This guide covers Featured Promotions in Elevate 1.8.9+ and Niche 1.2.10+, and backorder messaging in Elevate 1.8.8+ (also included in 1.8.9) and Niche 1.2.11+. If a setting is missing, check the version of the theme applied to the storefront. Customised copies may need the relevant changes merged.
Featured Promotions
Featured Promotions display an offer message beside eligible products. They are separate from the Featured Products stars used to choose homepage products. BigCommerce manages the promotion rules and message; the theme controls whether the callouts appear and their colours.
1. Set up the promotion in BigCommerce
- Go to Marketing > Promotions and create or edit an Automatic promotion using the standard editor.
- Configure the eligible products, reward, storefront channel and schedule.
- In Summary, enable Show promotion messaging on the product detail and listing pages.
- Enter a clear Message of up to 80 characters, such as “Buy 2 and save 10%”, matching the actual promotion rules. Save the promotion.
BigCommerce allows up to five featured promotions. Coupon promotions are not eligible. Conditions must be absent or based on product value/quantity; product-option/custom-field rules, excluding sale products, customer-segment/shipping-destination restrictions and usage limits can prevent featuring. See BigCommerce’s promotion setup and eligibility guide.
2. Enable and style the callouts in your theme
- Open Storefront > My Themes > Customize, or open the correct storefront’s Themes area through Channel Manager.
- In Theme Styles, open Products for Elevate, or Product & Category for Niche.
- Find Featured Promotions and enable Show featured promotions.
- Use Featured promotion background color and Featured promotion text color to set readable, contrasting colours.
- Save your theme settings and review an eligible product on desktop and mobile.
These versions enable the theme display setting by default, but a qualifying featured promotion must also exist in BigCommerce. Product cards and list views show the first message with a “+ more offers” count when applicable. The product detail page displays all supplied offer messages. Callouts also appear in related-product cards where promotion data is supplied.
Turning off Show featured promotions hides the callouts; it does not disable the discount. To change an offer or its wording, edit the promotion in BigCommerce. If nothing appears, check the applied theme version, display setting, active schedule, storefront channel, product eligibility and featured message.
Backorders
Backorders let customers buy physical stock awaiting replenishment. BigCommerce controls inventory and purchase limits; the theme displays the backorder information it receives. Installing the updated theme alone does not enable backorders.
1. Configure inventory and customer messages
- Go to Settings > Inventory and enable backorders if available for your store. If the controls are missing, check availability and account permissions with BigCommerce.
- Keep inventory tracking enabled for the physical product or its variants. In Products > All Products, open the inventory editor from the stock level, or use Edit inventory within the product. Choose the relevant product/variant and location.
- Check On hand stock and set a suitable Backorder limit. Add a realistic Backorder message, such as “Expected to ship in 2–3 weeks”, for each relevant item/location. Save.
- In the inventory settings, enable the customer display options you need: backordered quantity, ready-to-ship quantity, backorder message, availability prompt and shipping-expectation prompt. Review the wording and save. These display options are separate from enabling backorder purchasing.
For the current platform controls, see BigCommerce’s Backorders guide and its inventory editor guide. Backorder display behaviour is also documented in BigCommerce’s backorder display settings reference.
2. Check the storefront behaviour
There is no separate backorder switch in the theme editor. With BigCommerce configured, these theme versions support:
- Product pages: availability prompts, backordered quantities and messages as the selected variant and requested quantity change.
- Purchase limits: quantity handling based on BigCommerce’s available-to-sell data, including backorder capacity.
- Cart: ready-to-ship and backordered quantities, item messages and a shipping-expectation prompt when enabled and applicable.
- Customer account order details: backordered quantities and messages supplied with the order.
- Bundled picklist items: quantity limits and backorder information for linked products where supported data is supplied.
For example, where two units are on hand and three are requested, one unit may be backordered if capacity permits. Preview each relevant variant and a quantity above on-hand stock, then check the cart messages. Also check what happens when the requested quantity exceeds available-to-sell capacity.
If an item stays sold out or no message appears, check inventory tracking, the selected variant/location, backorder capacity, product purchasability and the inventory display options. Digital products cannot be backordered. A theme update does not configure replenishment dates or your shipping process: keep customer messages consistent with how you actually fulfil mixed in-stock/backorder orders.
