How to Notify Customers When Products Are Back in Stock

Potential sales can slip away because items are out of stock on your Shopify store. 

“Sorry, this product is currently unavailable.” Those words can send eager shoppers straight to your competitors. 

Today’s eCommerce shoppers are used to convenience at every turn. They can track packages in real-time, get same-day delivery, and receive personalized recommendations for discovering new products that might interest them. Against this backdrop, a simple “we’ll let you know when a particular product is available again” option is increasingly expected.

Let’s discuss how back-in-stock notifications can help you recover those almost-lost sales and grow your customer email lists.

Running out of popular items happens to every Shopify store. But here’s the thing – customers who try to buy something that’s unavailable are showing serious shopping intent. These aren’t casual browsers or window shoppers; they’re people ready to spend money with your brand!

Have you ever checked your analytics to see how many people visit out-of-stock product pages and abandon your store immediately afterward they can’t make a purchase? Those numbers represent real money left on the table. 

Without a system to capture this interest, you’re essentially saying goodbye to guaranteed revenue. But with the right approach, you can transform stockouts from frustrations into future sales opportunities.

Here’s where it gets interesting – shoppers who sign up for back-in-stock alerts convert at higher rates than your average site visitor. Why? Because they’ve already shown they want that specific product from your store.

When customers face this dead end, they typically do one of three things:

“Well, that was disappointing.” Closes tab

This is the worst-case scenario. The customer abandons not just the purchase of that product, but potentially your entire brand. Studies show that 21-41% of shoppers will never return to a site after an out-of-stock disappointment. That’s a lot of lifetime value walking out the virtual door.

“I’ll just try again next week…”

We all know how this story ends. Despite their best intentions, most customers won’t remember to manually check your store again. Life gets busy, other shiny products catch their eye, and that potential sale slowly fades away. Even the most determined shoppers who do return might find the item still unavailable. That could lead to creating doubt between your customers and your brand.

“I wonder if [your competitor] has this…”

In just a few clicks, your customer buys the same or a similar product from another store. Not only have you lost this sale, but you’ve potentially introduced your customer to a competitor they might stick with long-term.

Let’s break down the main channels and see which might work best for your Shopify store. 

Email remains the gold standard for back-in-stock alerts, and for good reason.

Back-in-stock emails typically see open rates about 3x higher than regular marketing emails. Why? Because they’re solving a specific problem that the customer already told you they have.

Complete guide HERE. 

One thing to watch out for is timing. If your inventory system and email platform don’t talk to each other quickly, you risk sending alerts after items have sold out again. 

For high-demand products that might sell out quickly again, SMS is worth considering.

The numbers tell the story: 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes. When time is of the essence, nothing beats SMS for immediacy.

SMS works particularly well for limited edition releases, seasonal items that sell fast, products with historically quick sellouts, and items with waiting lists.

You need explicit consent (separate from email opt-in), and you must make it easy to unsubscribe. Also, remember that SMS typically costs more than email to send.

If you have a mobile app, push notifications can be powerful for customers who already have your app installed.

Push notifications shine when your customers are repeat buyers, you can deep-link directly to the product page, and you have an active mobile app community.

The key metric here is click-through rate, which averages 15-40% for back-in-stock push notifications, significantly higher than generic promotional pushes.

The most successful Shopify merchants don’t pick just one channel. They let customers choose their preferred notification method.

Some shoppers want the detailed information in an email. Others want the immediacy of a text. By offering options, you increase the chances of reconnecting with that customer, regardless of their communication preferences.

Check out our best practices for back-in-stock notifications. 

You’re already juggling inventory management, marketing, customer service, and a dozen other tasks. The last thing you need is another manual process to handle. This is where the Timesact Preorder app changes the game.

Timesact Preorder turns back-in-stock notifications from a manual headache into an automatic revenue generator. Once installed, it works in the background, collecting interested customers and notifying them at exactly the right moment – without you lifting a finger.

Timesact Preorder adds a clean, customizable widget to your product pages that appears when items are out of stock. Customers can enter their email with a single click to register their interest.

What makes this widget special? It’s designed specifically for conversion. You can:

• • Customize colors and text to match your brand
  • Place the back in stock notification exactly where shoppers are already looking

“When will I know if something’s back in stock?”

With other solutions, you might need to manually check inventory and trigger notifications. Timesact Preorder connects directly to your Shopify inventory system and instantly detects when items are restocked 

Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what other Shopify merchants say:

“Timesact has been a really useful preorder and back-in-stock email notification solution for our store. The back-in-stock email notification is a must-have.” – Thermaltake USA

1. Install the Timesact Notify me app from the Shopify App Store

2. Customize your notification settings and widget appearance (takes about 5 minutes)

3. The system automatically starts collecting interested customers

4. When products are restocked, notifications go out automatically

No spreadsheets. No manual emails. No trying to remember which customers wanted which products. Just automatic sales recovery that works. 

 Want to see how much revenue you could recover? Install today and turn stockouts into opportunities by the end of the day. 

If you have specific needs, book a walkthrough video call with us and let’s catch up.