If you’ve tried setting up preorder bundles on Shopify, you’ve likely already discovered that Shopify Bundles and its Selling Plans currently don't work together.

Shopify's Selling Plans is one of their core functionalities which allows merchants to offer advanced purchase options like pre-orders, subscriptions, try-before-you-buy, and product rentals. Since Bundles and Selling Plans currently don't work together, this means any pre-order apps, including ours (Early Bird), are unable to support bundles due to Shopify’s platform limitations.

At the time of writing this article, we've already passed merchants' feedback to Shopify HQ to address this. But for now, there is no native way to set up pre-orders for bundles.

In this article, we'll list out several potential workarounds for you to try out. You can also watch our video version of this article, if you prefer:

1. Create a New SKU for the Bundle

The first potential workaround is to combine products into a bundle and sell them as a single SKU. This way you're able to pre-sell the bundle as a preorder.

Steps for this workaround:

Create a New Product:

• In Shopify admin, go to Products > Add Product.
• Name it "Preorder Bundle: [Bundle Name]" and assign a unique SKU (e.g., PREORDER-BUNDLE-001).

Set Inventory:

• Set the quantity to 0 and enable "Continue selling when out of stock" to allow preorders. (This is actually a "back order", more info on this in the last workaround.)

Add Product Info:

• Set the total price for the bundle, optionally including a discount.
• Add the product images.
• Remember to mention this is a pre-sale/pre-order "bundle".

Publish the Product:

• Save and make the product available on all relevant sales channels.

Inventory for the Bundle

• Track the stock of individual items included in the bundle. When a bundle is sold, manually adjust inventory for the individual products.

Optional: Use a bundling app to automate your inventory updates.

2. Sell Individual Items as Preorders and Offer Discounts For Buying Them Together

If you prefer not to group the items into a single SKU, you could take the approach of selling each item individually as a preorder, but display them as a collection on your website.

Then offer customers discounts ONLY if they purchase the items together.

Steps for this workaround:

Set up your individual items for preorders with your preferred method:

• DIY - Mention it's a preorder in your product description.
• Use a theme that has built-in preorder functionalities.
• Hire a developer for custom code solution.
• Use an app like Early Bird with an out-of-the-box solution.

Create a Collection for the bundle:

• Go to Collections > Create Collection.
• Name it "Preorder Collection".

Add individual products to this collection

• Go to Products in your Shopify admin.
• Select the products you want to add to the collection.
• In the Collections section, select the "Preorder Collection".

Offer a Discount Code:

• Go to Discounts > Create a conditional discount.
• Make it only triggers if a customer adds all the required items in that collection to their cart.

3. Use Backorders Instead of Preorders

If advanced preorder functionalities like partial payments and pre-order sales reporting aren’t essential for your Shopify store, you can consider using Shopify's Back Order feature instead.

While they're meant to be for capturing orders when you're out of stock, Backorders don’t rely on Shopify's Selling Plans, making them compatible with your usual bundles pre-sales.

Steps for this workaround:

Create a new product for the bundle and set its inventory to 0:

• Enable "Continue selling when out of stock" in the product's settings
• Clearly state in the product description that it’s a backorder and include the estimated shipping date.

Note: Unfortunately this workaround is not suitable for Mix and Match bundles; your variants will not be displayed as out of stock due to the "Continue selling when out of stock" setting being enabled. This could lead to your customers thinking all variants in the bundle is currently in-stock.

Use Early Bird app to manage the back-orders for you:

Early Bird's back-order functionality is designed to workaround Shopify's Selling Plans limitations. We have a 100% free plan available with monthly usage refreshed, so you can try using it for your bundle pre-sales until you're ready to upgrade.

• Prominently display it's a back-order to your customers on the product page, in their cart, and at checkout.
• View your back-order revenue and list of back orders on a dedicated reporting dashboard.
• Allow your customers to place a back-order or sign up for a back-in-stock email alert simultaneously.

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Our technical co-founder Jay has created a step-by-step 5-minute YouTube video tutorial on setting up back-orders:

The 5-minute video covers:

• Installing Early Bird
• Activating the app embed
• Configuring back-order settings
• Customizing display settings
• Checking the storefront

If you prefer to read through the steps, you can refer to our Getting Started with Early Bird Help Article.

What about back orders for Mix & Match Bundles?

If you're accepting back-orders for Mix & Match bundles, please note you won't be able to indicate that certain products or variants are out of stock.

All products and variants in your Mix & Match bundles will appear as available (in-stock) when back-orders are activated - even if they’re actually out of stock. This is because Shopify requires the "Continue selling when out of stock" setting in each of your product and variant to be turned on.

This is a Shopify function, not something controlled by Early Bird.

To capture back-orders for Mix & Match Bundles, simply enable "Continue selling when out of stock" for all the variants in your bundle. This will allow customers to add items to their cart even if a variant’s inventory is at 0 or below.

Be sure to clearly communicate the expected fulfillment date in your product description, marketing communications, and order confirmation email to prevent customer complaints and order cancellations.

Final Thoughts

Preorder bundles on Shopify come with limitations, but these workarounds could serve as potential solutions. Whether you’re creating a new SKU, selling items individually, or using backorders, the right approach depends on how you'd like to run your store's operations.

Remember to set clear expectations on your website, your store policies, and marketing communications to provide a great preorder customer experience.

Got questions? Feel free to connect with us on LinkedIn or email us at support@shopside.com.au to see if we can help!