A board-game shop ran preorders on spreadsheets, memory and apologetic emails. We automated the entire lifecycle — deposits, shipping-milestone updates, automatic balance charges and stock allocation the day containers arrive. 'Where's my preorder?' tickets fell 85%, and balances now collect themselves.
Typical results
96%
Balances collected in 48h
4
Milestone updates per preorder
1 hr
Arrival-day admin, was 9
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Preorders are the lifeblood of hobby retail, and the shop's were chaos. Release dates slipped, customers heard nothing for months, and about 120 'where is it?' tickets arrived every month. When a container finally landed, staff spent nine hours matching deposits, chasing balances — only 60% paid within two days — and allocating stock by hand.
Before and after
Preorder tickets per month
−85%Balances paid within 48h
+60%Arrival-day admin
−89%The automation
We rebuilt preorders as a managed lifecycle. Checkout takes a deposit and vaults the card. As the supplier confirms milestones — production done, vessel sailed, cleared port, received — every buyer gets an automatic update with a live ETA. The day stock is scanned in, remaining balances charge automatically, declines enter a retry flow with a card-update link, and paid preorders reserve their units and queue for shipping in strict order.
How it works
- 01
Deposit
Checkout collects the deposit and vaults the card for the balance.
- 02
Milestones
Production, sailing, port and warehouse updates post to every buyer automatically.
- 03
Arrival
Received stock syncs and triggers the balance run for that container's preorders.
- 04
Balance
Cards charge automatically; declines get retries and a card-update link.
- 05
Allocate
Paid preorders reserve units and queue for shipping in strict order.
Starts from
- Preorders + deposits
- Shipping milestones
Delivers
- Milestone updates
- Balance auto-charge
- Stock allocation
The impact
Preorder tickets dropped from about 120 a month to 18 — down 85% — because customers already know where their game is. 96% of balances now collect within 48 hours of arrival, arrival-day admin shrank from nine hours to one, and the shop doubled its preorder catalog without adding staff.
Questions about this automation
How does the automation charge the remaining balance?
At checkout the customer pays a deposit and agrees to have the card saved with the payment provider for the balance. When the stock for that shipment is scanned in, the flow charges every open balance in that batch. Declined cards get scheduled retries and a secure link to update payment details.
Where do the shipping milestone updates come from?
Milestones such as production finished, vessel sailed, cleared port and received at the warehouse are entered by staff or read from supplier and freight emails. Each update triggers a message to every buyer of that preorder by WhatsApp or email, with the revised arrival estimate, so customers rarely need to ask.
How is stock allocated when a shipment arrives short?
Paid preorders reserve units in the order they were placed. If fewer units arrive than were ordered, the earliest paid orders are filled first, and the remaining buyers get an update with a new date or a refund option. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages.