What is a preorder?

In simple words, it means you order a product before it is released in the market. Nowadays, it likes a way for the company to attract more consumers and also to study the demand for product before releasing them into the market.  

Why is preorder popular?

Preorder has gained popularity amongst buyest because it helps them certainly to have the product well in advance. They don’t need to wait to release time to buy it.

In addition, there is some products that will be off the shelf as soon as they are released such as top-ranking video games, new books by famous authors like Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, etc. 

Secondly, pre-orders have gained popularity because the companies offer heavy discounts or some goodies when you order the item in advance. So it is a win-win situation for all –  the manufacturing company, the shopkeepers, and the buyers.  

You can see Pre-Order: Some Unique Strategies You Need To Use For Your ECommerce Store to know more about how to use preorder right for your website. 

Advantages of Preorders

• Improve the in-flow of cash

Taking preorders is a great way for companies to improve their cash-flow. When customers are preordering, the product is in the manufacturing or packing stage, earning money before releasing the product can be a big benefit and help in covering transportation cost and other costs.

• Help in creating a buzz in the market

The product has lot of attraction since it is kept on the preorder option. It is a great time to offer discounts or some special gifts. For example, your customers will  have a book autographed by the author or a chance to meet and greet the author. All these promotional activities help in creating the hype for the product and generate good demand for the product before its released.

• All industries can use the Pre-order option

The best part about preorders is that it can be practiced by all companies and industries. It is not limited to just video games and books. Big companies like luxury brands, retailers, mobile phone brands, electronics items, etc. can all make use of preorder offer for attracting consumers. 

There is no shame attached to it…even big companies like Apple adopted the preorder option during the iPhone X release or when Samsung launched a preordering facility for their Galaxy tabs. 

• Predict the demand for product accurately

If the product is still in the manufacturing stage then the company can gauge the demand for its product by allowing them to be preordered. The retailers can be assured of minimum sales while the manufacturers will know how much to produce precisely during the initial production runs. The higher the demand for the product, the faster the manufacturer can go into the second round of production.  The in-flow of cash is already pouring in, and therefore producing more products will eventually result in increasing the sales of the product further. 

• Ranking better on search engines

Having a preordering product page can increase the ranking when the product actually gets released. This is usually because the preorders pages are created long before other competitors who create the product pages only when the product hits the market.

Disadvantages of preorders

• Limited product sets are offered for pre-orders

It is always great to grab the products rapidly because usually, only a few or limited stock is kept for preorder. Both, companies and consumers have to be on the lookout and buy the things they need as soon as preordering gets started or else they will miss out on the opportunity. 

Suppliers generally have a very short window, so if the retailer is unable to place the orders for the products in time, then they lose out in making the benefits. 

• Pre-order alone cannot guarantee product success

Having listed all the advantages of preordering, one needs to take into consideration people will buy your product before release but first you have a quality product. Thus, you should always improve your product first and then go for these kinds of marketing techniques. 

Also, preordering is not the only technique for generating revenue, and one should get more creative and come up with better ideas to promote your product. 

• Dependency on Manufacturer or Supplier

If you‘ve got many preorders for a particular product, but the launch date has already arrived and you don’t have the inventory, It is one of the biggest disadvantages of preorder since it the manufacturer or the supplier who has control over the turnaround of the products. 

Always choose to preorders only the products for which you have reliable manufacturers or suppliers so that you don’t lose out on customer’s loyalty and your credibility. 

Conclusion

All in all, preordering a product has lots of benefits for both buyers and retailers. It is one of the popular marketing techniques of present day

However, managing preorders is difficult if the seller doesn’t know how to handle it. A good preorder system has the capability to handle simple orders as well as preorders and therefore, it is recommended to use Magento Pre-order Extension to integrate pre-order extensions to your website. It helps the admin to manage pre-order products or orders on the out of stock products. You can see the demo here 

Hoping this article helps you to not just learn about pre-orders but also help you in deciding choose the preorder system