How-to › Selling special products
How to Sell by Quote, Preorder or Coming Soon
Sell what does not fit a normal Add to Cart: quotes, products not ready yet, holiday preorders and pickup food orders. You choose the mode, set the schedule and test it. 9 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Products › Add New
Before you start
What you are building
The four modes, what you need and where the switches are.
Four ways to sell without a normal Add to Cart
What you need and which one fits
no stored settingsWhat you need. WP EasyCart PRO or Premium. All four switches are PRO features and show as locked without it. Preorder and restaurant pickup also need a store schedule, which is set in Settings › Schedule & Locations, also PRO.
Inquiry Mode. The shopper sends you a request instead of buying. For quotes, made-to-order items and anything you price by hand.
Seasonal Mode. The product stays on display but cannot be bought yet. Shoppers see your phrase, such as Coming in November, in place of Add to Cart.
Preorder for Pickup. Customers order now and choose a pickup date at checkout. Think holiday pies.
Restaurant for Pickup. Customers order for pickup as soon as possible, or at a later time. Think pizza.
Add New has a matching product type for each: Inquiry / request a quote, Seasonal / coming soon, Preorder for pickup and Restaurant item. Or open any product, go to Type & Behavior and use the switches in the Product Behaviors section.
Set it up
Four parts
Quotes, coming soon, preorders and restaurant pickup, then test.
Part 1. Sell by quote with Inquiry Mode
A request form in place of Add to Cart
no stored settingsOpen the product, go to Type & Behavior and switch on Inquiry Mode. Save. The Add to Cart button is replaced by a way to ask you about the product.
The built-in form. By default the product page shows the store’s own form: your name, your email, your message, a Please send me a copy tick box and a SUBMIT INQUIRY button. The request is emailed to you. If the product has options, the chosen options go with it.
Inquiry URL. The field sits under the switch. It is used only if you turn off Built-in inquiry form on inquiry-mode products in Settings › Admin › Storefront behavior (press Show advanced settings to see it). The product then shows a button that opens the Inquiry URL, such as your contact page or a form from another plugin. The store never sends the shopper’s details to that address. A product with no Inquiry URL still shows the built-in form.
The price. Inquiry products still show a price. If you quote by hand, switch on Hide prices on inquiry products in Settings › Products, in the Pricing display card.
💡 Note: The help text on the switch mentions pointing at a contact page. That link is used only when the built-in inquiry form is switched off. By default the store shows its own form.
What the customer sees and what you get
The form, the emails and the spam protection
no stored settingsThe shopper fills in the three starred fields, ticks the copy box if they want one, and presses the button. They see Thank you for submitting a product inquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible. You can edit every label and message in Settings › Language.
Your email. It goes to your Store notification addresses, set in Settings › Email, in the Sender card. If that is empty it goes to the site’s admin email. It carries the product name and SKU, and any options the shopper chose. The Reply-To is the shopper’s address, so you answer with Reply. The subject is Submit Product Inquiry.
Their copy. Sent only if they ticked the box.
Spam. Settings › Products has an Inquiry form protection card. A hidden trap field, a minimum time to write the message (4 seconds by default) and a limit of 10 inquiries an hour from one internet address are on by default. You can also require shoppers to be signed in, set limits on message length and links, and block words. With a reCAPTCHA key set, the form uses it too. Turn on Log refused inquiries to see why one was refused under Settings › Log entries.
Part 2. Show a product before you can sell it
Seasonal Mode and the Seasonal Phrase
no stored settingsOpen the product, go to Type & Behavior and switch on Seasonal Mode. A Seasonal Phrase box appears. Type what shoppers should see, such as Coming in November. Save.
The product stays on display in the store, but it cannot be bought. On the product page your phrase appears where Add to Cart was. To hide the price as well, switch on Hide prices on seasonal (catalog-only) products in Settings › Products, in the Pricing display card.
When you are ready to sell, switch Seasonal Mode off. The store’s own Catalog mode is different: it removes Add to Cart from every product at once, for a holiday or a showcase.
Part 3. Preorder for pickup
The switch, then the schedule that controls the calendar
no stored settingsThe product. Switch on Enable Preorder for Pickup in Product Behaviors. The editor describes it as: Order now, pick up on a chosen date. Customers pick the date at checkout from your pickup schedule.
The schedule. Go to EasyCart › Settings › Schedule & Locations. The store schedule has one row for each day of the week, plus dated holidays that override a day. Open a day and use its Preorder card:
Open or Closed: whether pickups happen that day.
Preorder window: Opens and Closes in months, days, hours and minutes. They count back from the pickup day: how far ahead ordering starts, and how close to the day it stops. A pickup day outside the window cannot be chosen.
Pickup opens and Pickup closes: the pickup hours for that day.
What the customer sees. At checkout a box called This is a Preorder for Pick Up lists the preorder items. It asks them to Select Pickup Date and Select Pickup Time. The calendar greys out closed days, holidays marked closed and days outside the window. The time list only offers your pickup hours. If they skip it, checkout says the order requires a pickup date and time. To add your own instructions to that box, fill in Pre-order pickup instructions in Settings › Checkout, in the Pickup scheduling card.
⚠️ Careful: Time zones matter here. Schedule times are read in your WordPress timezone, so set the right zone under Settings › General in WordPress before you publish a schedule.
Part 4. Restaurant pickup
ASAP or a chosen time, inside your hours
no stored settingsThe product. Switch on Enable Restaurant for Pickup in Product Behaviors. Customers choose a ready time, as soon as possible or later today, based on your pickup schedule and hours.
Your hours. In Settings › Schedule & Locations, open a day and use its Restaurant card. Set Opens at and Closes at. Leave both blank to accept orders all day. When the restaurant is closed, checkout says The restaurant is currently closed!.
How pickup times work. In Settings › Checkout, in the Pickup scheduling card:
Restaurant orders can be scheduled is off by default. Off, customers get ASAP only. On, they can also choose a later time.
Pickup time slot interval is the gap between times they can choose. The default is 15 minutes.
Expected preparation time is how many minutes an ASAP order takes. The default is 30.
Restaurant pickup instructions shows your own text in the pickup box.
Checkout shows This is a Pickup Order, the items, and the choice of time. In the last hour before closing it also shows a countdown. Several stores? The same card has Multiple pickup locations (an advanced setting), so customers also choose where to collect. Locations are added on the Store locations tab.
What you and the customer get afterwards
Confirmation, receipt and the order list
no stored settingsFor the customer. The order confirmation page and the receipt email carry a pickup message. For a preorder it reads Please be sure to pick up your order on the date and a one-hour window. For a restaurant order it reads Your order has been received and you may pick it up at the time. The wording is editable in Settings › Language.
For you. Preorder orders carry a Preorder badge in the order list, and a Preorders tile filters to them. Two optional columns can be added in Settings › Admin, in the Orders card: Pre-order pickup date column and Restaurant pickup time column.
Test it
Each mode in a private window
no stored settingsUse a private window that is not logged in as an admin.
Inquiry. Open the product and send an inquiry. Check that your notification address got it, with the SKU, and that Reply goes to the shopper. Tick the copy box once to check that copy.
Seasonal. Open the product. You should see your phrase and no Add to Cart.
Preorder. Add a preorder product to the cart and go to checkout. Open the calendar and check that closed days are greyed out. Pick a date and time, place a test order and read the confirmation message.
Restaurant. Place an order during your hours, then look at it outside your hours to see the closed message.
Good to know
When something goes wrong
The usual reasons a form, a date or a time is missing.
If it does not work
The usual problems
no stored settingsThe inquiry email never arrives. Check Store notification addresses in Settings › Email, and your host’s mail delivery. Then turn on Log refused inquiries in Settings › Products, because the spam protection may be refusing it.
The Inquiry URL is ignored. The built-in form is on. Turn off Built-in inquiry form on inquiry-mode products in Settings › Admin, or use the store’s form.
The switches are locked. They need WP EasyCart PRO or Premium.
No dates can be picked for a preorder. The schedule has no Preorder day that is open, or the preorder window is set so that no day falls inside it. Open the schedule and check the Preorder card for each day.
A restaurant customer sees no time to choose. You are outside your Restaurant hours, or Restaurant orders can be scheduled is off, so only ASAP is offered.
Locations are missing. Store locations need an active license.
Keep going
Related panels
Every option on the Type & Behavior tab.
Store schedule and locations in full.
The Pickup scheduling settings on the Checkout panel.
Hide prices on inquiry and seasonal products.
Ready to run your store on WP EasyCart?
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