A customer adds three things to their cart. Two are on your shelf. The third is on backorder and won't arrive for three weeks. Shopify will happily take the order, but out of the box it won't tell the customer which item is late, and it won't split the order for you. That gap is where the "where's my order?" emails come from.
Shopify has no separate backorder feature. A backorder is simply a product you let people buy at zero stock. Everything else, the message on the product page, the note in the cart and shipping in two parts, you set up yourself. It takes about an hour, and most of it uses tools already in your admin.
The short version
- Turn on Continue selling when out of stock for the variants you're willing to backorder, and only those.
- Replace your theme's stock message on those products with a real ship time. Most themes say "In stock" for a backordered item.
- Repeat the ship time in the cart and in the order confirmation.
- When the order arrives, fulfill the in-stock items now and put the backordered item on hold.
- When stock arrives, release the hold and ship it. Each shipment sends its own tracking email.
How backorders work in Shopify
Every product or variant that tracks inventory has a Continue selling when out of stock checkbox in its Inventory section. With it on, Shopify keeps accepting orders when the available quantity hits zero, and the count goes below zero. There's no "backordered" order status and no automatic customer message. The order looks like any other unfulfilled order.
Two consequences are easy to miss. The setting is per variant, so turning it on for one color doesn't turn it on for the rest. And it has no ceiling: once it's on, Shopify will take as many orders as people place, so decide how many you can actually supply before you switch it on.
Step 1: Turn on backorders for the right variants
- In your Shopify admin, open Products and click the product.
- If it has variants, click the variant you want to backorder.
- In the Inventory section, make sure Inventory tracked is on. The backorder option only appears for tracked inventory.
- Check Continue selling when out of stock and click Save.
Turn it back off when a product is discontinued or your supplier can't give you a date. A backorder with no end date is a refund waiting to happen.
Step 2: Show a backorder message on the product page
This is the step most stores skip, and the one that matters most. Shopify's own free themes show an inventory status on the product page, and for a variant at zero stock that's still for sale, both Dawn and Horizon print In stock. We checked the theme code: it's the same text an item on your shelf gets. The customer has no reason to expect a delay.
There are two ways to fix it without an app:
-
Reword the message (Dawn and similar themes). Dawn keeps a separate piece of text for "out of stock but still selling". Go to Online Store → Themes, click ⋯ next to your theme, choose Edit default theme content, search for
In stock, and change the out-of-stock-continue-selling entry to something like "Available to order. Ships in 2–3 weeks." It applies to every backordered item, so keep it general. - Add a per-product ship time (any theme with JSON templates, including Horizon). Horizon uses the same "In stock" text for both cases, so you can't reword just one. Instead, create a product metafield such as Ships in under Settings → Custom data, fill it in on each backordered product, then add a text block to the product template and connect it to that metafield with the dynamic source button. Hide the inventory block on products you backorder, or on the whole template if you prefer.
Write the message as a date range, not a promise: "Ships in 2–3 weeks" or "Ships from mid-November". If the date slips, update the metafield the same day.
If you'd rather show a live stock count or a stronger low-stock message, see when Dawn's built-in low-stock block isn't enough.
Step 3: Repeat it in the cart and at checkout
People add things to their cart days before they buy. By then they've forgotten what the product page said. Repeat the ship time where they make the decision:
- In the cart. Showing a per-item note in the cart needs a small theme change: the cart template can read the same metafield and print it under the item. It's a short job for a developer.
- In the order confirmation. Edit the order confirmation email under Settings → Notifications and add a line such as "Items marked 'Ships in…' will follow in a separate package." Every customer gets that email, so it's the cheapest place to set expectations.
Shopify's split shipping at checkout doesn't solve this on its own. It shows customers several packages when items ship from different locations, but it splits by where the stock is, not by when it arrives, and the customer can't choose the split.
Step 4: Ship the in-stock items now
When a mixed order comes in, don't let the whole thing wait. Fulfill part of it and hold the rest:
- Open the order from Orders.
- In the Unfulfilled section, click the menu icon and choose Mark as on hold. Select only the backordered item, choose the out-of-stock reason from the Hold reason menu, and confirm. The item moves to an On hold section and drops out of your unfulfilled list.
- Fulfill what's left as usual: buy a label, or click Mark as fulfilled, enter the quantities you're shipping and the tracking number, and leave Send a notification to the customer checked.
- When the stock arrives, receive it, open the order, click Release hold in the On hold section, and fulfill the item. The customer gets a second shipping email with its own tracking.
With more than a handful of these a week, let Shopify Flow find them for you. Flow is free on the Basic plan and up. A workflow on the Order created trigger can check the order's line items for variants at zero or below stock and use the Add order tags action to tag the order backorder, so you can filter your orders list and never miss one.
Ship together or ship separately?
| Ship separately | Ship together | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer gets in-stock items | Right away | When the backorder arrives |
| Your shipping cost | Two shipments | One shipment |
| Chance of a refund request | Lower: most of the order has arrived | Higher: nothing has arrived |
| Best for | Most retail orders | Sets that only work together, and low-value orders where a second label costs more than the item's margin |
If you ship together, hold the whole order instead of just one item, and tell the customer the combined date in the confirmation email.
Backorders vs pre-orders
A backorder is a normal product that's temporarily out. A pre-order is something that isn't out yet, like a new release or a restock with a launch date. Customers accept a wait on a pre-order because the product page says "Pre-order" and the button does too.
Shopify doesn't have built-in pre-orders. You need a pre-order app from the Shopify App Store, and pre-orders only work if you use Shopify Payments or PayPal Express. What a pre-order app adds is the label, a separate button and the option to take full, partial or no payment up front. If you're planning a launch, what goes into a good Shopify drop covers the rest.
Built-in tools vs apps
| Job | Shopify built in | When an app helps |
|---|---|---|
| Sell at zero stock | Continue selling when out of stock | Not needed |
| Backorder message on the product page | Theme content or a metafield text block | Automatic messages based on stock and incoming dates |
| Ship part of an order | Partial fulfillment and fulfillment holds | Not needed |
| Find backordered orders | Shopify Flow tag | Not needed |
| Pre-order label and deferred payment | Not available | A pre-order app |
| Limit how many one order can include | One store-wide add-to-cart limit per variant; quantity rules for B2B catalogs | A quantity-limits app, for different caps per product |
That last row matters for limited backorders. If you can get 50 more units and don't want one customer taking 20 of them, cap the quantity per order. Shopify's add-to-cart limit (Settings → Checkout) applies the same maximum to every variant in your store. For a cap on just the backordered product, our Order Limits app sets a minimum, maximum and step quantity on any product, variant or collection, and checks every rule again at checkout (App Store listing). Our guide to minimum and maximum order quantities on Shopify shows the native options first.
If backorders aren't working
- The product shows "Sold out". Continue selling is off for that variant, or inventory isn't tracked. Check each variant, not just the product.
- It sells, but says "In stock". That's the theme default. Go back to Step 2.
- The whole order is waiting. Nothing was put on hold, so your team is waiting for all the items. Hold only the backordered one and fulfill the rest.
- You oversold. Continue selling has no cap. Turn it off when you've taken as many orders as you can supply, or cap per-order quantities.
- The customer didn't get a second tracking email. The notification checkbox was unchecked on the second fulfillment. You can resend it from the order's Timeline with Resend email.
Common questions
Does Shopify have a backorder feature?
Only the Continue selling when out of stock setting. It lets customers buy at zero stock. The messaging, holds and split shipping are separate steps you set up yourself, mostly with tools already in your admin.
How do I show a backorder message on Shopify?
In Dawn-style themes, reword the out-of-stock-but-still-selling text under Edit default theme content. In Horizon and other themes, add a product metafield with the ship time and connect it to a text block on the product template.
Does Shopify notify customers about backorders?
Not automatically. Add a line to your order confirmation email, and email customers directly if a date slips. Each partial shipment does send its own shipping confirmation.
If a customer orders a pre-order item and an in-stock item together, will they ship separately?
Only if you fulfill them separately. Shopify creates one order. You decide whether to ship the in-stock item now and hold the rest, or wait and send everything together.
Can I stop taking backorders after a certain number?
Not with a built-in cap. Watch the negative stock count and turn off Continue selling when out of stock when you reach your limit, or use a pre-order app that has a quantity limit.
Is a backorder the same as a pre-order?
No. A backorder is an existing product that's temporarily out. A pre-order is sold before release and needs a pre-order app on Shopify.
Next steps
Pick the three products you backorder most, fix their product-page message today, and add the line to your order confirmation. That removes most of the confusion before you touch fulfillment. If you'd like help setting up the metafield, the cart note or the Flow workflow, talk to us.