Restock and back in stock email best practices to get you more sales.
Unfortunately, if you run an e-commerce brand, it may happen that your products go out of stock. In this situation, your customers will have a negative experience and they might not come back to your website to purchase from you.
Enter the ‘back in stock’ email campaigns.
These emails are usually sent when a product isn’t in stock, but there might be more on the way or that they have been restocked. These types of emails not only help e-commerce brands capture the lost revenue from customers who are unable to purchase from the site but can also be used as a customer retention tool by offering free shipping or other incentives like discounts.
The purpose of these emails is to maintain a healthy flow of customers to an online store and keep clients excited about future sales.
To combat negative experiences due to stock shortages and come out on top, e-commerce brands must focus their email marketing efforts on back in stock emails.
In this blog, we will look at some of the back in stock best practices for email campaigns.
Back in stock email best practices
Back in stock email alerts can help you not only boost sales on a particular product, but they can also improve the online business. These email alerts can not only help you sell an out of stock product, but also increase interest in new products.
So without further ado, here are some of the best practices you must follow while strategizing for your next restocking email campaign:
1. Express regret for causing them any inconvenience earlier
Before you start sending out your back in stock email flow to your customers, you may want to start by sending out an email to show you are apologetic for the inconvenience the shortage of stock has caused. This provides you with an opportunity to not only appear as an empathetic brand but also can show that you want to give them the best experience.
On your website, you could even have a pop-up that shows you are apologetic and use this to your advantage by collecting their email ids to keep them updated about the product restock.
Additionally, this email can also be used to recommend them to purchase alternatives that are just as good. An example of this is Dr Axe’s out of stock email campaign where they acknowledge the popularity of their product, apologize for the inconvenience and then recommend another supplement.
2. Keep your out of stock website page active
A potential customer will never know your store has a particular product if you remove the out of stock page from your website. And, you would never have a back in stock email flow if you don’t have an out of stock page on your website.
To combat the negative experience the site visitor may experience, you can either have the option of ‘move to wishlist’ so that the item is readily available to view for them at a later stage or you can add a ‘notify me’ option so that they can be added to your email list.
Another way to get a visitor’s email address before they exit your online store is to have an exit-intent popup that allows them to enter their email address so you can keep them posted about product restocks and other important details like sales and upcoming events.
3. Notify your customers as soon as possible
This step is an absolute no-brainer. If you have restocked certain products then you will immediately want to alert your audience to boost sales. So, when your products are back in stock, set up an email campaign that is sent within 24 hours of the items being restocked.
Following the first email, you can send the next reminder to be sent within the next 2 days to nudge them to purchase the product/s. No matter how your back in stock email flow is set up, you should be sure to send the first alert as soon as possible to create a positive experience for your audience.
4. Recommend complementary products
We are all aware that sending out back in stock email alerts is a crucial step to increasing conversions and providing a good overall experience to customers. However, what most marketers don’t realize or forget to leverage is the fact that these emails are a great opportunity to upsell and cross-sell your other items.
To do this effectively, you can promote product bundles in your email campaign or even share similar products from the same collection to increase your chances of getting a conversion.
5. Provide an incentive to nudge them to make a purchase
Who doesn’t like a good discount? When you come up with interesting offers for customers you double your chances of making a sale. This is because not only do they get the product they have been waiting on but they also are getting added incentives to purchase it.
Besides, there may be times when a customer may no longer wish to buy the product they were once eyeing in your store. So, to persuade them to buy that product and more from you, you can extend irresistible offers to them.
So, how do you do this? Come up with incentives that really push them to make a purchase such as free shipping, coupon codes, discounts above a certain amount, etc. To make this work even better, be sure to make your copy actionable and punchy.
6. Follow up with an email flow
As we have mentioned in our previous blog, a single back in stock email alert just won’t cut it. To get conversions and deliver a good experience to your subscribers, you will need to send a few emails.
Since people get multiple promotional emails throughout the day, you need to make sure your back in stock email flow catches their attention. Here’s an example of how you can do it:
- An email alert within 24 hours to let the customers know that the product is available
- Next email within 36 hours to act as a reminder which can have an incentive to initiate a purchase
- A third email to show scarcity by highlighting that the product is selling out fast
- A final email that combines the incentive with the scarcity angle
Tips for restock alert emails
Your website is the source of all your online revenue, and you know that back in stock emails can help increase sales and user visits to your site. But how do you write a back in stock email that doesn’t seem pushy?
Follow these top tips to create a robust email marketing campaign for your back in stock items:
1. Draw attention to your popular products
As an e-commerce provider, it’s hard to stand out among the dozens of other companies offering the same products. We recommend keeping your old customers happy by making sure they keep coming back.
One way to do this is by treating your out-of-stock products as special promotions. When you tell your customers about the items that are back in stock, they’ll come back to your website to see if anyone else has bought the product and if it’s still available. If it is, they will buy it, which will increase your revenue and increase customer loyalty. The more you promote these products, the more traffic you’ll get to your website and the better are your chances of forging a strong relationship with them.
2. Narrow the focus for easy decision-making
When sending out back in stock email alerts, you can narrow the customer’s focus by highlighting either a single product or two products to increase the likelihood of them making a purchase.
This means first choosing the product, then writing a copy that doesn’t deter the customer but instead convinces them to make a purchase, a task that’s all about finding the right words and knowing how to connect with your customer base.
By mentioning a product by name, or a few products, you are making it clear that this is the product that you want the customer to purchase. It also makes the item seem like a hot item, so if the customer is on the fence about purchasing the item, you may want to try using this method.
3. Develop an interesting narrative
A repetitive copy can quickly bore your audience. Instead create a narrative that will excite your audience and generate sales. Use a compelling narrative to attract customers with an intentional copy.
The easiest way to avoid this is to segment your customer base. This way, when you send out your initial email, you’re talking to a different audience than the second. You not only have to avoid being repetitive, but you have to make sure you give your audience a good reason to purchase from you as the emails are targeted towards their interests.
Again, repetition often leads to boredom. So, create a narrative that offers them a sense of urgency. By creating a narrative that shows urgency and scarcity, you can easily capture the audience’s attention and make them feel inclined to purchase from your business.
4. Create compelling CTAs
Keeping your back in stock email design simple with a focus on the CTA is a great strategy since you can get rid of the clutter and only focus on the important elements. By doing so, even the window shopper is aware of where they need to focus and will take the steps you need them to.
A good example of this is Athletic Brewing Co’s email campaign that focuses on the product visuals and then has a contrasting CTA button to make it pop.
You may want to A/B test a few CTAs through the length of your newsletter to see which one is the most effective.
5. Use the email copy to induce a sense of urgency
It is crucial to create a sense of urgency in the emails you send out to your subscribers. This is because of the psychological phenomenon that pushes people to purchase if they think something will cease to exist.
You can effectively enforce this by either providing social proof in the copy of your emails to show that the restocked items are running out fast or even having a gamified element to the email since it acts as a strong CTA.
When paired with eye-catching visuals, an email copy that evokes a sense of urgency in the window shopper will be the one that leads to higher conversions.
6. Highlight the product’s features and benefits
Right off the bat this tip may not make sense to many marketers but look at it this way — a visitor may have seen your product a month prior or so and forgotten about it or they may no longer have the need for that particular product anymore.
To sweeten the pot and drive them towards a purchase, you will need to remind them of the features of the product and the benefits they get by owning it.
7. Provide social proof
Providing social proof to increase conversions is social psychology 101. When a visitor sees great reviews and testimonials, they are compelled to purchase them. This is because when a real person is advocating for a product or brand, 80% of consumers are likely to trust them.
This totals to a huge audience that relies on glowing recommendations to bite the bullet and make a purchase irrespective of the price or a lack of discount. So, next time you send out your back in stock alert, be sure to incorporate this element.
What’s more, you can use such positive reinforcements to not only sell a single product that is back in stock but also promote the rest of your collection like Public Goods.
8. Use a clean email design to convey the message
A minimal yet focused email design cuts the noise and helps the audience to remain focused on the final goal — which is to purchase the product. Here is how you can achieve this in your back in stock email:
- Logo
- Short copy that announces the product is back in stock
- Compelling imagery
- CTA (with offers, if any)
- Buttons for social media accounts
Summing up
Increasing consumer engagement and retention with effective back in stock emails can mean the difference between survival and a failed e-commerce initiative. That being said, it’s important to not neglect this section of your email marketing strategy.
A successful back in stock campaign is one that benefits both consumers and your brand and that’s why it must be optimized and utilized at the right time to provide results.
To set up and optimize your back in stock marketing efforts, book a demo today!