What Is a Backorder? Meaning, Examples & How Ecommerce Stores Should Handle Them

According to data from Shopify, stockouts remain one of the most common disruptions online sellers face, and understanding backorders is the first step to handling them without losing customer trust. A backorder is simply an order a store accepts for an item that is temporarily out of stock, with a confirmed date for when new inventory will arrive and ship. It is not the same as a cancelled sale or a dead listing. It is a promise with a timeline attached, and how well a brand keeps that promise shapes whether the customer comes back.

This guide breaks down the backorder meaning in plain terms, compares it to out of stock and sold out, walks through real examples, and lays out exactly how ecommerce stores should manage the process from the first "temporarily unavailable" label to the final shipping confirmation.

What Is a Backorder?

A backorder is a confirmed customer order for a product that is currently out of stock but has a known restock date. The store still accepts payment and commits to shipping once new inventory arrives, rather than cancelling the sale outright.

Backorders show up across nearly every ecommerce category, from apparel waiting on a new fabric shipment to supplements waiting on a manufacturing run. The core idea stays the same in every case:

Backorder vs. Out of Stock: What Is the Difference?

Backorder vs. out of stock comes down to whether the item can still be purchased: an out-of-stock product page is closed to new orders until inventory returns, while a backorder page remains open to let customers buy now for later delivery. Brands treat out of stock as a complete pause, whereas backorder is a temporary gap with an active purchase path, allowing companies to choose between the two based on their restocking timeline confidence and how much customer demand they risk losing if a listing goes entirely dark.

Backorder vs. Pre-Order

A pre-order is for a product that has never shipped yet, often ahead of a launch date. A backorder is for a product that has shipped before and sold out, with more supply already confirmed. The distinction matters for customer expectations: pre-order buyers are waiting for something new, backorder buyers are waiting for more of something that already exists.

Out of Stock vs. Sold Out: Are They the Same Thing?

Out of stock and sold out are generally used interchangeably in ecommerce to indicate zero available inventory, with the only meaningful difference being tone: "sold out" implies high demand, while "out of stock" is more neutral and operational. Neither term tells the shopper if or when more inventory is coming, which is why pairing the label with a clear restock date or routing the customer into an active backorder flow does far more to preserve conversion rates than the status tag itself.

Real Backorder Examples in Ecommerce

Why Do Backorders Happen? Common Causes

Backorders most often happen due to a supply chain delay, an unexpected demand spike, or a deliberate low-inventory strategy, highlighting a gap between what a store can sell and what it currently has on hand. While some operational bottlenecks sit outside a brand's control, such as port congestion, raw material shortages, or manufacturing delays, others stem from internal choices, including under-forecasting a product launch, maintaining inadequate safety stock levels, or relying on a single supplier as a single point of failure.

Pros and Cons of Accepting Backorders

Backorders are not automatically a bad sign. Handled well, they protect revenue during a stockout and can even signal strong demand. Handled poorly, they create the exact kind of support volume and trust erosion a growing brand cannot afford.

How Should Ecommerce Stores Handle Backorders?

Ecommerce stores should handle backorders with upfront transparency, a realistic restock date, proactive status updates, and enough support capacity to absorb the inevitable wave of "when will this ship" questions without slowing down response times.

Staffing for the spike is only half the job. Someone needs to actually answer the backorder questions as they come in across phone, email, and chat, and a dedicated support agent trained on the brand's specific restock policy can do that consistently instead of making customers repeat themselves channel to channel.

Simplehuman is a prime example of a premium household brand using a flexible customer support model to protect their customer experience under heavy volume, and you can hear how that partnership has held up from their team in the video below:

Backorder vs. Out of Stock vs. Pre-Order: Side-by-Side Comparison

A brand weighing whether to extend backorder support into a given ecommerce support model or a retail operation should also look at how ticket volume behaves around other high-pressure periods, which this breakdown of holiday ticket spikes covers in more depth.

Frequently Asked Questions About Backorder

Final Thoughts on Managing Backorders

A backorder is ultimately a timing problem, not a loss. Stores that label the status clearly, commit to dates they can meet, and keep customers updated along the way tend to retain the sale and the relationship. The brands that struggle are usually the ones treating backorders as a silent inventory fix rather than an active conversation with the customer on the other end of the order.