An online shopper visits your store only to find a product that has run out of stock. There are only two actions that they are likely to take – add the product to their wishlist and come back to it later, or sign up for a back-in-stock notification when it gets restocked.
But either way, they walk away without the product. So what’s more effective to bring them back?
In this post, we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of back-in-stock alerts and wishlist reminders to help you choose the right strategy.
Back-in-stock alerts are automated notifications sent to customers when an out-of-stock product becomes available again. These notifications, or restock alerts, are delivered via email, SMS, push notifications, or channels like WhatsApp, helping brands recover lost sales by notifying interested shoppers the moment inventory is replenished.
Wishlist reminders refer to the automated notifications sent to customers based on items they’ve saved to purchase later. These reminders are targeted at consumers who are interested in the product but don’t have an immediate intent to buy. They can be used to share updates such as price drops, restock alerts, low stock warnings, or limited-time offers to bring the shoppers back to make the purchase.
Let’s look at why leading Shopify stores have set up automated restock alerts with STOQ:
- High purchase intent - These alerts are only sent to those consumers who have willingly signed up to be notified when a product is available. They have a higher purchase intent, leading to an increased probability of a sale.
- Drives immediate conversions - Due to higher purchase intent, these alerts drive higher conversions post-restock. The brand doesn’t require re-engaging or nurturing consumer interest in this case.
- Supports urgency - Most online purchases are made due to FOMO. When a product gets restocked, these alerts help drive the urgency around its availability, leading to almost immediate action from the consumer.
- Seamless integration with preorders and waitlists - Back-in-stock alerts can be used in tandem with other strategies that help the brand secure a sale or purchase intent before the product is available.
While there are several benefits of setting up automated restock alerts, here are some cons of relying on this strategy alone:
- Requires product to be restocked - Unless a product gets restocked, these notifications don’t go through and are not useful for discontinued items.
- Limited window of conversion opportunity - If a product gets restocked after a considerable time, there is a chance that the consumer loses interest in it. The notification then becomes ineffective.
- Needs proactive customer opt-in - Consumers need to proactively opt in to receive these notifications via a channel of their preference. So unless you’re using an app like STOQ to automate multi-channel alerts, you might miss out on opportunities.
Now if you’re considering wishlist reminders, here are some pros to the strategy:
- Helps re-engage passive browsers - Most consumers are window shopping when visiting websites. While they make a huge list of items they’re interested in, these alerts actually help nurture it towards an intent to buy.
- Can be triggered by multiple signals - Wishlist reminders can be used to notify consumers about price drops, restocks, and the availability of new variants.
- Builds emotional connection - Brands have the opportunity to build emotional connections with consumers by understanding their preferences through wishlists and personalizing the communication.
- Useful for upsell and cross-sell - Once a brand understands a consumer’s preference, they can easily personalize product recommendations. This provides a great upsell and cross-sell opportunity to them.
But some of the cons of wishlist reminders that brands need to account for include:
- Lower purchase intent - Compared to those who sign up for restock alerts, wishlist reminders go out to consumers with lower purchase intent. They may or may not convert based on their current interest in the product.
- Lower engagement rate - Due to lower purchase intent than BIS alerts, the engagement rates – irrespective of the channel - are often low too.
- Harder to measure direct conversion impact - Wishlist reminders bring back shoppers to the items saved. But those items can trigger another browsing session, which may or may not lead to a purchase, making the journey harder to track.
Here’s what our team of Shopify experts recommend:
Use back-in-stock alerts when:
- You frequently run out of stock on products or have fast-moving products
- Products are high-demand or seasonal in nature
- You want to recover lost revenue with urgency
Use wishlist reminders when:
- You sell big-ticket items
- You sell slow-moving products
- You want to re-engage window shoppers
- You’re running promotions or price drops on products
As per our State of Back-in-Stock Alerts report, we have found that restock alerts are effective at driving higher conversions. This is simply owing to the fact that the consumer has a higher purchase intent when signing up to receive a notification.
We have recorded an average of almost 28–35% and a click-through rate of 60%. Across most industries, restock notifications add additional revenue to Shopify stores. On the other hand, wishlist reminders see a 2–5% click-to-buy rate due to lower purchase intent while signing up for them – but they do encourage a longer browsing session on the website.
This is why the two strategies should work in tandem.
Using both helps you cover a wide spectrum of consumer behavior and intent – from those who are ready to buy now to those who may need a little nurturing. Here’s an example of a customer journey combining both:
- A shopper visits your store and adds a pair of shoes to their wishlist
- A few days later, you send them a wishlist reminder with a 10% discount on the item
- But when they visit the store, they find the shoe out of stock
- The shopper then signs up for a restock notification through the ‘Notify Me’ button
- As soon as the shoe is back in stock, the shopper is alerted via email/SMS notification
- The shopper clicks through and completes the purchase
STOQ is built to simplify the customer journey and take them from interest to intent and purchase as quickly as possible. Here’s how:
- Add a wishlist-style “Notify Me” button and set back-in-stock alerts to your product pages
- Customize the messaging, look, and channels (email, SMS) to match your brand
- Track signups, send automated reminders, and segment high-intent customers for campaigns
- Integrate with Klaviyo and other marketing tools to build smart flows for both use cases while STOQ does the heavy lifting
Many Shopify stores tend to use back-in-stock alerts and wishlist reminders separately. But we recommend you play on the strengths of both with a Shopify app like STOQ – and not choose only one!