Tom Hadley
Content Writer
Every eCommerce operations team hits the same moment: a bestseller sells out, orders keep coming in, and someone has to decide whether to reject them or take the order anyway and fulfil it later. That decision is a backorder. If you're asking what is a backorder and whether taking one is the right call, the short answer is: usually yes, but only if you manage it properly. Get it right and you keep the sale; get it wrong and you get a cancellation, a chargeback, and a one-star review.
This guide covers what a backorder is, why they happen, the impact on customer experience, and a five-step process for managing them properly, along with the software capabilities that make it possible to do this at scale.
What Is a Backorder?
A backorder is an order for a product that is temporarily out of stock but is confirmed to be replenished. Unlike an out-of-stock item, which simply cannot be ordered, a backordered item can still be purchased. The customer pays (or reserves the item), and the retailer commits to fulfilling the order once new stock arrives.
Backorders sit between two other statuses that are often confused with them:
Out of stock: the product is unavailable and cannot be ordered at all.
Pre-order: the product hasn't been released yet, and no stock exists anywhere.
Backorder: stock exists or is inbound, but not yet available to allocate to this order.
Used well, backordering is a sales tool. It lets you keep taking revenue on popular products instead of turning customers away. Used badly, it becomes a source of support tickets, refund requests, and lost trust.
Why Backorders Happen
Backorders are rarely random. They tend to come from one of a handful of root causes:
Demand forecasting misses. A product sells faster than predicted, often after a marketing push, a seasonal spike, or unexpected social reach.
Supplier and lead time delays. Manufacturing or shipping delays push replenishment stock back, leaving a gap between what's sold and what's on the shelf.
Reorder points set too late. If the reorder point, the stock level that triggers a new purchase order, is set too close to zero, there's no buffer to absorb demand spikes or supplier delays.
Multi-channel overselling. Selling the same inventory across a website, marketplaces, and retail without real-time synchronisation means multiple channels can sell the last unit at once.
SKU-level complexity. Products with variants (size, colour, bundle) often have uneven stock levels across variants, so one variant backorders while others sit in stock.
Most of these causes point to the same underlying issue: a gap between what your systems show and what's actually happening in the warehouse and supply chain.
The Customer Experience Impact
A backorder isn't inherently a bad experience, an unexplained one is. Customers generally tolerate a wait if they're told about it clearly and kept updated. What damages trust is silence: an order confirmed as normal, no mention of a delay, and then a vague “your item is delayed” email days later.
The impact plays out in a few predictable ways:
Increased support volume. “Where is my order?” tickets spike when customers aren't proactively told about a delay.
Cancellations and chargebacks. Customers who feel misled are more likely to cancel or dispute the charge rather than wait it out.
Erosion of repeat purchase rate. A poorly handled backorder affects whether that customer orders from you again, regardless of how good the product is.
Clear, proactive communication, ideally through the same automated tracking-style updates your customers already expect from shipping, turns a backorder from a complaint risk into a manageable, even trust-building, part of the order journey.
The Five-Step Backorder Management Process
1. Flag the backorder at the point of sale, not after.
The customer should know an item is backordered before they complete checkout, with an honest estimated ship date. Surprises after payment are what generate complaints.
2. Set and enforce reorder points before stock hits zero.
A reorder point tells you exactly when to trigger a new purchase order, based on lead time and average demand, so you're replenishing before a shortfall, not reacting to one.
3. Communicate proactively and on a schedule.
Send an immediate confirmation that the item is backordered, followed by scheduled updates (on dispatch delay, on revised ETA, on shipment). Don't wait for the customer to ask.
4. Prioritise and allocate stock by rule, not manually.
When new stock arrives, allocate it automatically by order date, customer tier, or channel priority, not by whoever in the warehouse gets to it first.
5. Review the backorder pattern, not just the individual order.
Track which SKUs backorder repeatedly and why. Recurring backorders on the same product usually point to a reorder point or supplier lead time that needs adjusting, not a one-off blip.
The Software Capabilities You Need
Manually running this process across hundreds or thousands of SKUs isn't realistic. Doing it well depends on a warehouse management system that gives you:
Your stock levels update in real time across every channel, so what your team sees is what's actually available, not what a spreadsheet said this morning.
You get warned before you run out, based on historical demand and supplier lead time, rather than relying on a fixed number someone set once and forgot.
Incoming stock is assigned to backordered orders automatically, following the priority rules you define, instead of whoever gets to the pick first.
Customers hear from you automatically as soon as order or inventory status changes, so updates go out without anyone having to remember.
This is where Helm does the heavy lifting. Custom stock splits let you set exactly how much of a bestseller each channel is allowed to sell, so a rush of orders on one marketplace doesn't quietly eat the stock another channel was promised, a common and entirely avoidable cause of backorders. And when new stock does land, Helm's priority rules engine picks up backordered items automatically and triggers picking straight away, weighted by customer tier, order value and delivery deadline, rather than waiting for someone to notice and process them manually. Reorder points get flagged before they become a problem, so backorders get managed by design rather than firefighted after the fact. See the full picture on our inventory management page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a backorder and out of stock?
An out-of-stock item can't be ordered at all. A backordered item can still be purchased, with a confirmed date for when it will ship.
Do customers pay for a backordered item straight away?
Most retailers still take payment at checkout, provided the backorder status and estimated ship date are made clear before the customer completes their purchase.
How long is too long for a backorder?
There's no fixed rule, but the further the estimated ship date slips from what the customer was originally told, the higher the risk of cancellation. Proactive updates matter more than the length of the wait itself.
Can backorders hurt my search or marketplace rankings?
On most marketplaces, a pattern of backordered or delayed items can affect seller performance metrics, so treating backorders as a managed process rather than an exception is worth it beyond customer experience alone.
Turn Backorders Into a Managed Process, Not a Fire Drill
Backorders are a normal part of running an eCommerce operation with any real sales volume. The teams that handle them well aren't the ones who never run out of stock, they're the ones with a system that catches the shortfall early, communicates clearly, and allocates stock fairly the moment it lands.
If backorders are currently eating into your support team's time or your repeat purchase rate, it's worth looking at whether the gap is process or platform. Book a demo to see how Helm handles backorder allocation and reorder alerts against your own SKU list.
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