Certain participating stores will display a release on their website before it is released and allow customers to pre-purchase it.
The current stores that offer this are:
iTunes
Amazon
Juno Download
Traxsource
Beatport
You will see pre-orders within your daily sales estimates.
If you select to allow pre-orders, you must specify the date that pre-orders will go active on the store websites. This date must be before the release date. Please note that you can specify any day to start your pre-orders, however your release can take time to be distributed and pre-orders will not commence until distribution is complete. You can also select which of the supported stores the pre-orders will apply to.
If you are doing an exclusive release, then pre-orders will only be active on that exclusive store. If that store does not offer pre-orders, then pre-orders will not be activated on other stores. Pre-orders are also not available for back catalogue releases.