How to use EZ Preorder with Shopify Sidekick
EZ Preorder & Back In Stock connects to Shopify Sidekick, the AI assistant in your Shopify admin. Sidekick can look up your preorder products, rules, schedules and country limits, your restock alert signups, your store-wide app settings and your preorder and restock results. It can also prepare a change to eight store-wide settings and draft new wording for the app's two emails. Sidekick never saves anything itself: every change opens in EZ PreOrder and waits for you to click Save.
Available on: All plans (Free, Core, Growth, Professional and Scale). Some setting changes need the plan that includes that setting.
Where to find it: Shopify admin → Sidekick. Ask about EZ PreOrder, preorders or restock alerts in your own words.
Before you start
- EZ PreOrder must be installed on the store.
- Sidekick must be available in your Shopify admin. Sidekick's availability, languages and limits are set by Shopify.
What you can ask Sidekick about EZ Preorder
Sidekick reads this information from EZ Preorder:
| Topic | What Sidekick can tell you |
|---|---|
| Preorder products | Every product on your preorder list, 25 at a time, with its status, preorder rules, schedule and a link to edit it. You can ask by product name or by status. |
| One preorder product | Each variant's preorder rule, the countries it is limited to, whether it shows as sold out elsewhere, the product's schedule, and edit links. |
| Store-wide settings | Button text, Direct to Checkout, collection and featured product buttons, badges, preorder discount, free gifts, partial payments, fulfillment hold, the custom preorder page, the order confirmation email and restock alerts. |
| Results | Preorder count and preorder revenue in USD, restock signups and revenue from restock orders, for the current billing cycle, the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or all time. On the Free plan, "current billing cycle" counts all time, matching your Free plan limit. |
| Restock alert products | Products with restock alerts (back in stock alerts, the Notify Me button) turned on, with stock, sold-out variants, and how many shoppers are waiting, notified or canceled. |
| Restock signup totals | Shoppers waiting, notified and canceled across the store, and the five most requested products. |
| App emails | The back-in-stock alert email and the preorder confirmation email, whether each is on, and its subject. |
Sidekick describes each preorder product with one of four statuses:
- Active: the preorder is on.
- Scheduled: a schedule is set and its start date has not arrived.
- Ended: the schedule's end date has passed.
- Disabled: the preorder is turned off.
Example questions:
- "Which of my preorder products are scheduled?"
- "What preorder rule does each variant of the Winter Jacket use?"
- "Which countries is the Trail Shoe preorder limited to?"
- "How much preorder revenue did EZ PreOrder bring in over the last 30 days?"
- "Which products have the most shoppers waiting for restock alerts?"
- "Is the preorder fulfillment hold on?"
Which settings Sidekick can change
Sidekick can prepare a change to these store-wide settings. Each change opens in EZ PreOrder for you to save.
| Setting | Plans |
|---|---|
| Direct to Checkout on or off | Professional and Scale |
| Preorder button on collection pages on or off | Growth, Professional and Scale |
| Preorder button in featured product sections on or off | Growth, Professional and Scale |
| Hold preorder fulfillment (Fulfillment Order Status) on or off | All plans |
| Preorder order confirmation email on or off | All plans |
| Custom preorder page on or off | Growth, Professional and Scale |
| Custom preorder page title | Growth, Professional and Scale |
| Preorder button text, in your store's default language only | All plans |
Text values must be 1 to 200 characters long.
How a Sidekick setting change is saved
- Ask Sidekick for the change, for example "Turn on the preorder fulfillment hold".
- Sidekick reads your current settings and gives you a link to EZ PreOrder.
- Open the link. The Configuration page opens with the new value filled in and the save bar showing.
- Review the change, then click Save to apply it or Discard to cancel it.
The change is not applied until you click Save. When Sidekick says a change is ready, it is staged on the page, not saved.
If the Configuration page already has unsaved changes when you open the link, the page shows "Save or discard your current changes before opening a Sidekick change." and does not fill in the new value. Save or discard, then open the link again.
How to edit EZ Preorder emails with Sidekick
Sidekick can rewrite the subject, body and button text of the two emails EZ Preorder sends shoppers:
- Back-in-stock alert email, sent when a product a shopper signed up for is back in stock. Its button links to the product.
- Pre-order confirmation email, sent when a shopper places an order with a preorder item. Its button lets the shopper cancel the order.
Ask, for example, "Make the back-in-stock email subject friendlier". Sidekick opens the email editor in EZ PreOrder and fills in the new wording. Review it and click Save to keep it.
Email bodies contain placeholders in triple braces, such as {{{productSection}}}, {{{productsSection}}} and {{{ButtonSection}}}, which are replaced with the products and the button when the email is sent. Sidekick keeps them, and a new body that drops one is refused.
For editing the emails yourself, see How to customize the preorder confirmation email and How to customize the restock alert email.
What Sidekick cannot do in EZ Preorder
Sidekick cannot:
- Add products to preorder, remove them, or turn a product's preorder on or off.
- Change preorder rules, schedules, country limits or custom notes.
- Change partial payments, preorder discounts, free gifts, badges, theme settings or restock alert settings.
- Change button text in languages other than your store's default language.
- Send emails or save any change without you clicking Save.
Make those changes on their pages in EZ PreOrder. The products and settings Sidekick describes come with links to the matching pages in the app.
What data Sidekick receives from EZ Preorder
Sidekick receives product, setting and total figures from EZ Preorder. For restock alerts it gets counts only. EZ Preorder does not give Sidekick shopper names or email addresses. See Data privacy and security.
Troubleshooting
"Your current plan does not support this setting." The setting Sidekick tried to change is not on your plan. Check the plans in "Which settings Sidekick can change", or see Plans and pricing.
"This setting must be edited in the app." Sidekick cannot stage that setting. Open the page in EZ PreOrder and change it there.
"Text must contain between 1 and 200 characters." The new text was empty or too long. Ask for shorter text.
"Save or discard your current changes before opening a Sidekick change." The Configuration page had unsaved edits. Save or discard them, then open Sidekick's link again.
Sidekick does not know about EZ PreOrder. Check that EZ PreOrder is installed on the store. Then ask again and name the app, for example "In EZ PreOrder, which products are on preorder?".
Sidekick's answer differs from the app. Open the link Sidekick gives you; the app page is the source of truth. If they still differ, contact support.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sidekick support available on the Free plan?
Yes. Sidekick can read your EZ Preorder data on every plan, including Free. Setting changes follow your plan, so a Growth or Professional setting cannot be changed from a lower plan.
Can Sidekick change my preorder settings without asking me?
No. Sidekick only prepares a change. Nothing changes until you open the link and click Save in EZ PreOrder.
Can Sidekick add a product to preorder?
No. Products are added, removed and edited in EZ PreOrder on the Preorders page. Sidekick can tell you what is set up and link you to the edit page.
Can Sidekick translate the preorder button?
No. Sidekick can change the button text in your store's default language only. Translate it in Configuration → Pre-order Button Text. See How to change and translate the preorder button text.
Does Sidekick see my customers' email addresses?
No. EZ Preorder gives Sidekick signup counts for restock alerts, not shopper names or email addresses.
Related articles
- Dashboard and metrics: the same results in the app's dashboard.
- How to track restock signups and revenue: restock figures in detail.
- How to customize the preorder confirmation email: edit the confirmation email yourself.
- How to customize the restock alert email: edit the back-in-stock email yourself.
- How to get help and contact support: Ada, messages and the help center.
- Data privacy and security: what EZ Preorder stores and shares.