Back in Stock

Create a sense of urgency

Make it clear in your text message that restocked items might sell out again. That’s what Andie Swim hints at in this example text message by suggesting the customer gets their favorite items before they’re gone again.

Chubbies is more direct in this restock alert as it lets its SMS subscribers know it only has “limited stock” of its FreeFlow Shorts.

Creating a sense of urgency is not a novel marketing technique, but it works well and is a particularly good fit for popular items that have been restocked.

Play to the FOMO

Another great way to encourage customers to buy a restocked item is by highlighting its popularity. That’s what Dormify does here. If more than 4,000 people think something is waiting for, would you want to miss out on it?

Food52 follows the same approach with this restock alert. Note that you don’t even need a true waitlist to apply this technique. You can simply count the number of potential buyers that have an item in their cart or on their wishlist.

Announce the restock

Create some hype by announcing the restock before it’s there. Fenty sent two text messages to urge customers to set their alarms for its Eau de Parfum restock. The brand also adds a sense of urgency by mentioning that the product will only be available in limited quantities, and provides relevant information by including how much it’ll cost.

It’s a good idea to include the price of the restocked item in your text messages. If the price is low, it can act as an extra incentive for people to make the purchase. If it’s high, you give your subscribers the opportunity to let it sink in and avoid giving them sticker shock the moment they want to buy, which can lead to them abandoning their carts.

Add an incentive

Offering an incentive is a good way to generate more sales from your restock. In this SMS example, Beyond Yoga combines a back-in-stock announcement with a 20 percent discount. The brand also mentions its free shipping and returns to make it even more appealing for customers to hop over to its store.

Sivana uses the same tactic and makes its customers happy with 30 percent off their entire cart. Offering a discount on everything in your store is a brilliant way to increase your sales value per customer.

Make it exclusive

Everyone likes to feel special. So, Hint Water makes the restock of its Peach Raspberry flavor exclusive to its online store. Its restock alert also mentions 15 percent off bundles and free shipping to entice customers to shop for more than just the restocked product.

While we generally don’t recommend you send text messages that span multiple SMS, we’ve got to give Olipop credit for the effort it put into this restock SMS. The message explains how (thanks to the feedback from customers) the Blackberry Vanilla pop is back and offers SMS subscribers the chance to buy it before anyone else can.

Keep it simple

Sometimes, getting the message across is all you need to do. Frank & Eileen keep it simple with this SMS that announces a product is back in store and includes a link to the specific product page. It’s always a good idea to link directly to the related product pages when you’re promoting a specific product in your SMS.

Add some humor

Chubbies is known for its playful copy, and the brand stays true to its voice even in its restock notifications. The message here is super concise: “Everywear shorts are back.” The rest of the SMS is written like a text you’d send to someone you know.

Remind them of why the product's great

Just because someone showed interest in a product in the past, doesn’t mean they’ll remember that the moment the product is back in store. Parks Project knows this, and so, it uses this SMS to remind customers of all of the wonderful features of its scented candles.

Include a clear CTA

If there’s one thing your restock alerts should include, it’s a clear call to action. M. Gemi urges its customers to “get it now” while Coach, in the example below, tells them to “tap to shop.”

Allow customers to reserve the restocked item

If you know an item is about to be restocked, allow customers to pre-order it. This ensures you of the sale and the customer of the product.

Present restocked items as gift ideas

Gift-finding is hard. If there’s a holiday coming up, you can help a customer out by suggesting they buy someone one of your restocked items, like Coach does in this SMS.

Warn customers something's about to sell out

Keep an eye on your stock so you can alert customers when something’s about to sell out and create a sense of urgency that way. Great Jones does this well.

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