What Are the Benefits of Using Back in Stock Notifications?
1. Recovering lost sales
When a customer lands on an out-of-stock listing, you immediately lose a potential sale because they can’t buy the product.
This campaign gives you a chance to recover that lost sale by alerting customers when it’s back in stock and providing them with a quick way back into the purchase funnel.
2. Sustaining customer interest
One of the first actions a customer can take when discovering an out-of-stock product is heading back to Google to see if your competitors have stock – abandoning your website in the process.
Back in Stock Notifications help sustain customer interest by creating an expectation that the product will be restocked and allowing them to take a positive action towards obtaining it. This removes the need to exit your website immediately and could lead to further product discovery and purchases.
3. Generating social proof
These campaigns not only highlight that a product is so popular it’s sold out, but they also act as social proof suggesting that others want the product so much that you’ve had to create a waiting list.
For many customers, a waiting list creates feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out) and exclusivity that prompt them to sign up. Think of fancy restaurants with long reservation lists and exclusive nightclubs that are invite-only – it’s the same concept, only you’re creating hype around a product rather than a 10-course dinner or celebrity-clad dancefloor.
4. Creating excitement
Studies show the brain releases more dopamine in anticipation of a reward than when receiving a reward. This means that subscribing to notifications and waiting for the product to be restocked is arguably more exciting than going and buying that same product from your competitor.
5. Enhancing the customer experience
Out-of-stock products aren’t great for the customer experience, but that doesn’t mean all is lost.
Providing customers with a convenient way to buy an out-of-stock product shows that you care about making the best of a bad situation and that they can rely on you to restock the item and push the first to the queue when you do.
6. Providing customer insights
Finally, these notifications are a neat way to measure customer demand. You can figure out which products are worthwhile restocking and which have had their day simply from the number of people who express their interest.
