If you’re an ecommerce brand and find that your product stock levels fluctuate regularly, this is the automated marketing campaign for you!

 
As marketing and CRM specialists, we are not always responsible for managing stock levels, yet product availability can have a direct impact on the performance of our KPIs.
 
It doesn’t matter how slick your SEO is or how creative your copywriting is, it’s likely you’re missing out on sales due to out of stock products.
 
A Back in stock campaign allows you to trigger an email to customers who have expressed an interest in your product.
 
It is a simple, yet effective email campaign that can transform the customer journey, increasing customer lifetime value, whilst allowing you to recoup any potential lost sales.
 

Back in stock emails are a customer centric campaign

 
As a customer it’s highly frustrating to discover the item you’re lusting after is currently unavailable. By facilitating your customers to be notified of when their desired product is back in stock, you are putting their needs first by meeting their demands.
 
Whilst you may currently be unable to meet the physical demand of having the product available to purchase, you are meeting an emotional need, allowing the customer to feel a sense of assurance and hope that they’ll be able to secure that high demand product once it becomes available.
 
This also develops the relationship between the customer and your brand, asserting yourself as a brand who can be trusted and depended upon to meet their needs.

A Back in stock campaign is designed to close the deal. Buy now! Be quick!

 
Whilst we can’t guarantee that all customers will still require the item they expressed an interest in, you can expect high engagement in this conversion led email campaign because it targets an audience with high purchase intent.
 
An email campaign that delivers high open and click rates, will also boost your overall email engagement.
 
The conversion rate of a Back in stock email campaign can be as high as 12%, as shown with Eaglemoss.
 
In fact, Eaglemoss’s Back in stock email campaign accounts for 6% of their overall email revenue. Great work from a fully automated campaign. You can be pretty confident that this campaign will deliver a strong ROI.
 

Back in stock: how it works

 
Customers request to be notified about product availability via the product page on your app or website.
 
As soon as the product becomes available to purchase, an email is automatically triggered to customers who registered their interest.
 
The process is seamless with RedEye’s marketing automation platform. All steps of the process are automated; from onsite data capture and product stock feeds, to personalised messaging and triggering the email.
 
Your Back in stock campaign can be as simple as a one-off email notification directing customers to the product page to make their purchase.
 
Below are a few tips for capitalising on targeting such a highly engaged audience with intent to buy.

Increase the number of touchpoints with a multi-stage journey

 
Keep your customer informed every step of the way by creating a two or three stage journey

• Back in stock request confirmation e.g. We’ve received your request to be notified when the item becomes available
• Back in stock notification e.g. It’s back!
• Back in stock follow-up email if the item is not purchased but remains available e.g. are you still interested in this product?
• Cancellation of the request if the item does not come back in stock within a set period or if the product is not due to be re-stocked e.g. We’re sorry, the item you were interested in has not come back in stock

 
The above touchpoints are an opportunity for you to showcase other related products. Which takes me nicely onto my next point…
 

Personalise the email with personalised product recommendations

 
A Back in stock email campaign presents ample opportunity to display suggested product recommendations based on the product your customer has expressed an interest in.
 
Customers are providing you with rich data about their purchase intent; use this data to suggest similar products from the same category, brand or price range as alternatives to the product they are interested in.
 
Don’t forget to make use of this data in your tactical emails. RedEye’s data driven dynamic content tool allows you to integrate recommended products that are similar to the item your customer is interested in. (Just make sure the alternative products you’re recommending are in stock!)

Set minimum quantities to avoid disappointed customers

 
If only limited quantities are available of a high-demand product, this may lead to a poor customer experience, leaving customers disappointed and frustrated that they’ve missed out on their desired item again.
 
RedEye’s solution allows you to set minimum quantities, meaning the email notification will only be triggered if the product matches or exceeds the minimum quantity set.
 
You might also want to manage customer expectation by communicating within the email copy that stock might be limited. This use of scarcity is a proven persuasive tactic regularly used in ecommerce.¹
 

Consider an expiry date on the notification

 
If a product does not become available within a set time period, say three months, then you might want to cancel the request.
 
Set the customer expectation by informing them that you will only notify them if the item becomes available within your specified time period.
 
You can do this on the product page of your website or app, or clarify this in the request confirmation email.
 
Likewise, provide the customer with an option to stop receiving Back in stock alerts for that product. This offers a good customer experience should they no longer be interested in the product.

Back in stock campaigns help recover lost revenue and marketing spend

 
It’s likely that you and your business will have invested time and money on a variety of marketing techniques to drive sales.
 
Don’t let that become wasted effort and budget due to stock fluctuations that are out of your control.
 
The Back in stock campaign not only recovers any potential lost revenue from sales of high demand products, but it also delivers on delighting your customers by responding to their needs and offering them a personalised interaction with your brand.

Now That’s What I Call Marketing Automation

 
Back in stock campaigns feature as Track 5 in our latest guide; Now That’s What I Call Marketing Automation which showcases some of the best uses of marketing automation which includes these other campaigns…
⭕ Welcome journeys
⭕ Re engagement emails
⭕ Contextually driven personalisation
⭕ Customer driven personalisation
⭕ Replenishment emails

Download your copy now, be inspired and get to the top of the chart through marketing automation!