An order for something that hasn't yet been launched is known as a pre-order. Because of how difficult it was to find popular things in stores due to their ubiquity, pre-orders were invented. After that, businesses came up with the brilliant concept of letting customers reserve their own personal copy ahead of time, which has been a big success.

Pre-orders give customers the assurance of instant delivery upon release, manufacturers the ability to predict demand and, consequently, the size of initial production runs, and sellers the assurance of minimum sales. High pre-order rates can also be leveraged to boost sales even more.