When a product sells out, most stores lose the visitor for good. They land on the page, see “Out of stock”, and go back to Google. A back-in-stock notification turns that dead end into a waiting list: the shopper leaves an email address, and you tell them the moment the item returns.

This guide covers how to prepare your WooCommerce stock settings, the ways to collect signups, how to write and time the notification email, and how to use the list you build.

Why back-in-stock alerts are worth the setup

A person who asks to be notified about one specific product has told you exactly what they want. That is a stronger signal than almost anything else you collect. Compared with a general newsletter subscriber, they:

Already chose a product, size or colour
Already accepted your price (or at least didn’t bounce because of it)
Are waiting for a single, predictable message from you

There’s also a planning benefit. The number of people waiting for each product is a rough demand forecast. If 40 people are waiting for the medium blue jacket and 3 are waiting for the small green one, you know which one to reorder first and in what quantity.

Step 1: Get your WooCommerce stock settings right

Notifications only work if WooCommerce knows when a product is out of stock and when it comes back. That means using stock management rather than toggling the stock status by hand.

Global inventory settings

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory. The options that matter here:

Manage stock: enable it so WooCommerce tracks quantities.
Notifications: these are admin emails for low stock and out of stock. Turn them on so you know when to reorder.
Low stock threshold and Out of stock threshold: set these to numbers that match how fast you sell. If you sell three units a day and suppliers take a week, a low stock threshold of 5 is too late.
Out of stock visibility: the “Hide out of stock items from the catalog” checkbox. Leave it unchecked if you want to capture waiting-list signups. A hidden product can’t collect anyone’s email.

Product-level settings

In each product’s Inventory tab, tick “Manage stock?” and enter a quantity. For variable products, you can manage stock per variation, which matters: shoppers usually want a specific size, not “the shirt” in general.

Also check the Allow backorders? setting. If backorders are allowed, the product never shows as out of stock, so the notify form won’t appear. Choose one approach per product: either you take backorders (and say clearly when you’ll ship) or you collect waiting-list signups.

If you want a refresher on stock handling in general, our beginner’s roadmap to WooCommerce inventory management and the WooCommerce out of stock guide go into more detail.

Step 2: Choose how you’ll collect signups

WooCommerce does not include a “notify me” form out of the box, so you’ll need one of these approaches.

Approach	How it works	Good for	Watch out for
Dedicated back-in-stock plugin	Adds a form on out-of-stock product and variation pages, stores requests, sends an email when stock goes above zero	Most stores; simplest to run	Email design options are often basic; check how it handles variations
Email marketing tool with WooCommerce sync	Form tags the subscriber with the product; an automation fires when stock changes	Stores that want the alert inside their normal email flows	Needs a reliable stock-change trigger, not a manual export
Popup or inline form tied to out-of-stock pages	A targeted form appears only on out-of-stock products and adds the email to a segment	Stores already using a popup tool	You still need a way to send the alert when stock returns
Manual list	A simple form sends requests to a spreadsheet; you email people yourself	Very small catalogs, handmade products	Doesn’t scale and is easy to forget

There are several free and paid back-in-stock plugins in the WordPress.org directory and the official WooCommerce marketplace. When comparing them, check these points:

Variation support. The shopper must be able to pick the exact size or colour they want.
Automatic sending. The email should go out when stock changes, not when you remember to click a button.
Double opt-in or clear consent. More on this below.
Email deliverability. The plugin should send through your normal SMTP or email service, not raw PHP mail.
Reporting. At minimum, a count of waiting requests per product.

Step 3: Design the signup form

The form itself should be short and specific. A good one sits right where the Add to cart button would be, and contains:

A clear heading: “This size is sold out. Get an email when it’s back.”
One email field (skip first name; you don’t need it here)
The selected variation shown back to the shopper, so they know what they’re signing up for
A consent line and, separately, an optional checkbox for your newsletter

That last point matters. Asking to be notified about one product is not the same as agreeing to marketing emails. If you’re in the EU or UK, or selling to people there, treat the product alert as a single transactional-style request and ask for newsletter consent separately. Even where the law is looser, mixing the two tends to create unsubscribes and spam complaints.

After signup, show a confirmation message on the page and, ideally, send a short confirmation email. It reassures the shopper and warms up your sending address.

Step 4: Write the back-in-stock email

When the product is back, the email has one job: get the shopper to the product page before stock runs out again. Keep it tight.

Subject line options:

“It’s back: [Product name] in [variation]”
“[Product name] is back in stock”
“You asked, it’s here: [Product name]”

Body checklist:

Product image and name, including the variation they asked for
Current price
A single, obvious button linking straight to the product page (with the variation preselected if your tool supports it)
An honest note if quantities are limited, for example “We restocked 30 units”
A short line reminding them why they’re getting this email (“You asked us to let you know when…”)

Leave out discount codes by default. These shoppers already wanted the product at full price. If you give everyone 10% off, you train people to wait for restocks.

A worked example

Say you sell a linen shirt in five sizes. The medium sells out in June and 60 people sign up to the waiting list over three weeks. Your next delivery brings 40 mediums.

If you email all 60 at once, the first 40 who click will buy (assuming they all still want it), and the other 20 will land on an out-of-stock page again. That’s a poor experience. Some options:

Send in batches. Email the earliest 40 signups first, then the rest a few hours later if stock remains. Some plugins let you limit how many notifications go out per restock.
Be upfront. Tell everyone “We only have 40, first come first served” so nobody feels misled.
Reorder more next time. 60 signups for 40 units tells you the next order should be bigger.

Step 5: Timing and follow-up

Send the notification as soon as the product is actually purchasable. Don’t mark stock as available before it’s physically in your warehouse, or you’ll trigger emails for products you can’t ship.

A single email usually does the job. If your tool supports it, one follow-up to people who didn’t click, sent a day or two later, can pick up shoppers who missed the first message. Stop there. Two emails about one product is plenty.

After the restock, keep an eye on:

Click rate on the notification
Purchases from people on the waiting list
Time to sell out after restock

These numbers tell you whether the waiting list is a real demand signal for your store or mostly casual clicks.

Step 6: Use the waiting list beyond the alert

Once back-in-stock requests are flowing into your email platform, you can do more with them:

Segment by product interest. Someone who waited for a running jacket is a good fit for your next outerwear launch.
Pre-order offers. If a product will be out for a long time, invite the waiting list to pre-order. Our WooCommerce pre-order guide covers the setup.
Suggest alternatives, carefully. A short “while you wait” email with two or three similar products in stock can work, but only if the recommendations are genuinely close. Don’t turn one request into a stream of promotions.
Discontinued products. If an item isn’t coming back, tell the list. A short, honest email with a suitable replacement is far better than silence.

If you use iConvert Email Marketer, subscribers can be segmented automatically based on store behaviour, which makes it easier to follow up with the right people without building lists by hand. Any email tool with solid WooCommerce integration can do a version of this, though.

Common mistakes to avoid

Hiding out-of-stock products. No page, no signup form.
Allowing backorders by accident. The product never goes out of stock, so no one can join the list.
Sending from a bad address. If your WooCommerce emails already struggle with deliverability, restock alerts will too. Check our guide on why WooCommerce emails go to spam before you rely on them.
Adding everyone to the newsletter without asking. It costs you trust and can cost you compliance.
Forgetting variations. A “notify me” form that ignores size is almost useless for clothing and shoes.
Never cleaning the list. Requests from a year ago for a product you no longer stock just clutter your data.

Getting your waiting list live this week

You don’t need a big project to start. Enable stock management, stop hiding out-of-stock items, add a notify form to out-of-stock product pages, and write one clear email. That covers most of the value. Then watch which products build the longest waiting lists and let that guide your next reorder.

If you want the waiting list to feed into wider email campaigns and segments, iConvert Email Marketer is one way to connect the pieces inside WooCommerce.

Flavius Noja

Flavius is an online marketing specialist with experience in the digital field. He is passionate about everything that means the online world, sports, but also crypto.