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Selling

Back-in-Stock Waitlist: Email Shoppers When a Product Returns

Let shoppers leave their email on a sold-out product, see who is waiting for what, and have them emailed when you restock.

Overview

When a product sells out, its product page offers shoppers a box to leave their email and a Notify me button. Customers → Waitlist shows each product people are waiting for. When the product is back in stock, everyone waiting is emailed that it is back, however the stock came back.

The waitlist is part of the Growth plan and above.

How shoppers join

On the product page. The Notify me box appears when a product is out of stock: its stock is zero, it tracks stock, it does not take backorders, it is not a gift card, and none is available to order through a reseller partner. The shopper types one email address and clicks Notify me, and sees "You're on the waitlist — we'll email you when it's back in stock."

At checkout. If an item runs out while a shopper is checking out, that item cannot be bought, and the shopper's email is added to the product's waitlist.

  • One internet connection can join up to 10 waitlists an hour.
  • A product can have up to 5,000 people waiting. Past that, shoppers see "This waitlist is full. Please check back later."
  • Someone who joins again after being emailed is waiting again.

A waitlist is for the whole product, not for one size or colour.

The waitlist page

Go to Customers → Waitlist. Each row is a product, with:

  • Current stock (shown in red at zero);
  • Waiting — people who have not been emailed yet;
  • Notified — how many have been emailed;
  • Restock — a link to the Inventory page, shown while the product is out of stock.

The cards at the top add these up: Products with a waitlist, Customers waiting and Already notified. Click a column heading to sort.

When the email goes out

The email is sent when the product is live and its stock is above zero again. Adding stock on the Inventory page or through the inventory endpoint of the BestWebby API sends it straight away. Any other way stock comes back sends it within about five minutes:

  • editing the product, or the stock of one of its sizes or colours;
  • a CSV import;
  • receiving a purchase order;
  • a return put back into stock, or the till.

Everyone still waiting for that product gets one email, from your store's own email address, in the language they joined in (English or French). It names the product and has a button to the product page on a storefront that sells it.

Each person is emailed once per sign-up. If a send fails, or the address is on your do-not-email list, that person stays waiting and is tried again a few minutes later.

When nobody is emailed

  • The product is not live (a draft or archived product). People stay waiting until it is live and in stock.
  • The store has no live storefront. Nobody is emailed and everyone stays waiting until a storefront is live.
  • A product with sizes or colours is emailed as a whole: when any of its sizes or colours is back, everyone waiting for the product hears about it.