With our Back in Stock automation and list growth feature, you can grow your subscriber list with high-intent users as well as reclaim potentially lost revenue.
Why You Should Check Out Postscript 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 Back in Stock 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.
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.
- For shoppers who have already subscribed to SMS and are cookied, a confirmation button displays and gives them the option to opt into or decline back in stock messages for the specific product (or product variant).
- For shoppers who are not current subscribers or 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 that the subscriber reply “Y” to an initial confirmation message in order to complete their opt-in process. This is necessary to add the shopper as a subscriber and add them to the back in stock notification automation.
Our 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.
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.
Create a Back In Stock Automation
- Select Messaging from the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Automations.
- Select Create Automation in the top-right corner of the page.
- Select Custom Automation.
- You have the option to select the Product Back in Stock template which pre-selects your automation trigger and provides a sample message copy.
- For your Automation Trigger, select Product Back in Stock.
- If desired, choose and define your Trigger Filters.
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Subscribers to Text Per Restocked Unit: Define how many subscribers will be notified for each unit of inventory you've restocked.
- 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.
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Minimum Inventory: 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.
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Subscribers to Text Per Restocked Unit: Define how many subscribers will be notified for each unit of inventory you've restocked.
- Select Save & Continue to Messaging to create your Back in Stock message.
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Add personalization with message tags. Message tags are a simple and effective way to build rapport and trust with your customers.
- Add dynamic tags such as {first_name} so that the sent message populates with the subscriber's first name.
- Tags like {product_name} also help speak directly to the shopper's browsing experience.
- Use {shop_link} to link the shopper back to your store
- Add {instant_checkout_link} to let the subscriber skip straight to the checkout process. Learn more here.
- Create a sense of urgency. Use your message copy to create a sense of urgency around the cart. For example, Last time {product_name} was in stock, it sold out in a day! or Did you know? {product_name} is limited edition! Don't miss out.
Customize Your Back In Stock Opt-In
You can customize the look and feel of your Back in Stock link and banner on your Popups page.
- Select Acquisition in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Popups.
- Locate and select your Back in Stock link and select Edit.
- Customize the link and banner text, color, and font size.
- Select Save in the top-right corner of the page to save your changes.
Got Questions? We've Got Answers!
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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_url} to customize sent messages.
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If a subscriber gets a back in stock notification, will they continue to receive notifications every time we restock the item?
- Nope! 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. A shopper would need to opt-in for back in stock notifications again to receive a new notification.
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What if we only restock a few units for an item? Can we limit how many notifications send?
- Absolutely! The Subscribers to Text Per Restocked Unit trigger filter 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 (i.e., first in, first out).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Get Support
Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!
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