Worried about getting out of stock products sold? Here's how to sell restocked products faster.

‍You can’t run away from product stockouts. And why would you want to avoid something that increases the funds in your account? Yes, it comes with some drawbacks, but these can be minimized strategically.

Now, when a product goes out of stock, it clearly shows that the product has what it takes to attract buyers. But because the item is not in stock for quite some time, customers might forget about it. Or the product might not seem as interesting as it used to be.

This is one of the biggest problems you can face after restocking the product.

But as we said, it can be minimized. How? Well, you just have to follow the marketing strategies mentioned below, and you’ll be good to go. Let’s get into it.

Marketing Strategies To Get Your Restocked Products Sold

Once your stocked-out product is up and running again on your Shopify store, it’s time to drive traffic on that product page and close a lot of sales again.

Here are some of the marketing tactics that you can follow to get that product sold out once again.

Tell Them the Product Will Be Restocked

When your customer visits the product page and sees it to be out of stock, it disappoints them. And letting them leave disappointed is the last thing you want. Instead of keeping them guessing, it’s better to clearly mention that the product will be restocked.

This will ensure that they don’t leave the hopes of getting the product. It would be even better if you could tell these customers when they can expect the product to be back in stock. When they know the estimated date, they return to your site to check the status.

And the benefit of an estimated in-stock date is that they can access it if they can wait for that long. In case of an urgent requirement, they can either buy from a different store or can look for an alternative in your store.

The point is that to sell your products when it’s back in stock, you first have to clear to your customers that it is going to come back. If they think that it might not come back, they’ll get the same product from somewhere else.

The tried and tested way of letting your customers know the product will be restocked is by swapping the ‘Add to Cart’ with the ‘Notify Me’ button. It gives them the surety that the specific product will be restocked.

On the other, if you are not going to restock the product, you can replace the same button with ‘See the Alternatives.’

Send Out Restock Notifications

Now your customers know that you are going to bring the product back. Most of them would’ve even clicked on that ‘Notify Me’ button.

What’s next? You send them the notification as soon as the product is back.

You also have to keep in mind that different people have different preferences, which is why it becomes essential to give your customer an option to select the channel where they want to be notified. It can be via email, SMS, web push, and even Facebook Messenger.

Being in the eCommerce business, you are expected to prioritize customer experience over anything. A report by Columbus attests to this claim, saying that 86% of the customers are willing to pay more for a better experience. The more channels you add, the better it is for the customer experience.

Moreover, you don’t want your customer to just leave the store because you didn’t have the channel they like to receive their notifications on.

The visitors who subscribe to the notification are high-intent customers. They give you a guaranteed sale. So you must ensure that they get to visit the page earlier than your regular customers.

For this, you can automate the restock alert using Appikon Back in Stock app. When you integrate your Shopify store with this app, your customers get an option to select from the most popular channels.

Also, keep in mind that the first back-in-stock alert that you send to your visitors should be simple. It should give an impression that you are forcing them to purchase the product. If anything, you are just sending them a reminder because they wanted it from you. But there should be a strong CTA to take them to the product page to complete the transaction.

Announce It on Social Media

A back-in-stock email is surely a great way to let your customers know that the product is back in stock. But is it enough to generate a sale?

Well, a report by The Radicati Group group in 2018 claimed that a user receives an average of 97 emails per day. And the open rate for eCommerce emails is just 15.68%. To be honest, it doesn’t appear to be enough to get all your subscribers to buy the product.

So, if email notifications are not enough, what else can you look into? With around 3.6 billion people using it, social media is a promising contender to get you more sales. More so, when there’s a high chance that people who have subscribed for the alert must have followed you on your socials (as they like your brand).

You can pick any (or every) social media platform to promote the product that has been sold out but is now back. For instance, you can use the visual focus of Instagram to create a post about the product saying ‘The hot seller is back’ or ‘You favorites are knocking on the door again!’, etc.

On social media, you do not just connect with the customers who opted for the alert but also with the followers who relate to your brand. It means you get more potential eyes on your product, which certainly helps increase the sales.

Promote It in Your Newsletter

Email alone might not get your product out of stock, but it surely contributes to taking you closer. So, once you have sent a notification to all the customers who subscribed to the alert, it’s time to promote it in your newsletter.

Mind you, it’s very important to send the alerts first and only then start promoting it on other channels. Because what if everyone wants it? The customers who subscribed for the alert might not be able to buy the product again. One thing is for sure if this happens, you’re not seeing that customer in your store ever again.

Moreover, a case study published by Marketing Sherpa says emails that revolve around a product being back in stock have a conversion rate of 22.45% — quite Brobdingnagian. And why not? It is human to believe that a product that came back in stock must have been worthy of getting sold out in the first place.

So, it becomes easier for you to sell the new customers. They know the product is worth trying. All you have to do while promoting it in your newsletter is what you did with social media announcements. Just let the customers know that it’s back in stock after a long time.

Run Ads on It

Now, telling your customer that the product will be back, notifying them, announcing on social media, and them promoting that product in the newsletter — these are great ways to generate a hell lot of sales. But you’ll need a lot more than this if you wish to get your restock products sold out again. What else is left? There are a few tactics.

Let’s start with running ads first. When you run ads efficiently, you increase the awareness, interest, and desire of potential customers to get their hands on your restocked products. Your product has already passed the test of the audience. It went out of stock means that people liked it. You just have to take that product in front of new customers, and that’s where ads come into the picture.

It’s something that you have to be very careful with. Don’t portray yourself as a brand that is running ads because they are desperate to sell a product. Your product is good enough for the market, so try to draft an ad that creates FOMO around it.

Tell these customers that this product might never come back. You can also give them a time-sensitive offer. More on it in the next section.

Offer a Time-sensitive Deal on It

A time-sensitive offer allows you to capitalize on the scarcity principle and the ‘fear of missing out.’ These offers are versatile and always bring buzz and excitement with them.

The ultimate goal with limited-time deals is to bring more customers who make more purchases.

Here’s the thing with time-sensitive deals, it’s not only the discount that brings customers. It’s the combination of discount and the urgency that time creates. And because of it, you won’t just be attracting your customers but will also bring first-time buyers and returning customers to your product page.

You can just add a countdown timer to your product page saying that the product is only for sale during the given time period. Moreover, you can also add a countdown of the number of stocks left — Only 121 Left.

‍Now, let’s just say that you have restocked brown leather shoes. Now, while sending the email notification, you can keep your subject line — Only 300 news stocks added! Hurry up.

When people see this, and they reach the product page, they’ll see that only 121 shoes are left in stock. There won’t be a better situation for the scarcity principle to kick in.

The combination of an email alert, newsletter, and time-sensitive deals can do wonders for getting your products out of stock.

Promote It as Product Recommendations or in Bundles

And finally, product recommendation. It is a vital part of every eCommerce store’s strategy. You can improve customer satisfaction and increase the average order value just by recommending the right product at the right time.

There are various places to show your recommended products. You can feature it on the homepage, have a separate ‘Recommended for you’ page, or even highlight the bestseller on the category page.

The crux behind place recommended products is that they should always meet the traffic.

When people have added a product to the cart, you can show your restocked product saying ‘View the Bestsellers.’ Moreover, you can even create a bundle/combo of this product with other products in the same category. The more people see it, the more potential sales you are looking at.

Ready to Encounter a Stockout Again?

Stockout is a blessing in disguise. Some store owners panic and start losing customers. On the other hand, some take this as an opportunity to increase business.

If you have a proper marketing strategy in place, you can rope in new customers with the help of your tried and tested product.

Moreover, your strategy to get a product sold out should be based on what you sell, who your customers are, and how good you are at managing the inventory.

Try and measure the performance of these strategies. Go with different ones if you want. Just keep your inventory moving.If you have any queries regarding the automation of back-in-stock alerts, reach out to us.