Losing a customer is a pain, especially when it is due to sold-out products. It takes effort to bring a customer to a website. So you need a solid strategy to handle stockout situations to retain the customer interested in your products. If you are on BigCommerce, some ways to retain customers even when you went out of stock are:
Encourage Back-in-Stock Notification Signup
If the product is currently out of stock, then you can prompt the visitor to enter their email so that they can be notified by email when the product is back in stock. Moreover, submission of an email by a user has two advantages; first, it signifies they intend to purchase and are likely to be converted when contacted by email. Secondly, you get their email for approaching them in the future for promotions.
Communication plays a huge role after a visitor is added to the mailing list. The company should send them automated emails for thanksgiving for their interest, for alerting them when the product is in stock. The company must make them feel valuable and important as the chance of their conversion into customers is very high.
This is not a native feature of BigCommerce, but you can find a solution by searching the app marketplace or contact developers for custom coding.
Allow Backordering on BigCommerce
When a visitor places an order for a product that is out of stock, it is called backordering. Some businesses view backorder as guaranteed sales and thus allow visitors to place backorders. In the case of backorders, a customer is willing to wait sometime for the delivery of their favorite product. The company should allow backorders only if it can deliver as managing customer’s expectations is an essential aspect of managing backorders.
Be sure to check out other blog posts to discover best practices for handling backorders, how to write the best backorder policy, and 5 simple steps to set up backorder.
On BigCommerce, you can find a simple solution to enable backorders for out-of-stock products that is using the BackOrder app. It does more than just changing purchasability. For instance, it can ensure your customers get notified of availability on the storefront. As well as automatically handle threshold and back-in-stock date and give you a sale report.
Share Related Products
Another effective technique to convert a customer interested in an out-of-stock product is to share related products. This tactic can help you capture sales from visitors looking for an out of stock product as these customers might be interested in a similar product. You can catch a customer’s attention by recommending products based on how other customers tend to shop. You are more likely to capitalize on the sale by matching their habits and suggesting products accordingly.
If you don’t have too many out-of-stock products, use this guide to set related products on your BigCommerce store. But seeing too many sold-out products might decrease the conversion rate, so you should either hide them or turn on backorder.
Clarify Expected Restock Date
Providing an expected restock date will help consumers to make better decisions. If your business has a shorter out-of-stock window, then mentioning the restock date will help you save a sale as it will appeal to visitors who are willing to wait.
Add Personal Info/ Extra Bonus in Back-In-Stock Email
Personalizing the back in the stock email goes a long way in improving the conversion rate. If you can collect a visitor’s email address and their name on the webpage of an out-of-stock product, it will help you send a more personalized email when the item is restocked.
You can also try to convince the customer with a coupon/voucher to return to your website later to make a purchase when the product is restocked. You can also motivate the visitor to share their email for back-in-stock notification in return for the savings/discounts.
Conclusion
It is possible to convert customers who land on out-of-stock product pages by using various methods supported by BigCommerce. It is an opportunity to build on communication and improve their experience so that they have positive views for your brand.
