Coming Soon & Pre-order — the homepage carousel

An announcement without a date beats a missed deadline every time

A date announced and then pushed back disappoints. A date never given never does: the customer waits, without waiting for anything precise. This module announces your upcoming releases and opens pre-orders on the homepage, without displaying a single date.

The carousel

It appears at the top of the homepage, before the catalogue. Each product shows its image, its name, and one or both of these two modes:

• Announcement. The product is not yet available. The customer sees an "In preparation" badge and a "Notify me" button, which takes them to the product page to ask to be told when it is released.
• Pre-order. The product can already be ordered, even if it has not been made yet. The customer sees a "Pre-order" badge, its price and a "Pre-order it" button.

The two modes are not mutually exclusive. A product filed under both categories at once is announced as in preparation and available to reserve right now: the customer sees both badges, the price and the order button. That is the combination that sells.

Announcing a release

Create the product page as usual. In its associations, tick the Coming soon category, which the module creates when it is installed. Save: the product appears in the carousel.

You can announce a product that is still offline. It appears in the carousel with its image and name, but without a link, and the "Notify me" button is replaced by a greyed-out "Not yet available" button. You can announce it before its page is even ready.

Opening a pre-order

Tick the Pre-orders category on the product page, alone or alongside Coming soon. In the tab that handles quantities, allow orders when the product is out of stock, and fill in the label shown in that case, for example "Pre-order: ships within 3 weeks". That is where the timeframe is stated, and the only place it should be stated.

A pre-order price (optional)

You can reward those who reserve before the release. On the product page, in the prices tab, add a specific price with a discount and an end date: the pre-order price stops by itself on that date, without you having to think about it.

The carousel then shows the regular price struck through, the pre-order price and a label that shows the discount exactly as you set it: a 15% discount shows as "−15 %", a €5 discount shows as "−€5.00". Prices follow the rule of the rest of your shop: tax included, or tax excluded for customers who see prices without tax.

On release day

Untick the category on the product page. The product leaves the carousel and joins the regular catalogue. Nothing else to do.

Two blocks at the bottom of the homepage

The module is not limited to the carousel. At the bottom of the homepage, it adds two blocks:

• Products at random, just below the other homepage blocks: one to eight products, drawn each time from the Home category (the products you have ticked there) or from your whole catalogue, as you choose. From the whole catalogue, the shop window renews itself, with nothing for you to pick. A single product is shown large, with its summary; several are shown side by side.
• Around the shop, just above the footer: cards leading to your blog, your forum and your photo galleries. Each card only appears if it leads somewhere: the blog with the News and blog module, the galleries with the Photo galleries module, the forum as soon as you enter its address.

Each block disappears completely when it has nothing to show, and each one can be switched off with one click on the configuration page.

It cannot bring your shop down

• The carousel never loads more than 12 products, and the random draw never sorts your catalogue: its cost does not grow with the size of your catalogue. The module cannot slow down your homepage or trigger a 504 error.
• It receives no data from visitors: there is nothing to attack through this route.
• At the slightest incident, the block concerned clears itself and the shop stays up: it cannot trigger a 500 error. The incident is recorded in the PrestaShop log.

What it does not do

• It does not send the alert emails itself: PrestaShop's built-in Email Alerts module takes care of that.
• It does not display availability dates. That is not an oversight: it is a decision.
• It does not change the rest of your catalogue. It only reads its two categories and, for the random draw, the Home category or the whole catalogue.

Installation

Upload, install, enter your licence key: two minutes. The module creates its two categories itself and places the carousel first on the homepage. A complete manual comes with the module: every setting is explained.