There’s no question that the novel coronavirus pandemic is impacting retailers with governments around the world shutting down any business deemed “non-essential.” What might be coming as more of a surprise is the impact COVID-19 is having on online Shopify retailers as it ushers in rapid and sweeping shifts in consumer buying patterns.
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If you’re still hiding Shopify out of stock products, you’re missing out in so many ways — the potential sale, the data that a customer wanted that specific product, and the customer’s happiness with your brand. Here’s what you should do instead to increase revenue, get insight into what your customers actually want, and make them happy.
If you run a Shopify store, you know your most difficult task is perfecting your marketing and sales funnel to get customers who are ready to buy to your store’s product pages.
The data backs this up. The average eCommerce conversion rate hovers anywhere from 1-4 percent. So even for the most successful online brands, only a small fraction of people who visit their website actually make a purchase.
And if you hide out of stock products on Shopify? You’re lowering that conversion rate even further, because the product you just hid might be the one someone wanted to buy. Especially since your best sellers will tend to go out stock first, and most often.
So what can you do to stop losing those potential sales, without creating a bad experience for customers? Set up Back In Stock alerts for Shopify instead.
Read on to find out how the best eCommerce brands are using back in stock notifications to increase sales, make better inventory decisions, and delight their customers.
Instead of simply choosing whether to display or hide your out of stock products on Shopify, Back In Stock alerts lets you replace the “Buy” button with a customizable message to “Notify me when the product is available.”
Back in Stock alerts for Shopify let customers get notified by text or email when a sold out product is available, so there’s no need to hide popular items or push them to the bottom of your store’s page when they sell out.
You can change the wording and the style of the button so it blends seamlessly into your site. Then when you restock your inventory, Back In Stock will send your customer an email or text message letting them know they can complete their purchase.
Customers can choose to be notified by email or text message when the product is back in stock, and all of the forms and messages can be customized so they fit with your brand.
So even though you’re not doing any work beyond your normal inventory tracking, you’ve now got an app moving the needle on your sales.
The NASH Collection, a lifestyle brand that embodies love for Nashville, uses Back In Stock alerts across their site and says, “I can’t tell you how excited I am to have installed this app. It’s tripled my online sales… easy!”
For any eCommerce store owner, tripling sales is a big win. So if you have any inventory that tends to sell out, setting up these alerts is a no-brainer.
Another reason you’re missing out if you’re hiding out of stock products is that you’re not collecting any data on what people wanted to buy.
Digging into Back In Stock analytics opens up a whole new data category for your analytics that can help you can lower inventory risks and overhead.
If a product has a massive waitlist, you know you can order big. If another product has a short waitlist, you can continue with smaller orders. If a product has no waitlist and isn’t moving? It’s probably time to think about discounting or discontinuing it.
Big fashion brands, like Skims, use Back in Stock alerts to create wishlists for out of stock items. Wishlists create a great experience for customers, but they’re also a secret weapon for Shopify store owners.
K Beauty eCommerce store, Go Bloom & Glow, says waitlists are a crucial part of their inventory management strategy. “I know what products to stock up next… It also helps in determining which products to discontinue selling by providing data on which product has the shortest waitlist or none at all.”
So in addition to reducing missed sales, you’re getting valuable insight into the overall demand for your various products.
Customers aren’t interested in monitoring your site to see when the thing they wanted to buy is restocked. If they can’t buy something from you, they move on fast. But they’ll also probably remember that experience, and you can damage customer loyalty if you tend to sell out a lot.
One reviewer says, “Really easy way to make customers happy, know what they want, and increase revenue.”
By using Back In Stock alerts, you let customers know about all the products you offer, and if they want to purchase something, you’re making it easy for them, even if it’s out of stock. And the brands with the most loyal customers do everything they can to make things easy for them — because shopping should never be work.
In a 2015 study conducted by IHL Group and reported by CNBC, retailers in the United States operating both online and in-store were losing an average of $1.75 trillion per year with ‘out of stock’, ‘overstock’, and ‘returns’ as the culprit. Yes, you read that correctly. That’s Trillion. An unfortunate $634.1 billion was due to ‘out of stocks’ alone. If it isn’t evident enough why offering back in stock notifications is an absolute must for inventory management, a 2016 report by Accenture stated that 37% of consumers also want to be able to easily order out of stock items with only 43% of retailers providing this ability.
With the widespread use of smartphones, email and SMS messaging between retailers and employers is on the rise. According to Listrack, 75% of consumers prefer SMS. Boasting a 97% read-rate, SMS has become a seriously competitive marketing channel. In order to offer a seamless experience, establish a direct connection with consumers, and build brand loyalty, SMS messaging with back in stock notifications should definitely be a part of your cross-channel marketing strategy. We cannot forget to mention email marketing. Though experiencing some pullback, email marketing still holds a very respectable position in the marketing funnel with 19.8% of all transactions, trailing only paid search and organic search. Email conversion rates hold a very respectable 14% for back in stock alerts.
5. Hear from users who no longer hide out of stock Shopify products.
With all of the research pointing to the success in offering back in stock notifications instead of just hiding out of stock products on Shopify, it really is a no-brainer that you should offer some type of follow up notification for consumers interested in your products, whether it be email, SMS, or both. Don’t take it from us though, hear from the users of Back In Stock and see what all the fuss is about.
We conducted a case study with one of our users, Go Bloom & Glow. They are an online store based in the Philippines offering 100% authentic Korean beauty products as their specialty. Launched in May 2017, they aim to help their customers discover the wonders of Korean beauty.
Why choose Back In Stock?
“In the beginning, when our company was first formed, many of our products were sold out which resulted in customers asking when they would again become available. It was very tedious to keep track of the people who asked and inform them one by one through social media messaging. We searched the Shopify app store for an app capable of managing waitlists, that also had the capability to inform customers when products were restocked. We came across Back In Stock and haven’t looked back."
How do you use Back in Stock?
“Back in Stock has been a savior in regards to inventory management. I know exactly which products to stock up on next which is crucial for our business. It also helps us to determine which products should be discontinued by providing data on the shortest waitlist, or none at all. It’s so convenient that our customers can just click on the ‘Notify me when available’ button on our website. When the product does get restocked, I don’t have to notify any of the customers on the waitlist one by one. Back in Stock just automatically sends the email notifications. All I have to do is update the stock quantities, relax, and just wait for purchases from the waitlist to come in."
Kigurumi has been selling fun, colorful, onesie pajamas for adults since 2011. Back In Stock spoke to the company to find out how an exciting hobby became a triumphant store, and how she uses Back in Stock to increase revenue.
How do you use Back in Stock?
“Back in Stock has made our workflow so much easier. This app has become a crucial part of the process of getting styles back in stock. Customers question all the time if we’re out of a product when it will be back in stock. It’s nice to tell them to join the waitlist on the website, and they’ll receive an email notification as soon as it becomes back in stock. I can’t fathom having to manage a list like that manually, sending out an email every time to each individual. I have done a bit of that manual process before I found this app, and it wasn’t easy or fun. Back in Stock is an unsung hero of our website. People get the back in the stock notification and they respond with “Oh, great, I’ve been waiting for this” then hop on the site right away to make the purchase. Just one or two sales pays for the app itself."
After three years, what originally drove you to install Back in Stock on your store?
“When our store first went live, inventory management became a hurdle for our company. We saw more than half of our styles out of stock for far too long so we searched on the Shopify store and came across Back in Stock to manage our inventory. We chose this app because of the excellent reviews. Having a tool like Back in Stock is great. It’s so simple to notify our customers immediately whenever we get new stock and has become crucial to our sales.
Analytics Dashboard and Reports
Our comprehensive admin analytics dashboard and reports enable you to use data to maximize conversions of newly restocked items.
Customizable Email Template
Easily customize Back in Stock emails by making template changes. We have “no-code” settings available as well as the ability to edit the HTML directly.
Send Emails Directly From Back In Stock
Send back in stock emails, instead of hiding out of stock products, directly from your Back In Stock dashboard. If you want to setup a more advanced pipeline into your email marketing platform, you have options with our email marketing integrations.
Send SMS Directly from Back In Stock
With Back In Stock, you can manage text messages for back in stock notifications directly in the app dashboard. Just log into your SMS Notifications page(Account > SMS Notifications) and follow the instructions. SMS notifications will cost $0.015 per message in addition to your monthly plan and count toward your allotted monthly notification limit. You will even be able to send SMS to any country! If it doesn’t work out for you, just turn it off. Remember that customers must opt-in for this feature to work. Your Back In Stock notification report will include all SMS data along with any other methods you have set up.
Customizable Signup Form and Button
Simply customize the text and styling of the ‘Email when available’ button and signup form to seamlessly match your Shopify theme and branding.
Instant Setup
With a library of Shopify theme integrations already in place, it takes less than 30 seconds to install. We will create more integrations at your request. Just email our support team.
Quantity Required Field
Easily determine the demand for an out of stock item by including a quantity required field on the notification signup form.
Email Delivery Settings
You’ll be able to restrict the number of customers notified with notification rates, send notifications for out of stock products available for preorder, require a minimum quantity of inventory before sending notifications, and temporarily disable all of your store’s email notifications.
Instant and Scalable Email Delivery
Even with a high store volume, Back in Stock will notify your customers within 60 seconds that a sold-out item was restocked.
Experienced Support
Our experienced and highly rated team can help you configure and customize the Back In Stock app on your Shopify store, just reach out to us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. With SMS notifications receiving a staggering 97% open rate, it’s no wonder this new form of marketing is becoming vastly more popular than ever.
Shoelace Retargeting Integration
Automatically create and manage retargeting campaigns with our Shoelace integration. What are retargeting ads? These ads utilize cookies to remind your website visitors of your products once they have left your site. When utilizing this integration, new retargeting campaigns can be created based on your products and the Back in Stock email notifications you have set up. With the ability to set a minimum campaign size, those using this integration will be in full control. Meaning that if the number of unsent notifications for a restocked variant is equal to or greater than the number entered, only then will campaigns be created in Shoelace.
Shopify Theme Integrations
Customizing your Shopify theme can be one of the most time exciting yet time-consuming steps in the process of opening a Shopify store, but it’s simple with Back in Stock. We are fully integrated with loads of popular Shopify themes which makes integrating with Back In Stock extremely simple. All you have to do is enable Back in Stock straight from the theme settings tab. No CSS required, no Liquid, no mistakes – and easy upgrades with each new release of your theme. Back in Stock offers the ultimate convenience for customers interested in getting in-stock notifications resulting in higher conversions for store owners, without disrupting the flow of the shopping experience in the slightest. We’ve taken precautions to work with developers offering popular Shopify themes to ensure that Back in Stock integrates beautifully. We will even create an integration with your theme if we haven’t already. All you have to do is reach out to our support team, and we’ll get started as soon as possible.
Email Marketing and Mailing List Integrations
Our email marketing integrations offer a low-cost and minimal maintenance approach to grow your mailing lists in order to communicate to your customers that a sought after item is back in stock, promoting special offers or sales, brand new products, or even just a celebratory birthday message.
In order to streamline the process of growing your mailing list, we have added the ability to include a mailing list opt-in checkbox to the notification request message. If they opt-in, Back In Stock will automatically add those who sign up for notifications to your email lists. These highly interested customers are more likely to evolve into sales in the future as they have already demonstrated interest in your store.
Here’s how it works:
A potential customer is interested in a product on your store but unfortunately, that product is out of stock. The Back In Stock app will produce a notification request message which states that the product is out of stock, and asks the customer if they would like to receive a follow up notification once the product is back in stock
MailChimp
Mailchimp is a superb email marketing platform with simple, yet effective functionality. Free and pay-as-you-go plans are also of benefit, along with high-quality support documentation, and it’s general ease of use. Importing and Exporting contact lists are extremely easy with Mailchimp. You can even set batches by timezone to increase deliverability. Mailchimp is integrated with such a high volume of other apps and services making this integration a huge plus for Back In Stock users.
Constant Contact
While Constant Contact doesn’t have a free plan, this email marketing service does offer no monthly email caps and excellent customer support. Not restricted to large companies, Constant Contact is a simpl way for small companies to get started with email marketing. Special features such as the newsletter archive and embedded “action” blocks elicit the hype of Constant Contact. Regarding the newsletter widget, it can display content that was delivered prior to your recipients sign up on your email list allowing them to catch up on everything. And with action blocks, you can create surveys or RSVPs making it simple to engage with your subscribers.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is a superb option for those where the visual impact of messaging is a top priority. The straightforward Campaign Monitor dashboard, creatively appealing templates, intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, and automated email workflow options each make Campaign Monitor a very user-friendly email marketing platform.
Klaviyo
Later on, we will compare our features and pricing with Klaviyo’s back in stock functionality on Shopify, but they also offer many other features that beautifully integrate with Back In Stock. Klaviyo is an ideal choice for email marketing for eCommerce shops due to its emphasis on tracking customer habits in your store. With convenient templates like an abandoned cart or even product suggestions based on your browsing history, Klaviyo is an excellent choice for email marketing. Please note that support is limited to email only.
You may also be considering how Back in Stock holds up as a Klaviyo alternative because both apps can handle back in stock notifications for Shopify store owners. Plain and simple, Back in Stock is more simple to use because it focuses on doing one task and doing it well. The Back in Stock app’s no-code setup offers dozens of theme integrations as well as free customization assistance from our support team.
Back in Stock also offers important features for in-stock notifications that Klaviyo doesn’t offer the ability for customers to include their desired quantity and complete control over your email delivery settings so you can make smarter inventory decisions.
While Klaviyo delivers additional features on top of back in stock notifications, many store owners find it overwhelming to get started with Klaviyo, and a developer is definitely necessary in order to dive deep into its feature set.
As far as pricing is concerned, Back in Stock beats Klaviyo here as well with Starter plans starting at $19/mo and Premium plans at $79/mo which includes 50k notifications! Klaviyos starter plan is $20/mo and its premium pricing plan is not listed.
How do I continue selling out of stock products on Shopify?
Sign up for an account with Back In Stock. You will be able to capture customer data for sold out products. Once the products become back in stock, you can send out a notification to those who signed up.
Can I manage my own account and upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time?
Of course! You will have the ability to adjust your account settings at any time. If your business is seasonal, you can ramp up your plan, or downgrade at any time. If you want to cancel, you can do so at any time from the app dashboard or from the Shopify store settings.
How long is the trial period?
Simply put, you can install a free account for 14 days. During your trial period, you will gain access to the Medium Plan and have 500 email notifications at your disposal!
Once the trial period is complete, (or you exceed the 500 email quota), you will be prompted to choose a paid plan which fits your usage. If you do not choose a plan, you will be placed on our free plan, which allows 5 email notifications each month.
Is an annual subscription available?
No, we only offer monthly plans at this time.
Can email templates be customized?
Totally! Back in Stock makes customization simple with settings right in the dashboard. You can also access the email template itself to make more in-depth changes.
We have more information on our email template here.
How and when are back in stock notifications sent out?
Once you update your stock levels, notification emails are typically sent out within one minute, but usually just seconds after!
I have a theme already set up for my store, will Back in Stock work with it?
Back in Stock with most of the popular themes on Shopify, but if we do not have an integration for your installed theme, just send us an email at support@backinstock.org. Our support team will create a new integration to work with your theme!
Can Back in Stock integrate with my mailing list?
Back in Stock has mailing list integrations available with Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, ConstantContact, and Klaviyo. We also have a Shopify Customers integration, this adds customers to your store mailing list and can connect with most Mailing lists.
In doing this, you will ensure that your automated collections do not display any products that are out of stock to your customers. Any out of stock products will appear in your collections again once you adjust the inventory.
Stop missing out on sales opportunities by hiding out of stock Shopify inventory.
Instead of simply choosing whether to display or hide your out of stock products on Shopify, Back In Stock alerts lets you replace the “Buy” button with a customizable message of “Notify me when the product is available.”
Make better inventory decisions by analyzing product waitlists.
Another reason you’re missing out if you’re hiding out of stock products is that you’re not collecting any data on what people wanted to buy. Digging into Back In Stock analytics opens up a whole new data category for your analytics that can help you can lower inventory risks and overhead.
Turn customer disappointment into delight.
Customers aren’t interested in monitoring your site to see if the item they wanted to buy is restocked. If they can’t buy something from you, they move on fast. But they’ll also probably remember that experience, damaging customer loyalty in the process.
A note of advice: Be clear about the expected return date. Your customers will appreciate the honesty and sincerity in your marketing communications.
Listen to the Stats
Retailers in the United States are losing an average of $1.75 trillion per year with ‘out of stock’, ‘overstock’, and ‘returns’ as the culprit.
An unfortunate $634.1 billion was due to ‘out of stocks’ alone.
37% of consumers also want to be able to easily order out of stock items with only 43% of retailers providing this ability.
75% of consumers prefer SMS, boasting a 97% read-rate.
Email marketing still holds a very respectable position in the digital marketing funnel with 19.8% of all transactions, trailing only paid search and organic search.
Email conversion rates hold a very respectable 14% for back in stock alerts.
Hear from Back In Stock users
Don’t take it from us, here what our customers have had to say:
“We came across Back In Stock and haven’t looked back.”
“Back in Stock has been a savior in regards to inventory management. I know exactly which products to stock up on next, which is crucial for our business. Back In Stock also helps us to determine which products should be discontinued by providing data on the shortest waitlist, or none at all. When the product does get restocked, I don’t have to notify any of the customers on the waitlist one by one. Back in Stock just automatically sends the email notifications. All I have to do is update the stock quantities, relax, and just wait for purchases from the waitlist to come in.”
“Back in Stock has made our workflow so much easier. This app has become a crucial part of the process of getting styles back in stock. Back in Stock is an unsung hero of our website.”
Features of Back In Stock
Integrations
Pricing
Competitive pricing, rave reviews, and reliable software make Back In Stock a must for all Shopify store owners.
Thanks for reading. Forget the old days when you would hide out of stock Shopify products, therefore leaving money on the table. Why not make it easy for your customers to purchase from you in the future? Use back in stock notifications to increase sales, make better inventory decisions, and delight customers. It’s a no-brainer.
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I'm Celena, the author. I am a business and technology writer with a passion for helping businesses run better.