Set up back in stock alerts for Shopify

Learn how to configure back-in-stock email alerts for your Shopify store.

Overview

If a potential customer visits a product page on your store and sees that the product they want is out of stock, it’s important to make it as easy as possible for them to still make that purchase as soon as stock levels are replenished. You can enable back-in-stock email alerts on your Shopify store so that your customers are notified and can quickly return to the product page as soon as they are able complete the purchase.

After you have completed the setup steps outlined below, we automatically apply the necessary scripts to your Shopify store. When a customer chooses to be notified when a product is back in stock, they are sent an email asking them to confirm their opt-in to back-in-stock email alerts.

The opt-in confirmation email contacts receive is a standard system template which you can customise with your logo.

To do this:

1. Go to Contacts > Advanced features.
2. On the Subscription settings tab, select Choose file to upload a logo from your computer.
3. Select SAVE.

Once the contact confirms, their email address is added to a queue for that particular product, and when your catalog sync indicates that the product stock is at least one, an email notification is sent with a direct link back to the product page.

Before you start

Things you need to know:

• Back in stock alerts are supported for all stores connected to your account.
• Back in stock alerts are not supported for the Shopify Express theme.
• You must have transactional email enabled on your account. 

Watch the video

Configure back in stock alerts

Text fields

The configurable text fields for the back in stock button and popover support plain text only.

To add the Back in stock alert button to your product pages, and set up the email alerts:

1. Go to Ecommerce > All stores > Product Notifications.
   

   Product notifications only appears in the menu if you have a connected store.

2. Select NEW NOTIFICATION.
   

1. Type and catalog settings

1. Expand the Notification type drop-down menu and select Back in stock.
2. Expand the Choose catalog drop-down menu and select a catalog.
   

   The Notification type is set to Back in stock by default.

   
3. Optionally, you can add product tags to the Include tags or Exclude tags fields. To do this, type the tag into the relevant box.

   Product filtering with tags

   To display the Notify me button on all products in the selected store and catalog, leave the Include tags and Exclude tags fields empty.

   The below table describes how the application of tags to the Include and Exclude fields affects the display of the Notify me button on your site:

   Tags applied	Result
   Include only	When products are out of stock, the Notify me button only shows on products with any of the tags specified in the Include field. The button does not show on any other products which do not have the specified tags.
   Exclude only	When products are out of stock, the Notify me button only shows on products that do not have any of the tags specified in the Exclude field.
   Include and exclude	When products are out of stock, the Notify me button only shows on products with any of the tags specified in the Include field, however, if a product also has a tag that is specified in the Exclude field, the Notify me button does not show for this product.

   Product tags must only include alphanumeric characters. You can’t create duplicate tags.

4. Select Next.

2. Button and popover settings

1. Under the heading Button position, select whether your store uses a Standard or Custom theme using the radio buttons.
   If your store uses a custom theme, you must enter a CSS selector from your product page layout that can be used to position the Notify me button on your product pages. The Notify me button appears after the page element that you specify.
   

   If you’re unsure what to enter here, your Shopify agency or developers can help you.

2. To configure your button style, expand the Button font drop-down menu to select a font, then enter your button text, text colour and button colour in the relevant fields.
   

   This is the button that appears on the product page for any out-of-stock product in the selected catalog.

   
3. To configure the popover, select the Heading, Content or Button tab to edit the design options for these features.
   

   This is the popover that appears once a customer selects the Notify me button on the product page.

   

   The Choose channel checkbox for email is selected by default. You can’t edit this.

   Tab	Options
   Heading	Expand the Heading font drop-down menu and select a font. Enter your preferred heading text into the Heading text field. Enter a hex code into the Heading text colourfield.
   Content	Expand the Body font drop-down menu and select a font. Enter your preferred body text into the Body text field. Enter a hex code into the Body text colour field. Enter your watermark text in the Email field watermark field. This is the text that displays by default before any entry is made in the email address field of the popover. Enter your validation text in the Email field validation field. This is the message that displays if a contact enters an invalid email address.
   Button	Expand the Button font drop-down menu and select a font. Enter your preferred button text into the Button text field. Enter a hex code into the Button text colour field. Enter a hex code into the Button colour field.

   You can see a preview of the button and popover styles as you edit them.

4. Select Next.
5. To customise the Thank you message, enter your preferred text in the Title text, Body text and Button text fields, then select Next.
   

   The design for the Thank you popover is copied from the design choices you entered on the previous screen.

6. Select the radio button for Immediately or Daily to set the schedule for your back in stock notifications, then select Next.
   
   1. Immediately: email alerts are sent to queued contacts as soon as a catalog sync updates stock levels to be greater than zero.
   2. Daily: email alerts are sent once a day at the time you specify. To set the time, expand the hours and minutes drop-down menus and choose a time.
      

      Email template is set to the default Back in stock notification triggered campaign, which is automatically created for you. To view the campaign, select Preview.
      
      To learn more, check out the section Edit the back in stock email campaign.

7. A summary of the settings you have configured is displayed. To confirm, select Save.
   

   It may take up to two hours for these changes to take effect on your store.

The scripts which power the back in stock alerts are now added to your store, and you can see the alert you have created under Ecommerce > All stores > Product notifications.

If you want to make any changes, select the Edit icon.

Edit the back in stock email campaign

The first time you create a back in stock product notification, we automatically create a Back in stock notification triggered email campaign in your account.

To edit the triggered campaign:

1. Go to Email > Automation > Triggered campaign content.
2. Select the Product notifications folder.
3. Select the Back in stock notification campaign name, or the Edit icon.
4. Make any changes you want to the campaign design.
   

   To learn more about editing a campaign, check out the section Use EasyEditor to edit your email campaign.

5. Select Save.