Use this to control exactly how many units can be sold during a presale campaign, either at the product level or per variant. This is useful when you have limited stock and want Submarine to track it - rather than relying on your existing Shopify inventory settings.
When to use this
When creating a presale campaign, you’ll now have two options: Track with Submarine OR Track with Shopify. Track with Submarine if you want to limit how many units are sold during the presale. This is ideal when:
- Different variants have different stock levels (eg 50 units of Small, 20 of Large)
- You have a fixed number of units available and want to avoid overselling
- You want a single overall limit that applies across all variants of a product
Limits don't block sales by default. Setting a limit in Submarine publishes the values to your product and variant metafields, which your storefront and cart function can use to disable the Add to Cart button or block checkout once the reserved count meets the limit. If your theme or cart function isn't configured to reference these metafields, sales won't be blocked automatically.
Track with Shopify if you'd prefer to let Shopify's existing inventory settings do the work - for example, if you want to sell into negative stock, or if your inventory is already managed in Shopify and you don't need a separate presale cap.
The inventory tracking policy is set at campaign creation and can't be changed afterwards. If you need to switch policies, you'll need to delete the campaign and start again.
Using Submarine to set limits when creating a campaign
- Open the Submarine and click the Add presale button in the top right-hand corner
- Select Track with Submarine
- Click Continue
- Create the campaign as usual. A new Inventory limits section will appear in the form - this is only visible when Track with Submarine is selected
- Depending on whether you are creating a variant or product campaign, you’ll be able to:
- Product level limit - add a single limit that applies across all variants of that product
- Variant level limits - add individual limit per variant, useful when stock differs by size, colour, or other options
- Enter the relevant limit values
- Once the rest of the campaign form is complete, click Save
Updating limits on a live campaign
Limits can be adjusted after a campaign has launched.
- Open the presale campaign in Submarine
- Click Edit in the top right-hand corner.
- Update the relevant product or variant limit values.
- Click Save.
Decreasing a limit below the already-reserved amount will not cancel any existing orders. The metafields will update to reflect the new limit, but orders already placed are unaffected.
Understanding the limit display on a launched campaign
Once a campaign is live, you'll see a Limit vs Reserved count on the campaign page. This shows:
- Limit - the maximum number of units set for that product or variant
- Reserved - how many units have been ordered so far
For campaigns using Track with Submarine, a Total Combined Limit is also available in your product metafields. This is the sum of all variant limits for a product - for example, if a product has 4 variants each with a 25 unit limit, the Total Combined Limit will show 100.
Metafields reference
When Track with Submarine is selected, Submarine publishes the following data to your product and variant metafields:
- Variant metafields - the limit and reserved count for each variant in the campaign
- Product metafields - the inventory tracking policy and the Total Combined Limit (sum of all variant limits)
These metafields can be used by your theme, cart function, or checkout extension to surface limit information to customers or restrict purchasing once the limit is reached.
