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Start with the workflow your store needs
Addora connects the reason an order waits to the moment it can ship. You can use it for preorders, for customers who want to buy now and ship later, or for both. Choose that workflow before adjusting shipping rules: it determines what shoppers need to see at checkout and what your team should expect after payment.
Preorders only is for products that are not ready yet. Customers use normal shipping at checkout, and eligible preorder orders enter the readiness workflow. Ship Later only is for customers who want to accumulate paid purchases and choose a shipment later. Preorders and Ship Later combines those two reasons for waiting.
A customer waiting for stock and a customer choosing to wait are different situations. Keep that distinction in your product descriptions, shipping policy and support replies.
1. Install Addora and choose your setup
Install Addora from the Shopify App Store, open the app in Shopify admin, and follow onboarding for the workflow you selected. Use a test product and an order you can inspect from purchase through fulfillment before announcing the feature to customers.
For preorders, decide how products are recognized and whether availability is scheduled or TBA. For Ship Later, decide which purchases may be held and what the customer should call the option. A name such as “Hold my order” can work when the accompanying policy clearly explains that products are paid now and shipping happens later.
2. Configure preorder products when relevant
Addora supports native Shopify preorder purchase options on supported storefront surfaces. The current payment model collects the full product price at checkout. It is not a deposit or a promise to collect the remaining balance later.
Use the configured product tags or metafields consistently, and test representative products in the app. Include an in-stock product, a scheduled preorder, a TBA preorder and a supplier item if you sell all four. A successful test on one product does not establish that every quick-add button or custom product form uses the same purchase option.
Follow the preorder setup guide for the decisions that matter before opening a preorder window.
3. Set the customer’s shipping expectations
In Preorders only, keep the normal shipping arrangement clear: the customer pays under your checkout policy while the product waits for availability. In Ship Later, explain that the product purchase and the later shipping decision are separate. Customers should know where to return, how long they may hold purchases, and how shipping is calculated when they release eligible items.
A custom Ship Later shipping method name is available on Free. More advanced shipping fee rules and customer emails are paid-plan features. The optional branded checkout UI extension requires Shopify Plus; that restriction does not make the core Ship Later or preorder workflow Plus-only.
Do not describe deferred shipping as free shipping unless your configured rules actually make that shipment free. Publish any holding deadline or restriction where customers can read it before paying.
4. Give customers a reliable place to return
Configure the held-order experience in Shopify customer accounts or the storefront Order Summary page, depending on the customer access you use. Test it while signed in as the customer who owns the test order. Confirm that navigation, order emails and your shipping policy point to the correct destination.
Customers should be able to distinguish ready items from waiting items and understand the reason for waiting. Eligible ready items can be selected for a shipment while other items remain held. Selection uses the available quantity shown; it is not a control for dividing a line into arbitrary quantities.
The customer shipping portal is especially useful when someone has purchases across several releases. They should not need to reconstruct the status from a series of order emails.
For the native account experience, see held orders inside Shopify customer accounts. If customers leave purchases waiting for a while, our reserved-item reminder guide explains the optional email follow-up.
5. Decide what happens to mixed orders
An order can include products ready today and products arriving later. Decide whether those items should wait together or whether eligible ready items may move separately. Consider your fulfillment locations, shipping profiles and warehouse process before promising that every cart can be split.
Use mixed-cart shipping to explain the policy. A safe fallback is to keep items together when the fulfillment setup cannot support the requested split. Your customer-facing promise should match that operational limit.
6. Run a complete test, including the second purchase
Place a normal order, a preorder and a Ship Later order for the modes you enable. Check the native preorder information at checkout, the product payment, the shipping charge and the resulting fulfillment hold. Then place a second eligible purchase for the same customer: the return visit is central to the Ship Later experience.
Open the customer view, select eligible items, and inspect the shipping amount before completing release. Check that waiting items stay held. If fulfillment uses more than one package, verify the status and tracking for the actual packages rather than expecting one tracking number for the entire customer account.
Finally, test a delay or an unavailable product. Confirm who updates readiness, who answers cancellation requests and what the customer sees while waiting. This is how you establish a repeatable operating process rather than a checkout option that staff must interpret manually.
7. Choose a plan after you understand the workflow
Free includes 10 Addora orders per month and stops at its limit. Starter is $12 per month for 25 included orders, with $0.40 per additional Addora order, and adds reminder and shipping-update emails. Higher plans provide more capacity; Unlimited and Managed serve different ongoing needs.
Standard paid plans have a 30-day trial. Managed has no trial. Review the current pricing and usage rules before enabling the workflow for a larger audience, including the order allowance and per-order overage charges.
Our Free plan guide explains the limits and what to check during an evaluation before deciding whether to upgrade.
Launch with a short, consistent explanation
Update the product page, shipping policy, customer navigation and support replies together. Explain what the customer pays now, why an item may wait, where they can see progress and what happens when they are ready to ship. Monitor the first releases closely and adjust confusing copy based on actual customer questions.
If your store has a custom storefront or an unusual fulfillment setup, contact Addora with the workflow you want to test. A clear example order is more useful than a general request to “combine everything.”
An Addora order is a Ship Later purchase or an eligible preorder handled by Addora, including preorders with normal shipping. Ordinary Shopify orders outside these workflows do not count toward your allowance.
