Fashion eCommerce stores face stockouts frequently. These stockouts build negative word-of-mouth, drive your customers to your competitors, and create negative experiences. In an industry filled with competitors, it won’t be hard for your shoppers to find another brand that sells the item that is stocked out on your Shopify store.But, how can you avoid losing customers to stockouts? By letting them subscribe to these products!Enable back in stock alerts so that shoppers can subscribe to items that are out of stock and be notified as soon as it's available. This way, shoppers can rely on you and trust your brand more, even when the item is unavailable.Read this guide to understand back in stock alerts better and how they work.In this guide, we are digging deeper into the importance of back-in-stock alerts for fashion eCommerce stores and how you can set them up on your Shopify store.
Why Do Fashion eCommerce Stores Need to Set Up Back in Stock
1. With a large inventory, fashion eCommerce stores have a harder time predicting stockout trends
Many fashion stores have a large inventory to manage, including multiple color and size variants. Oftentimes, even with a streamlined inventory management process in place, you may end up missing out on identifying products that are low on stock or have run out. However, by enabling the back in stock notification automation, shoppers who land on the pages of products that are stocked out can subscribe to be notified about its availability.So, when the item is restocked, your shoppers can easily come back to buy, ensuring you don’t lose out on sales.
Also read:How to manage inventory on Shopify and capture purchase intent
2. Allows you to understand shopper intent and product popularity
Shoppers’ interests are constantly changing. You can anticipate these needs better through back-in-stock alerts. Understand shopper intent and learn which products are more popular by capturing subscriptions on stock-outs. So, for instance, you may find that two different types of products— a blazer and a lounge shirt— are stocked out. Due to more work from home routines, shoppers would be subscribing to the lounge shirt more than the blazer. With this insight, you can restock fewer blazers so that you are making your inventory leaner.
3. Understand product popularity before it is launched
Not sure if a new product will be received well by your customers? Use the back in stock automation to gauge shopper response over a soon-to-be-launched product. You can place a subscription widget on unreleased items to capture subscriptions to learn how many of your shoppers are interested in buying the item. This can help you build hype around the upcoming products and plan your stock better to ensure you can cater to these subscribed shoppers.To remain better prepared, use a Shopify analytics app like RevTap to identify your best-selling products.
4. Create a sense of FOMO
If you are selling limited edition items and are stocked out, you can use this stocked out period to create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) among your shoppers, getting them to sign up and be the first to shop as soon as the item is restocked. FOMO is a powerful tactic when selling online, allowing you to entice shoppers to take action like subscribing to be notified about the item or getting them to make a purchase.
How to Set Up Back in Stock for Fashion Brands
Setting up your restock alerts automation on your Shopify store is easy with the Back in Stock - Restock Alerts app. With just 3 steps, you can set up your back in stock alerts and start recovering sales that would be lost through stockouts.
1. Set up subscription form
When setting up your subscription button and form, ensure that it matches your Shopify store design and reflects your brand voice. Here are a few tips to customize your subscription form:
- Ensure that the color of the button on your product page matches your store. You can use your brand color for this button to make it stand out.
- Ensure that your subscription form text sounds like you. So, if you are a more nurturing brand, your copy would read— “We’re sorry about the inconvenience! We’ll be happy to let you know when the item is restocked”.
- Keep your text short and crisp. Your copy needs to convey the benefit of subscribing or hype the product more without boring your customers.
2. Provide multiple channels for shoppers to choose from
You can set up multiple communication channels that your shoppers can choose from when subscribing. By placing multiple communication channels (like email, web push, SMS, and Facebook Messenger), you can allow your shoppers to choose the channel they prefer. Some shoppers love getting emails while others may not be comfortable sharing personal details. With multiple choices, different shoppers can pick their preference. The Back in Stock - Restock Alerts app integrates with your favorite marketing apps like Klaviyo, Postscript, and Zapier, allowing you to supercharge your back in stock automation easily.
3. Customize your in-stock message
Lastly, you need to set up your in-stock message. This is the messages shoppers receive when the item is restocked again. You can set up the template so that the message is sent automatically.We listed 4 tips to help you set up an in-stock message that is sure to increase clicks:
- Customize your in-stock message to keep it relevant to your brand. This means matching it to your brand’s tone.
- Add discounts that are currently running on your Shopify store. For instance, if you have free shipping offers across your store, you can add this deal within your back in stock message while the offer is available.
- Help shoppers remember the product they subscribed to with a product name and image. This helps them recall what they subscribed to and why.
- Display the product price within your back in stock message to show how affordable the product is.
How Fashion Nova Uses Back in Stock Emails
Fashion Nova is one of the largest fashion brands, known for its fast and affordable clothing. With its large inventory, Fashion Nova is always stocked out on one product or the other. This is why they have a sleek back in stock automation in place.With this, shoppers can click on the ‘Notify Me When Available’ button if the product is not available in the color and size they prefer. What makes this feature more striking is the button which is bright green. This catches the attention of shoppers instantly since the rest of the page is comparatively more minimal.
When they click on the button, shoppers can enter their details within the pop-up that appears. Shoppers can then enter their email address. Once they do, the widget will show a confirmation that they will be emailed once the item is back in stock.
You too can set up back in stock alerts like Fashion Nova, customizing the widget to match your Shopify store design. You can even improve on the back in stock strategy set up by the brand by providing multiple communication channels for shoppers to subscribe to, not just email.Get started with back in stock alerts with the Back in Stock - Restock Alerts app.
How to enable restock notifications on Shopify for your fashion business?
We hope this extensive guide helps you understand why this is a must need a strategy for your fashion eCommerce store. As a brand in a saturated market, you need to lower negative experiences and ensure shoppers have all they need to shop from your Shopify store. While you can’t always predict and prevent stockouts, you can set up alternatives to ensure shoppers can still come back to shop the item they had their eye on.Set up Back in Stock - Restock Alerts to allow shoppers to subscribe to stocked out products using the channels of their choice. The Shopify app lets you customize your subscription widget and in-stock message, enable as many communication channels to let shoppers choose from multiple options, and lets you analyze the performance of your back in stock automation.Here are a few more guides to get started:
- How to set up back-in-stock alerts on email
- Using web push notifications to set up back-in-stock alerts
- How to set up back-in-stock alerts on Facebook Messenger
- How to set up back-in-stock alerts on SMS
What’s more, with the app’s analytics, you can understand which products have high subscriptions and which items convert better through the back in stock automation.
