Questions, answered.

Timesact lets you sell on a timeline. Pre-orders take money for something that hasn't landed yet, back-in-stock sign-ups bring shoppers back when it returns, and supporting features cover the moments in between — a product teased before launch, or one that's down to its last few units. It's no-code, and it uses Shopify's own mechanisms underneath, so nothing bolts onto your theme permanently.

Around one reusable object: a customer experience template. A template holds one feature or several, along with how they look and how they behave, and you apply it to as many products as you like. Build the setup once, reuse it everywhere. Inside a template, Storefront is how it looks and Admin is how it works.

Eight, in four groups. Purchase — Pre-Order, Backorder, Made to Order. Notification — Back in Stock, Notify Me, Waitlist. Availability — Coming Soon. Urgency — Low Stock. Add them from the Features tab of any template.

No — ready-made templates are on the Experiences page and you can use them as they are: Pre-order Launch, Pre-order & Back In Stock, Back-order & Notify me, Coming soon, and Low stock & Pre-order. Open one, adjust anything you want, and attach your products.

No. When you turn on Pre-Order, Timesact creates Shopify's native mechanism for selling on different terms and attaches it to your products automatically, with your settings written into it. Enable the App Embed as part of setup and you're done.

From the Products page, click Add Products and pick how you want to choose them: Specific products (search and tick), a whole Collection, or Upload by CSV for large catalogues. Then select the template to apply. Each upload is logged with counts of what was added, removed and updated.

They're the live state of a feature, worked out per variant. Active means the variant's stock condition is met right now, so the feature is showing. Pending means the template is set up and waiting for its stock condition — a launch product sitting at zero until you're ready, for instance. One product can have some variants Active and others Pending at the same time.

Yes. Tick more than one when you attach them, and they layer — each shows as its own row on the Products page with its own status. If Pre-Order and Notify Me are both live on a variant, the two buttons stack, so a shopper can pre-order or sign up.

They behave identically — the difference is the default button and badge wording, so you can present a launch, a restock and a custom build differently. Every label is editable, so the defaults are a starting point.

Same thing again: one mechanism, three sets of default wording. A shopper signs up and gets emailed when the item returns. Pick whichever phrasing fits the product and edit it from there.

It replaces the Add to Cart or Sold Out button with a Pre-Order button, so shoppers can buy now and receive later. It also sets when they're charged and when the order is due to ship.

The Stock Management setting, worked out per variant from that variant's Shopify stock. Three modes: only when out of stock (Pre-Order takes over from Sold Out at zero and hands back when stock returns), regardless of levels (Pre-Order shows straight away, in stock or not — ideal for a launch), and only when inventory is available (sell a set allocation on pre-order terms, then stop cleanly).

Per variant. The button a shopper sees depends on the variant they've selected, and the pre-order cap is counted per variant too.

Yes. Pre-order quantity is Unlimited by default — switch that off and enter a number. Pre-orders are counted as they arrive, and once the cap is reached the button hands back automatically. If you can produce 200 units, set 200.

No — it's a ceiling on how many commitments you'll take, counted per variant, alongside your normal Shopify stock tracking rather than instead of it.

Yes, on the product page. A timer can count down to a date (your launch or pre-order end date) or run for a fixed length of time. It's off by default; turn it on in the template's product-page settings.

Three things: a Cart Label on pre-order line items (default "Pre-order item delivers as soon as available."), an optional Cart Alert pop-up, and an optional Mixed Cart Alert for carts holding both pre-order and in-stock items, which tells the shopper the order ships once the pre-order item is ready. Cart settings belong to Pre-Order.

Your choice, via Inventory Policy. On Sale reserves inventory the moment the order is placed, so your numbers track commitments as they come in. On Fulfillment reserves it when you ship — the one to use when you're pre-selling something that hasn't been manufactured yet.

Timesact switches that variant to Shopify's Continue selling when out of stock setting while the pre-order is active, and switches it back afterwards. Keep Track quantity on for the variant so Shopify registers it as out of stock in the first place.

They're tagged automatically the moment the order is created, at order level. Every order holding at least one pre-order item gets Pre-order. A mixed order — one pre-order item alongside something that was in stock — also gets Partial Pre-order on top, so it carries both. "Partial" describes the cart, not the payment: a mixed order can be paid in full and still carry it, while a deposit order containing only pre-order items carries just Pre-order. In Orders, add a Tagged with filter and click Save as to keep it as a view — one for pre-orders still to ship, one for mixed orders you'll be splitting. Because they're real Shopify tags they work in Flow and order exports too.

Yes — in the same template or in a second one attached to the same product. Pre-Order and Back in Stock together is a common pairing. The one combination that doesn't apply to the same product is Pre-Order and Coming Soon: a product is either being teased or available to pre-order.

No. Shopify doesn't support this style of pre-order on B2B or wholesale checkouts, so it's outside what any app can offer there. The same goes for subscriptions and Try Before You Buy.

The Online Store. Shopify POS and draft orders don't carry pre-order terms, and some local payment methods sit outside them as well — these are platform boundaries rather than app settings.

Two: Full amount and Partial payment. Both place a real Shopify order — what changes is when the money arrives. Set it under Feature settings → Billing.

Charges the full price at checkout, exactly like a normal order. The only difference is that fulfilment is deferred until you ship.

You choose the upfront amount, which gives you three shapes: nothing now (reserve now, pay later), a percentage deposit (say 20% now, 80% later), or a fixed amount (say 10.00 now, the rest later).

At checkout Shopify takes the upfront amount and securely stores the shopper's payment method. The order carries payment terms showing the outstanding balance and when it's due, and Shopify charges the stored method automatically on that date where your payment provider supports it.

No — it's the payment method securely kept on file, not a temporary hold, so it doesn't expire while you wait.

No. Their confirmation reflects what was charged and that a balance remains, and the rest is collected on schedule without them lifting a finger.

Automatic collection runs on Shopify Payments. PayPal can take a full payment upfront, and where a provider doesn't support collecting a later balance automatically you charge it from the order or send an invoice when it comes due.

Yes, when the product is ready ahead of schedule. It's done in Shopify on the order itself: open it, and in the Payment pending section click Collect payment — charge the card, Send invoice for a secure checkout link, or Mark as paid if you took the money another way. Send the customer a quick heads-up first; an earlier charge than they agreed to is the most common cause of pre-order chargebacks.

Yes, earlier or later. On the order, open the three-dot menu in Payment pending → Edit payment terms, pick the new date, save. It changes payment timing only — the ship date is independent and stays where it is.

Yes — a pre-order discount sits with the billing settings, as either a fixed Amount or a Percentage off. Offer 10% on a 50.00 item and it's charged as 45.00, with any deposit calculated from the discounted figure. It applies to the pre-order rather than acting as a store-wide promotion.

Because a deferred or partial payment makes it a purchase option, Shopify adds a short note describing the terms. It comes from Shopify and appears on anything sold this way. Shopify Plus can edit that wording; on other plans, your product-page message and cart label are where you set expectations in your own words.

Open the order and use Collect payment to run the card again, or Send invoice to email a secure checkout link so the customer pays it themselves. Keeping an eye on balances around their due dates is worth building into your routine.

No — partial payment on B2B and wholesale orders isn't supported by Shopify.

Under Feature settings → Shipping, in one of four ways: As soon as possible when you genuinely don't have a date, an Exact Date for a firm launch or restock, a Period for a window rather than a day, or an Interval expressed as a lead time from the day of purchase.

Only Exact Date gives Shopify a real scheduled date on the order. The other three set the estimate the shopper sees while leaving the order to behave like any other one waiting to be fulfilled. Use Exact Date when you want the order itself to carry the future date.

The order is created immediately as Unfulfilled — nothing ships on its own. Payment shows as Paid if you charged in full, or Partially paid / Unpaid on a deposit or deferred payment.

Use Shopify's Hold fulfillment on the order (three-dot menu → Hold fulfillment, pick a reason), then Release hold when the stock arrives. Releasing makes the order fulfillable; you still fulfil it as the next step, so you stay in control of the moment it ships.

Yes — Shopify Flow's Release fulfillment order holds action can do it for you, triggered on your ship date, which saves opening every order by hand when a drop lands.

Shopify adds an item to a slip once it's fulfillable, and a pre-order that's On hold or Scheduled is held back until its date. Release the hold, or use Fulfill early on a scheduled line, and the slip prints. If you'd rather skip that step altogether, set Shipping to Not set and pre-orders stay Unfulfilled from the start, so slips always print.

Update it in Feature settings and it changes across the storefront, then email your customers so the new date is the one they're holding. The order stays Unfulfilled until you fulfil it, so the timing stays yours.

Split it into multiple fulfilments and ship the in-stock part now, the pre-order part when it lands. At checkout Shopify shows separate shipping totals for the items going now and the ones coming later.

Yes — put them in a custom shipping profile in Shopify (Settings → Shipping and delivery) and set zones and rates for the location that will actually ship them. Worth doing when pre-order stock lands at a different warehouse from your usual one.

From your Shopify shipping rate, not from Timesact. If a rate quotes a fast estimate on something shipping later, edit that rate's estimated delivery time under Settings → Shipping and delivery. Your pre-order wording on the product page and in the cart is what carries the timeline.

No — Shopify doesn't allow adding a new pre-order product while editing an order.

A sold-out product shows a sign-up button. The shopper leaves their email, and Timesact emails them automatically as soon as the item is back. Sign-ups are tracked per variant, so someone waiting on a medium hears about the medium.

Clicking the button opens the Notify Me form — a pop-up where the shopper enters their email. That sign-up is what triggers the restock email later.

Its content (title, description, email placeholder, button text, note, success and error messages), its styling (font size, border radius), its colours including an optional gradient, and its extras — a newsletter opt-in with an editable label, and a toggle for Timesact branding.

Yes — turn on the newsletter checkbox and give it your own label, so a restock sign-up can double as a subscriber.

Yes, with a toggle in the form's extras.

The Quantity Threshold, default 1 — so the email goes out as soon as a unit is back. Raise it if you'd rather wait until a real quantity has landed.

Yes — Enable across your store puts the sign-up on every out-of-stock product, so you don't add them one at a time. It's a PRO setting; see pricing.

Two messages. Back in stock, ready is the restock alert, sent to each waiting subscriber once the variant they wanted is back — that one is covered by the built-in channel. Back in stock, subscribed confirms the sign-up itself, and it's sent through Klaviyo or Shopify Flow, so route the feature to one of those if you want the shopper to get a confirmation as well. Either way the form shows its own on-page success message the moment they submit.

Yes, and it's a natural pair — the buttons stack, so a shopper can pre-order now or wait to be told. See Back in Stock and Pre-order.

It swaps the Add to Cart or Sold Out button for a non-clickable Coming Soon button, so you can tease a product before it launches, with an optional message, badge or countdown timer alongside it.

No — it's a display feature, so there's no purchase and no sign-up on it. When you want to capture interest ahead of a launch, add Back in Stock or Notify Me, which is where email collection lives.

Keep it at zero inventory. Coming Soon takes the place of Sold Out while stock sits at zero and steps aside once stock arrives — so adding inventory is the act of launching.

No — a product is either being teased or open for pre-order. Pre-Order and Back in Stock pair happily, and you can of course run Coming Soon on one product and Pre-Order on another.

When a variant's available stock reaches or drops below a number you set — 3 by default — it shows low-stock messaging on the storefront: a button label, a message, and an optional badge or timer. The product stays fully buyable throughout, so it adds urgency without touching the sale.

Neither — it's display-only, and Add to Cart keeps working exactly as it did.

Yes. Each feature has its own active label plus fallback Add to Cart and Sold Out text for when the feature isn't showing, and you can style dimensions, border, font and colours or keep your theme's own button styling.

Yes — collection pages take the same button, message and badge settings, so a shopper sees the state before they click into the product.

You pick a channel per feature, inside each template: Built-in (Timesact sends them, edited in the app), Klaviyo (events flow into your Klaviyo account and your flows take over), or Shopify Flow (build your own automation on the events). Pre-order uses Built-in or Klaviyo; back in stock can use all three.

The Pre-order Confirmation, the Pre-order Shipping delay, and the Back in stock restock alert. Each one opens to a preview where you can edit the content, send yourself a test, and set it Live or keep it as a draft.

Yes. Enter the sender address you want to use, click Configure, and add the CNAME records Timesact shows you at your DNS provider, then click Validate DNS Records. Once verified, everything sends from your domain and the "via" line disappears. Records usually verify within one to two hours.

Yes, with variables written as {{variable_name}} and filled in at send time — the available list sits at the bottom of each email's editor. {{customer_email}}, {{shop_name}} and {{shop_domain}} are available everywhere; {{order_name}} on the pre-order emails; {{shipping_date}} on the shipping-delay email; {{preorder_products}} on the confirmation, which you can loop to print a line per item; and {{product_title}}, {{variant_title}}, {{product_url}}, {{product_image_url}} and {{product_price}} on the back-in-stock alert.

Connect it from Billing & Account → Integrations — click Connect on the Klaviyo card, sign in, approve, and the card shows Connected. Timesact then sends its events into Klaviyo as Metrics tagged timesact, and you point a flow trigger at them. If you already run Klaviyo there's nothing extra to install.

Back in Stock Subscribed, Back in Stock Ready, and Preorder Confirmed. Each carries the product, variant, price and shop details you'd want in a template, and the pre-order event carries an array of the pre-order items to loop over. One Klaviyo account per shop.

Two triggers are available for back in stock — Customer Signed Up for Back In Stock Alert and Back In Stock Notification Ready — which you can build any multi-step workflow on, branded email included. Route pre-order notifications through Built-in or Klaviyo.

Route the feature through Klaviyo or Shopify Flow and add an SMS step there, using the same event that would have sent the email. Your SMS provider handles the sending and the consent.

It's one channel per feature per template. When you want an email plus something else, send to Klaviyo or Flow and add the extra step inside that workflow. Switching channels doesn't re-send anything already sent.

Built-in has a Send Test button on each template, and Klaviyo and Flow have their own preview and test tools.

An Analytics section covering both sides of the app, from sign-ups and orders through to revenue and conversion. Every report has a date-range picker, and most can be exported to CSV.

Sales — revenue, orders and average order value over your chosen period, with a table of the pre-order orders and quick filters for Unfulfilled, Paid and Partially Paid. Top pre-ordered products ranks by units and revenue. Traffic source Insights follows the funnel from Page Views → Added to Cart → Orders → Cancellations with the conversion rate at each step. Notifications & Email performance charts the confirmation and shipping-delay emails, with logs.

Trends over time gives you Subscribed, Delivered, Open rate and Click rate, plus a table of individual sign-ups. Purchase conversion shows the orders and revenue that came from restock alerts. Traffic insights follows Page Views → Notify Me Button Clicked → Subscribed → Emails Sent. Top notify me products lists what shoppers are waiting on most.

Thirty days on the CORE plan, and an unlimited period on PRO.

Yes — most detail reports have Export CSV and Export Report, so the numbers can go into your own reporting wherever you keep it.

No. If a notification is set to draft the event still fires and still appears in Analytics — you just don't send that message.

Yes, under Markets & locations on each template. Market scope is Global by default, or you can pick specific countries or the Shopify markets you've already set up. You don't need Shopify Markets configured to target by country — specific countries works on its own.

Inventory location scope — all locations by default, or only the ones you choose. Scope it to a single warehouse and that warehouse's stock decides whether the feature is Active, even when your other locations are full. It changes only which stock Timesact reads, never your actual Shopify inventory.

Yes. Attach two templates to the product, each scoped to its own market and its own warehouse: a shopper in the US can see Pre-Order while a shopper in Europe sees Add to Cart, on the same product at the same moment. Give them markets that don't overlap so every shopper matches exactly one.

Specific countries, Shopify markets and specific locations are PRO settings. Global market scope and all locations work on every plan — see pricing.

In Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app. Add your language under Settings → Languages and publish it, then open Translate & Adapt, choose the language, open the content dropdown and pick Metaobjects, and find the Timesact Customer Experience entry for your template — entries are named "Ce" plus a number, and the Title tells you which is which.

Everything a shopper reads: the button, sold-out and add-to-cart text, the message, the badge, the cart label and both alert pop-ups, the timer's title and its Days / Hrs / Mins / Secs labels, the whole Notify Me form including the newsletter label, the pre-order option description, and the same fields again for collection pages.

Change the wording inside the quotation marks and leave the rest as it is — field names, ids, styles, colours, sizes and fixed values like NO_DISCOUNT, ASAP and GLOBAL. Markets and inventory locations are settings rather than text. Translating by hand, or reviewing an auto-translation before saving, keeps the surrounding structure intact.

Adapt it per market rather than adding a language — English for Canada, for instance, can carry its own wording.

A short list: the feature shows as Active on the template's Features tab, the product is attached and its Start Date has arrived, the product is Active in Shopify and on the Online Store channel, the variant reads Active where you expect the feature, and its stock matches the Stock Management mode you picked. If you've added a language, publish it and translate the template's text.

Open the product page in an incognito window, which skips your admin session. Switch between variants to watch the button and badge change, or jump straight to one by adding its id to the URL — /products/your-product?variant=1234567890.

Two easy routes: Shopify's Bogus Gateway, which simulates payment with no real charge, or a 100% discount code on your live store so you can check a real checkout at no cost. Afterwards, turn test mode back off or delete the code, then open the order to confirm the pre-order details came through.

It's set in UTC, so a launch timed to the minute is worth converting from your own timezone before you save it.

Yes — book a free setup call and our team will build the first template with you and tune the storefront to your theme. Theme-side adjustments are handled on our end.

20 orders a month across unlimited products, and unlimited email sending. It resets on the 1st of each month, completed by 17:00 UTC. If you add a paid plan later, its orders stack on top of the free ones rather than replacing them. Full detail on pricing.

Shopify — Timesact appears on your regular Shopify invoice, so there's no separate payment method to set up.