Back in stock: the most welcome message you can send
A back-in-stock alert is the rarest thing in outbound messaging: a message somebody explicitly asked for. It is also the easiest to ruin, by telling more people than you have stock for.
Capture the request properly
"Tell me when the 20 litre white is back" needs three things recorded: the number, the specific item, and the date they asked. The last one determines the order you alert in, and alerting in order is what makes the whole thing feel fair.
The stampede
Eight units arrive. Two hundred people asked. Alerting all two hundred at once produces one sale, one hundred and ninety-two frustrated people, and a queue of "is it still available" messages that costs more than the sales. Alert in batches sized to the stock, oldest request first, and hold the rest.
What the message says
- The item, exactly. They asked weeks ago and may have asked about three things.
- That it is limited, honestly. "We have eight" converts better than urgency language and is true.
- How to secure it. A reply, ideally - it opens a conversation you can complete the sale in.
- When you will stop holding. "I'll keep one until tomorrow lunchtime."
Expire the list
A request from eight months ago is not a request any more. Say when you capture it - "I'll let you know if it's back within a month" - and honour the limit. Messaging somebody about a thing they have long since bought elsewhere is a cold outbound message with a story attached.
Take it off the list on the first reply
Whether they buy or not. Somebody who says "no thanks, got one" must not hear about the next restock, and the thing that most commonly goes wrong is a list that only ever grows - which turns a welcome message into a broadcast to a cold list one restock at a time.
Questions people actually ask
Is a back in stock alert marketing or utility?
It is a message the customer explicitly requested about a specific item, which makes it the least intrusive outbound message there is. Categorise it honestly for template purposes and keep the request as evidence.
How many people should I alert at once?
Fewer than you have stock for, in the order they asked. Alerting two hundred people about eight items produces one hundred and ninety-two disappointed customers.
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