Your Shopify store can lose almost 50% of intended sales when shoppers encounter stock-outs. That’s a huge loss. Isn’t it?And so, you have to put in efforts to bring these shoppers back to your store. Back in stock emails are one of the best strategies to bring back shoppers - they have a conversion rate of 22.5%.But do you know how you can bring back shoppers through email? What should your emails tell subscribers? How can you make restock emails more impactful and drive results?We’ll tell you all about Shopify restock email strategies in this blog.

9 types of restock emails that you can use for your Shopify store

1. Simple restock email

Your subscribers share their email address so that you can notify them when the product gets restocked. And so, your first restock email should simply alert them.The key purpose of this restock alert is to inform subscribers that the product they were waiting for is now available on your Shopify or Shopify Plus store. It should have all the elements required to drive subscribers to the next step - visit the product page on your website, and make a purchase. For example, the call to action button is a necessity. It will take them to the product page.

2. Restock email + product explanation

The purpose of your back in stock email is to get subscribers to make purchases. Now, it’s possible that by the time they receive your email, their interest in the product has diminished. But you can reignite their interest. Here’s how:

• Add an impressive image of the product
• Write engaging email copy
• Personalize content. For example, mention the specific size the subscriber’s looking for or the color ‘Size ‘M’ is available in your favorite color, blue.’
• Write the copy well and share all product details to make them fall in love with the product once again
• You could even add words like ‘best-selling’, ‘fast-selling’, ‘most-sold’ to let customers know how popular the item is

3. Back in stock email + social proof

Word of mouth marketing drives $6 trillion consumer spending annually. And your Shopify restock alert emails are an excellent opportunity to share social proof. Wondering how to go about it? Here are some things you can do:

• Share what customers who bought the particular product had to say about it - a testimonial or a product review.
• In marketing, videos are more impactful than text. Share customer reviews in the form of videos to bring out its authenticity. Some brands have improved click-through rates by 8X by sharing personalized videos. That’s how powerful customer videos are.

Pro tip: share social proof, testimonials, reviews without making it look like you’re selling your product. Make it look and sound like you’re helping the shoppers.

4. Restock email + FOMO

Human beings tend to panic when things are running out or are scarce. Shopify store marketers can take advantage of this. How? Combine FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) with restock emails.Apply tactics like limited availability, time or quantity to make your email subscribers take faster actions. Some ways to do this:

• Add a countdown timer to your email to increase the sense of urgency
• Create a sense of urgency with the help of scarcity. Let subscribers know only limited pieces are available
• Make it exclusive. For example, you can make it clear that there’s a discount exclusively for email subscribers
• Give a last-chance offer to urge subscribers to take quick action

Here’s an example from a brand. In their back in stock email, they explain why their products stock out fast. This creates a sense of scarcity, exclusiveness, and makes subscribers feel that they waited for something valuable and feel positive about the wait.

5. Restock email + request for feedback

So, you sent a simple back in stock email but didn’t receive any result from it? Next, you sent a restock alert email to create a sense of urgency to make the subscriber act faster. But that too didn’t generate any interest in the subscriber. What should you do next?If your subscriber does not respond or hasn’t returned to your Shopify store, maybe it’s time to ask them why. Instead of guesswork, ask your subscribers for feedback. By doing so, you’re letting them know that you care and that you want to give them a better experience.Let’s look at how one brand does it.

While the main objective of the above email is to ask for feedback, it also shares a whopping 50% discount offer. That’s quite an incentive for someone interested in a product to jump to make a purchase. Isn’t it?You can smartly combine restock emails with a request for feedback to engage subscribers.

6. Restock email + product recommendations

Studies reveal that online stores have gained 300% revenue by implementing product recommendations in their emails. With such high potential, why not make recommendations a part of your Shopify restock emails? Some cues to ace restock emails with product recommendations:

• Make sure you know your subscribers well so that you can make relevant recommendations
• Segment recommendations based on shoppers’ browsing activity - category browsed, product browsed, cart abandonments, home page browsed, etc.
• Show relevant products and write relevant messages too. Avoid writing generic copy - make it specific to the recommended products
• Share more than one recommendation in the same email
• Optimize your email design and functions for mobile. Almost 50% of all emails get opened on mobile

7. Restock email + up-selling

It’s possible that between the time that a shopper subscribed to restock alerts and the replenishment of that specific product, your Shopify store has a better, upgraded version of that item, which is more expensive.Take the opportunity to sell this new and better option to your subscribers. As a brand, you want to offer better things to your shoppers. Up-selling is one way to do it. Moreover, when you up-sell, you increase the average order value. And so, combine up-selling with your Shopify back in stock emails.Here are a few tips you can steal:

• In your restock email, clearly tell subscribers how the product will add value to them. Do this through images, video and copy
• Your email should tell subscribers how the new product will solve their problem better
• Personalize up-selling by understanding the subscriber and their needs. This is a part of enhancing customer experience
• Customers will be spending more on the new product, so offer them some incentive such as free shipping, a discount, etc.

Pro tip: Up-selling should benefit both you and your customer. If you keep this in mind at every step, you are sure to have a successful restock alert + up-sell campaign.

8. Restock email + cross-selling

It’s possible that your back in stock email subscribers may not be sure about the product anymore or have lost interest in it. Maybe they already bought that product from some other store or a variant from your store. So how about you ignite their interest in another but similar or related product? It is called cross-selling. Through cross-selling, you can try to sell more products to your restock email subscribers. Cross-selling gives more value to the shoppers than they expected. It makes them feel that your brand is helpful and interested in helping them make a good purchase. Make personalized cross-selling recommendations to improve the chances of conversion.

9. Back in stock email with incentives

Amazon doubled its turnover simply by introducing free shipping for orders over 20 euros. The word ‘free’ triggers feel-good emotions in the human brain. Similarly, words such as ‘discount’, ‘buy 1 get 1’, ‘reward points’, among others, are now ingrained in consumers’ daily vocabulary. Psychologist Robert Cialdini explains how we feel obliged to give back to others what they give us. Similarly, when you give something to shoppers, they feel like reciprocating. In this case, by making a purchase. Use the power of offering incentives to multiply sales from your back in stock emails.Here are different types of incentives you can add to your back in stock emails:

• A gift
• Free shipping
• Buy 1 Get 1
• Reward points
• Money-back guarantee
• Discount on next purchase
• Vouchers
• Percentage discount
• Fixed amount discount

Here’s an example.

Are you ready to send Shopify restock emails?

Are items on your Shopify Plus website getting stocked out? If yes, the first thing you need to do is set up a back-in-stock strategy. You can set up Notify Me buttons with the help of a good app such as Appikon Back in Stock. Whatever you do, keep it creative and engaging for your shoppers.