Out Of Stock But Not Out Of Mind
Empty shelves are the new normal in our current times. Walking through the aisles at the grocery store right now, we’re seeing a lot more, well, space. People are stockpiling on essentials and stores are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. While this is very apparent in brick and mortar stores, e-commerce is also feeling the rise of out-of-stock products, too.
Hand sanitizer and toilet paper are labeled “currently unavailable” all over Amazon. But small e-commerce companies are also seeing a major rise in demand for certain items. For example, a small Brooklyn-based company, Scough, that sells scarves and bandanas with built-in filtration masks, completely ran out of stock in March and tagged their entire site as out-of-stock.
Even if your e-commerce company doesn’t sell essentials like masks or sanitizers, or bidets (yes - bidet brand Tushy’s sales skyrocketed the past month), there is still a good chance you’ll see a surge. This surge may be indicative of the lipstick effect, an economic theory that states that in the time of an economic downturn, people are more likely to buy less-expensive luxury items like premium lipstick, skin care products, etc.
So, if you’re experiencing an uptick in out-of-stock products, here are a few of the best approaches to staying on top of it.
What We’re Covering
Have An Inventory Tracker In Place
Stay on top of your inventory to proactively address an out of stock issue.
Do Not Redirect To A 404 Page
Keep your Google ranking up and avoid frustrating your customer.
Make The Out Of Stock Message Visible
The better visibility the better the customer experience.
Get Their Email And Keep Them Engaged
Use this as an opportunity to capture leads.
Update Your CRM To Exclude Out Of Cart Items
Make sure you’re covering all your bases and keeping your cart abandonment emails relevant.
Offer An Explanation & Recommendations
Let them know when it will be back in stock and cross-sell with other items similar to the one out of stock
Have An Inventory Tracker In Place
This may seem obvious, but you need to stay on top of your inventory. You want to proactively approach an out-of-stock issue when you see that you are running low on particular items. Whether it’s from an app integrated into your e-commerce store or an ERP system, there are a myriad of ways you can your inventory and stay ahead of an out-of-stock issue.
Do Not Redirect To A 404 Page
Having a 404 page is bad for your SEO, as it tells Google there are errors on your site, which lowers it’s ranking on the search engine. Moreover it is a frustrating experience for the customer, and may cause them to leave the site and visit a competitor. You will eventually be getting these products back in stock and removing the 404 page and then trying to replace it causes a lag effect on Google - causing you to lose potential sales.
Also rather than fully hiding the product page, you can remove them from the collection pages, especially if the out of stock items are overpowering the in stock ones. This way, customers who have the product bookmarked can still easily access the product page of the out of stock item.
Make The Out Of Stock Message Visible
If your product is out of stock and you’ve chosen to not hide the page, display that the product is out of stock prominently on collection and product pages. It’s discouraging for a customer to search for and read about your product, to then try to add it to their cart to no avail. Another way to make it abundantly clear that a product is unavailable is to grey-out or remove the functionality of the add-to-cart button on those specific product pages.
Also, with your inventory tracker, you can also alert customers to when a product is low on stock. The scarcity angle could help drive those last few sales to clear your remaining inventory.
Get Their Email & Keep Them Engaged
An out-of-stock item can easily become a way to collect emails and make a mailing list for people who are interested in your brand and it’s products. On the product page of the out-of-stock item, you can ask them to enter their email for updates on the product’s status. You can easily set up a “back-in-stock” flow in Klaviyo, which you can read here.
Within the flow, it’s best practices to first offer an apology for the out-of-stock item, and give an explanation as to why the product is out of stock and when you expect it to come back. In follow up flows you can give the customer an incentive, such as 10% off their next order to thank them for their patience.
Update Your CRM To Exclude Out Of Stock Items
Speaking of CRMs, it’s important to cover all bases. You may have labeled the unavailable products on their individual product pages, but if the customer is subscribed to a cart abandonment/browse abandonment flow, the item may still be showing up. I’ve personally encountered this issue when I leave items in a cart to return to later, get a cart abandonment email, and then I’m directed to the site, just to see I can’t buy it. Don’t send your customers down this unnecessary path. Our partners at Klaviyo have a great guide on how to make sure out of stock items aren’t displayed in a cart abandonment flow.
Offer An Explanation & Recommendations
Fear not! If you’re out of stock of one item, use it as an opportunity to cross-sell other similar items. There are so many great apps that you can integrate with your store that offer manually entered or AI-powered personalized recommendations to your customers based on their shopping behavior. Justuno and Limespot are two great apps that you can use to display recommended products on any page of your store.
So in short, the best practices are to be transparent with your customers, making it clear that your product is unavailable. But also take advantage of the opportunity to keep a conversation going with your customers and try to peak their interest with alternative products. And as soon as you get your product back in stock, make sure to let your customers know!
