6 Pre-Order Landing Pages to Help Drive Early Bird Sales

What if there was a way to de-risk the process of creating new products while also providing a stellar customer experience for your most loyal customers? 

Enter: Pre-order landing pages. 

Pre-order landing pages are one of the simplest methods to:

• drive consumer interest;
• generate brand awareness; and
• encourage sales of a new product. 

In this post, discover how to nurture sales and strengthen customer loyalty with the following pre-order landing page best practices and examples.

What is a pre-order landing page?

A pre-order landing page is a product page that captures an email address to grow a pre-order list or accepts the total or partial payment for the item. Unlike a coming soon page where you are simply collecting an email address, a pre-order landing page is most appropriate for products that are crowdfunded (through platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo), soon to be launched, or recently out-of-stock.

It serves as a type of reservation system that guarantees a customer access to the product at the earliest availability. This process enables ecommerce businesses to secure more sales, regardless of whether the product is ready to ship.

Pre-orders allow businesses to realistically predict demand, thus enabling a more informed manufacturing and production process. A pre-order landing page provides an outlook into which packages, colors, or sizes are in current demand so that proper inventory is readily available. Pre-order landing pages also help generate general awareness around a new launch. 

Pre-order landing page best practices

Just like with any product page, we recommend following conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practices like: 

• Write detailed product descriptions. Include professional imagery (even if just product renderings), a clear product description, product specs, and a shipment delivery window.
• Display immediate value with pre-order incentives. Leverage limited-time discounts, free customization, or early release access to generate interest in a pre-order.
• Be flexible with pre-order payments. If the product is expensive or going to take 6+ months to ship, you may want to take a deposit for a fraction of the total sales price, charge the balance upon shipping, or offer split payments (think Klarna, Affirm, etc) with no interest. 
• Maintain consistent communication to prevent cold feet. Follow-up with email newsletters, free product demos, and more to avoid refunds before shipment. ‍
• Market it to your most loyal fans first. Offer early pre-order access to email newsletter subscribers, loyalty program members, or social media followers to build brand loyalty.

Here are six examples of successful pre-order landing pages to inspire you:

1. Nebia’s bathroom products pre-order landing page

Whenever you are launching a new and innovative product, creating a pre-order page is a smart way to de-risk the process and gauge consumer demand. That’s exactly what Nebia, an innovative bathroom products company, is doing for its new line of bidets:

They use their home page to immediately showcase their new product line with videos about key features. The only CTA above the fold is to their pre-order page on Kickstarter:

Upon landing on the Kickstarter page, you can see a full product video, all of the product specs, key value props, and all of the money they’ve already raised. With over 530 backers and $166,000 raised, that creates added social proof that many people want this new product, which creates further demand.

2. Hummer’s pre-order landing page example

The automotive industry is extremely susceptible to fluctuations in the supply chain, which can drastically reduce resources to produce vehicles to match consumer demand. A pre-order rollout allows manufacturers to forecast the minimum product quantities required to fulfill new orders:

An example of an automotive pre-order landing page in action is the all-new Hummer EV SUV. The new addition to the Hummer lineup is an electric vehicle that the brand has dubbed “the Quiet Revolution.”

Though the landing page urges consumers to “join the Quiet Revolution,” the actual vehicles will not be released until spring 2023 (with some as late as spring 2024):

For many marketers, it’s clear that Hummer is leveraging a fear of missing out (FOMO) with this pre-order landing page. Rather than a simple coming soon page, it enables consumers to make a reservation to get “one step closer” and secure a place in line to submit a vehicle purchase order. The purchase order will occur “several months before the scheduled vehicle production date.”

Despite not being in production, limited quantities of the base model have already reached the maximum number of reservations.

In addition to the FOMO strategies leveraged throughout, Hummer was also very purposeful with their imagery. The landing page features an image of a stimulated vehicle to drive interest in the still-unproduced Hummer EV SUV.

3. Pokémon video game release pre-order landing page

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are two upcoming video game releases that have been made available via pre-order. Both are currently available as a double pack, which offers customers double the in-game exclusives for pre-order purchases:

While the exclusives themselves can help sell the package, it’s the landing page that truly seals the deal. The Pokémon pre-order landing page has a robust description section where everything from included freebies to the potential shipping dates are listed.

For a buyer who might be on the fence about a purchase, a section like this is essential to drive an actual sale. Rather than only describing gameplay, this section addresses every question a potential buyer may have about the pre-order:

The description begins with an anticipated shipment arrival date, which lets buyers know when they can expect their new purchase in the mail. It also describes how and when a buyer will be charged for their purchase (not until the item ships), which enables buyers to decide if the pre-order is a wise financial decision for them. It eliminates any barrier to a potential purchase.

4. Barnes & Noble’s book pre-order landing page

As one of the go-to destinations for best-sellers and freshly published books alike, it’s no surprise that Barnes and Noble have dedicated pre-order landing pages for new releases. An example to study is the individual pre-order landing page for the new Stephen King novel, “Fairy Tale:”

First, the pre-order landing page advertises two ongoing promotions that could reduce the cost of purchasing a pre-order versus a direct sale. 

Barnes and Noble rewards members, in particular, can save 40% off pre-ordered books. There’s an additional 30% off promotion on popular new releases for buyers who pre-order now rather than later:

Second, the pre-order landing page features both an overview of the book as well as an excerpt from the first chapter.

Unlike Hummer, which could leverage an image of a stimulated vehicle to drive interest in its audience, Barnes and Noble had to use methods that would connect with its target audience. In this case, it’s providing a snippet of the book before purchase.

5. Samsung Galaxy’s Book2 pre-order landing page

A recent successful electronics pre-order was for the Galaxy Book2 Pro Series, the brand’s latest two-in-one laptop. The pre-order landing page, created by Samsung, featured all of the details a consumer would need before making a purchase:

From the pre-order time window to the offer terms and conditions, everything is clearly laid out for the consumer:

The most noteworthy aspect of the pre-order landing page is the variety of exclusives made available to the consumer to demonstrate value.

Users were able to choose between bonus gifts with purchase, like Galaxy Buds Pro and a Samsung Multiport Adapter, or up to 500 Air Miles. Users could also save upfront on the pre-order when trading in an eligible device.

6. Fringe Sport’s Raptor Airbike pre-order page

Fringe Sport is another example of how to generate interest and demand for an expensive product up front:

Along with several product photos and a video, they incentivize people further with discounts in the form of $50 off (highlighted in red) and free shipping:

Fringe Sport also does a good job of countering some of the biggest customer objections right on the preorder page with descriptive images and videos, like how to assemble this bike when it arrives.

Getting inspired to launch your pre-order landing page? ConvertFlow has a library of proven landing page templates that you can use.

Just pick a template and customize for your brand and products with ConvertFlow’s no-code, drag-and-drop builder.

Here are some templates to get you started: