-orders on variable products, with per-variation settings;
• deposits (fixed or percentage) and pay-later orders, with balance payment links and reminders;
• automatic pre-orders when a product goes out of stock, and automatic release on restock, which is the closest replacement for backorders;
• mixed-cart rules that allow, block or split pre-order items into their own order;
• pre-order rules by category, quantity limits, and extra emails such as release date changed and product released;
• “email me when available” alerts and CSV export of pre-orders and subscribers.

All paid licenses include the same Growth features: Starter is €5.99/month and Growth €11.99/month for one production site, and Agency is €29.99/month for ten sites, with yearly billing also available. Each starts with a 14-day free trial for eligible customers (a card is required). See current Growth pricing and the PreOrder Pilot for WooCommerce page for details.

Get PreOrder Pilot free on WordPress.org ↗

Related

• PreOrder Pilot for WooCommerce
• PreOrder Pilot for Wix Stores
• All PreOrder Pilot guides