When a product sells out, that doesn't have to mean lost revenue. With Postscript's Back in Stock automation and list growth feature, you can give shoppers a way to sign up for restock notifications directly from your product pages — growing your subscriber list with high-intent users and recapturing sales that would have otherwise slipped away.
This guide walks you through how Back in Stock works, how to set up the automation and customize your opt-in experience, and answers to common questions.
Benefits of Back in Stock
Create another SMS opt-in opportunity to grow your subscriber list
Reclaim lost sales that would've occurred when a product went out of stock.
Keep customers engaged with your brand and track customer demand.
How It Works
With Back in Stock, you can create opportunities for subscribers to opt in to restock notifications for out of stock products.
Below we walk through the shopper experience with Back in Stock, but note that you must enable your Back in Stock notification in order for the opt-in link or banner to appear.
Opt-In Opportunity
When a product is out of stock, the Back in Stock link (or banner) will display on a product page. By default, the opt-in displays as a link directly below the product’s Sold Out button
Highly customized Shopify themes may not support the back in stock link. In these instances, a Back in Stock banner will display at the bottom of the page. You can customize the look and feel of the banner on your Popups page.
When a shopper selects the link or banner, a popup appears.
Existing subscribers: If the shopper has already subscribed to SMS and is cookied, a confirmation button displays giving them the option to opt into or decline back in stock messages for the specific product (or product variant).
New shoppers: If the shopper is not a current subscriber or is not cookied, the popup will display a phone input field and TCPA compliance opt-in language. Opting in will add the user as a subscriber to your shop and include them in the Back in Stock automation. This opt-in follows our confirmed opt-in flow, which requires the subscriber to enter their OOI code or reply "Y" to an initial confirmation message to complete the process.
When Notifications Send
The Back in Stock automation triggers when the inventory for a product (or product variant) increases to a positive value or when you add additional stock to any inventory location.
Back in Stock messages send in a "first in, first out" order meaning shoppers who signed up for back in stock notifications will receive their notifications first.
Note: At this time, your Back in Stock automation will apply to all products and product variants in your shop.
Create a Back In Stock Automation
From your Postscript dashboard, select Messaging from the side menu of then select Automations.
Select Create Automation in the top-right corner of the page.
Select Create an Automation Flow.
For your Trigger event or property, select Product Back in Stock.
Define your Back in Stock Details
Trigger when stock reaches: Specify the minimum inventory level that must be met before Postscript can send back in stock notifications.
For example, if set to 25, Postscript would not send back in stock notifications until a product's inventory level is greater or equal to 25.
Who to message:
Message everyone signed up for back-in-stock alerts
Message a limited number of subscribers
For example, if you plan to stock 10 t-shirts, you could set this filter to 5. Postscript would then send 50 subscribers (5 for each t-shirt) a notification.
This allows you to notify an appropriate amount of subscribers while also preventing negative experiences in low restock situations.
Optional: Define Trigger filter
Product Collection
Product Handle
Product ID
Product Name
Variant ID
Variant Name
Select Update
Drag a message box into your flow and compose your message.
Select Save in the top-right corner of the page to save your changes.
Tips for Your Back in Stock Message
Create a sense of urgency. Use your message copy to create urgency around the restock so subscribers act quickly.
Add personalization with merge tags. Tags like Subscriber - First Name help build rapport, while Product Name speaks directly to the shopper's browsing experience.
Link back to the product. Use the Product Link merge tag to send the shopper back to the product page.
Offer a shortcut to checkout. Add a Checkout Link to let the subscriber skip straight to the checkout process.
Customize Your Back In Stock Opt-In
Turning an Existing Popup into a Back in Stock Popup
From your Postscript dashboard, select Acquisition then select Popups.
Choose the popup that you'd like to copy into a Back in Stock popup.
Select the ... under Action, next to your chosen popup.
Select Clone to..., then Back in stock popup.
Creating a new Back in Stock Popup
From your Postscript dashboard, select Acquisition then select Back in Stock.
Select Create then New Popup.
Choose from Banner Trigger, Button Trigger, or Text Link Trigger popup templates and select Use Template.
Customize your Postscript popup.
Optional: To send Back in Stock emails via Klaviyo, select the Email Collection tab. From the left menu, select Settings and then Klaviyo in Email app dropdown. From the Email lists dropdown, select the list for the collected email address to go into.
Select Save in the top-right corner of the page to save your changes.
Note: From the On-page Popup Trigger, you can change the Display style of your popup between Banner Trigger, Button Trigger, or Text Link.
FAQs
Can I create a back in stock automation for a specific item?
At this time, back in stock automations apply to all products and product variants in your shop. While there is no option to make the automation product-specific or exclude a product, you can use message tags such as Product Name and Product Link to customize sent messages.
If a subscriber gets a back in stock notification, will they continue to receive notifications every time we restock the item?
Only one message per back in stock opt-in is sent. A shopper who signs up and receives a back in stock message will not receive additional back in stock messages for the product. They would need to opt-in for back in stock notifications again to receive a new notification.
What if we only restock a few units for an item? Can we limit how many notifications send?
Yes. The Back in Stock Details will let you send to a smaller number of subscribers. For example, if you restocked 10 t-shirts, you could use this setting to notify only the first 100 subscribers waiting for notification rather than every subscriber who signed up to receive a back in stock notification for the product. As a reminder, back in stock notifications will always send to subscribers in chronological order of their opt-in (first in, first out).
We just updated our inventory. How soon will Postscript send back in stock notifications?
On average, Postscript processes Shopify inventory changes within 5 minutes of the update in your Shopify store. Back in Stock notifications will queue and send out as soon as the inventory data is refreshed in Postscript.
What happens if we sell out of a restocked product after a shopper opts in for back in stock notifications?
If you restock a product, the product sells out, and a subscriber has not been notified, then the subscriber would remain eligible to receive future back in stock notifications.
Does Back in Stock work for products that have Shopify's "Continue Selling When Out of Stock" setting enabled?
No. At this time, Postscript treats products with this setting enabled as in-stock products.
Right now our product pages show the opt-in banner, but we want them to display the link. How do we fix this?
Double-check that your product pages include an "Add to Cart" button. Some shops don't feature this button in the layout or design, but the opt-in link looks for these elements in the code in order to know where to place the link. Without these elements, the link won't display.
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