A win-win approach to continue selling when out of stock

Being out-of-stock sucks! And, while you can easily continue selling, offering items that will not be immediately shipped may lead to unsatisfied customers, bad reviews, dreadful chargebacks, and a huge fulfillment headache.

Mercantile preorder (formerly BackStock) solves that problem by providing an organized and manageable way to continue selling and later ship items that are out of stock while communicating the delayed status of each item on the Product detail, Add-to-cart and Checkout pages.

How Mercantile preorder works

1. Of your current inventory, you would activate specific items by inputting a "ships on" label to announce when the item is estimated to ship if out of stock, and a stop at limit for reserved quantities.
2. Then, once the item sells out (or if more quantity is requested then in stock), we will automatically show the Preorder button and label on the product, add-to-cart and checkout pages.
3. Once preorders are placed, you may opt-into holding a separate fulfillment or splitting into separate orders, any out-of-stock quantities of your activated items!
4. Then, when an item reaches its limit, or you deactivate, it will no longer continue selling and the preorder/backorder button will be removed.
5. Lastly, once you restock an item, we will automatically release any holds and remove the Preorder/backorder button until the item goes out of stock again.

You may deactivate and/or reactivate any item at any time, as well as view and export a real-time itemized report on current and released backorders.