Lack of customer retention is a problem that plagues most eCommerce store owners. They are constantly seeking ways to minimize this metric. One of the most common causes of losing customers is the unavailability of products.
If a product is out-of-Stock on your website, visitors will inevitably jump to your competitors where the product is available. As a business owner, you definitely wouldn’t want to lose your customers to one of your competitors. Would you?
So how to tackle this problem? Well, Magento 2 has a simple solution for this problem. eCommerce retailers using Magento 2 can leverage the “Back in Stock Notification” feature. This feature allows users to subscribe to out-of-stock products and receive notifications when they become available. What’s more, there’s no need for a third-party extension to enable this feature.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up Magento 2 back in stock notification for your online store.
Steps to setup Magento 2 Back In Stock Notification
1. Display Out of Stock Products
Log in to your Magento 2 admin panel and navigate to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Inventory. In the Stock Options Setup, click “YES” in the Display Out of Stock Products section.
2. Enable Back In Stock Notification
Go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Catalog. Under the Product Alerts section, enable the Back In Stock option.
3. Set up Email Sender and Template
Navigate to Stores > Configuration > Customers > Customer Configuration. Under the Create New Account Options section, configure the Email Sender and Email Template fields.
4. Frequency Configuration For Sending Emails
Navigate to Stores > Configuration > Catalog. Go to the Product Alerts Run Settings from the drop-down menu, select the Frequency, and set the Start Time according to your needs to send the notification Emails.
5. Test the Back In-Stock Notification
To test the Back In Stock Notification, go to the product page and click on the Notify Me button. Enter your email address and click on the Submit button. You should receive a confirmation email that your subscription to Back In Stock Notification has been successful.
That’s it! Your Magento 2 store is now configured to send Back In Stock Notification emails to customers who subscribed to it.
Limitations of The Magento 2 Default Feature
Although this feature is excellent for reducing the loss of customers due to a lack of stock, it is far from perfect.
The main limitation of this feature is that guest users cannot subscribe to out-of-stock products. Only logged-in users can subscribe and get notifications for out-of-stock products.
The default feature also doesn’t allow shoppers to subscribe to child products from a group of bundled products.
So how to overcome these limitations? Well, there are several third-party Magento 2 extensions that can address them. These extensions not only overcome the above limitations, but they also come with additional helpful features to get the best value out of them. You can install these extensions yourself or get the help of experts to do it for you.
If you are looking for a back-in-stock extension for your store, check out Magento 2 Back in Stock extensions from Amasty and Meetanshi.
Conclusion
Losing customers due to a lack of inventory can be agitating for store owners. It not only contributes to increasing bounce rates but also negatively impacts your relationship with your customers.
eCommerce thrives on competition. When customers experience frequent out-of-stock products, they may lose trust in the retailer and shop elsewhere. This can result in a reduction in customer loyalty, which can impact the retailer’s long-term revenue.
Enabling out-of-stock alerts for consumers not only saves the transaction but also provides an excellent opportunity to communicate with customers and grow your subscriber base. However, the default feature in Magento 2 Enterprise and Community Editions lacks certain key aspects. If you want to get the best out of this feature, we recommend going for a third-party extension that suits your needs.
