A pre-order can offer information about demand before a product arrives. However, its meaning depends on the conditions: a non-binding reservation and a confirmed order do not have the same value for planning quantities.
I propose to distinguish information requests, expressed preferences and actual commitments. The applicable conditions, including those relating to times and cancellations, must be made understandable and verified for the channel used. The commercial data should be read along with these differences.
A hypothetical example is a collection shown to a group of regulars. The interest received describes that group, without demonstrating the behavior of the entire market. Size availability, final price and waiting time can also change the next choice.
Planning should then use pre-ordering as additional information, along with production capacity and risk of unsold. A tracking can compare initial interest, confirmations, and completed purchases. This helps improve future estimates. The usefulness of the pre-order emerges when it makes the relationship between observed demand and productive commitments clearer, avoiding transforming preliminary signals into already realized sales.