Short answer: Once a campaign exceeds 300 orders, or you need to cap shipments by pickup date, a dedicated pre-order system pays off. A standard build takes about 6 weeks and NT$180,000 to 350,000, and its core is cut-off rules, batch shipping and automatic reconciliation, not a pretty product page.
A bakery in Taichung took 800 Mid-Autumn mooncake box orders through Google Forms, payment screenshots on LINE and an Excel shipping schedule. Fourteen orders were duplicated, nine customers paid but had no order on file, accounting spent three days reconciling, and the owner answered messages all night during peak week.
When It Fits and When It Doesn't
Bottom line: you need a custom pre-order system only with many items, concentrated campaigns and capped shipments.
| Good fit | Poor fit |
|---|---|
| Holiday meals, mooncakes or gift boxes with 300+ orders per campaign | One sale a year, under 100 orders |
| Caps by pickup date or shipping batch | In-stock items shipped on order |
| Delivery, store pickup and corporate group orders together | One channel, one product |
| E-invoices, ERP or cold-chain integration | Products and prices not yet decided |
Alternatives Matrix
Bottom line: forms or platforms for small volume; custom only for high volume and complex rules.
- Google Forms plus bank transfer: free, but no stock control and manual reconciliation.
- E-commerce platform pre-order features (e.g., SHOPLINE, Cyberbiz): monthly fee plus transaction fees, live in days; limited flexibility for batches and per-day caps.
- WordPress plus plugins: cheap to build, but plugin stacks are the most likely to break under peak traffic.
- Custom pre-order system: higher upfront cost; rules, reports and integrations follow your process exactly.
Full Process Breakdown
Bottom line: six weeks in four stages, each with a deliverable you can sign off.
- Week 1, requirements: items, dates, daily shipping caps, payment methods; deliverable: requirements list in Notion.
- Week 2, flow design: ordering, payment, date change and refund flows; deliverable: Figma prototype.
- Weeks 3-5, build: cut-off engine, ECPay payments, a Ministry of Finance e-invoice value-added center, shipping label export; deliverable: staging site.
- Week 6, test and launch: 50 mock orders and reconciliation checks; deliverable: live site and manual.
Real Cost Breakdown
Bottom line: beyond development, budget yearly for payments, invoices and hosting.
- Standard pre-order system: NT$180,000-350,000 (ScriptWalker's custom system development starts at NT$80,000, enough for a single-product lean version).
- Card processing: about 2.75%-2.8%, depending on your payment provider contract.
- E-invoice value-added center: billed by volume, typically a few hundred NT dollars a month and up.
- Hosting and SSL: about NT$6,000-24,000 a year, with temporary upgrades for peak season.
- Pre-season adjustments and maintenance: about 10%-15% of the build cost a year.
Reality vs Expectations
Bottom line: confirming rules always takes longer than coding.
- Expected: no more customer service. Reality: date and address changes still make up half of inquiries, so build self-service changes.
- Expected: one stock number. Reality: caps by pickup date, flavor and channel.
- Expected: reuse it next year as is. Reality: items, prices and dates change every year, so reserve a budget.
Common Traps and How to Avoid Them
Bottom line: most pre-order failures happen at the edges of payment and cut-off.
- Stock sells out mid-payment: hold stock for 15 minutes per order, then release.
- Unpaid ATM transfers: use virtual accounts with a 48-hour deadline.
- Inconsistent cut-off times across pages: one back-office setting read site-wide.
- Cold-chain overload: cap shipping batches by the carrier's daily pickup capacity.
- Voided invoices: issue invoices only after payment succeeds and auto-issue allowances on refunds.
Success Metrics and the First 90 Days
Bottom line: track lost orders and reconciliation time before conversion rate.
- Day 30: zero lost or duplicate orders; reconciliation down from 3 days to half a day.
- Day 60: payment completion above 85%; customer messages down 40%.
- Day 90: repeat-customer list built so you can notify past buyers before the next campaign.
Decision Checklist
Bottom line: six or more checks means a custom pre-order system is worth evaluating.
- ☐ Over 300 orders per campaign
- ☐ Three or more items or flavors
- ☐ Caps by pickup date
- ☐ Both delivery and store pickup
- ☐ Corporate or bulk orders
- ☐ Reconciliation takes more than a day
- ☐ You have oversold or lost orders
- ☐ You need e-invoices
- ☐ ERP or inventory integration
- ☐ Two or more campaigns a year
- ☐ Over 50 customer messages a day in peak season
- ☐ You want a repeat-customer list
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a pre-order system take?
About 6 weeks for a standard build, 8 to 10 weeks with ERP or multi-warehouse shipping. Start 2 months before the campaign.
Full payment or a deposit?
Take full payment for items under NT$3,000; for high-ticket items take a 30% deposit and collect the balance before shipping.
Can I just use an e-commerce platform?
Yes, for one product and low volume. With many items, batch shipping or per-day caps, platform settings often fall short.
What about refunds?
State refund deadlines and fees clearly. Food often falls outside the 7-day cooling-off period, so have a lawyer review the terms.
Next Step
Bottom line: Lunar New Year is about three months away, which is just enough time. ScriptWalker (a Taiwan-based custom Laravel and Flutter development studio) can review your last campaign's order data for free and tell you within 30 minutes whether a platform or a custom build fits.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 0916-224-047
- LINE: @ufv9089p