Imagine having to hire a staff member whose full-time job is to talk to every customer who visits your website and note down what products they are interested in, diligently reviewing these every day and sending out an email when these items come back in stock.
What if I told you that Konigle has recently launched a premium feature called back in stock that does all of this and more!
A back in stock connection to your site facilitates:
- The capture of emails for any products you currently have listed as out of stock
- A tool to drive pre-sales interest in a new launch
- Connected to your inventory management system to remind interested customers when their item of interest is back in stock.
- Sending emails, SMS or push notifications when a product come back in stock
- Accumulating a database.
The back in stock feature of the Konigle platform is one of the most powerful tools that I use as part of my tactical automation. If you believe in the power of having and building a database as well as providing outstanding customer service, then the back in stock feature is something you should turn on today.
Back in Stock Alerts for Shopify Back in Stock & Restock Alerts via SMS and Email
Lets dive into how it works.
As with most Konigle automations this is a quick set up. You simply enable the back in stock feature to be added to your website. A button will appear under each product in your Shopify store. This is the first step. From there the tool will start working automatically.
When a product goes out of stock, the back in stock tool by Konigle will automatically turn on, requesting for a potential customer to add their email and phone number to be added to an email list, or re-contact list that will be reminded as soon as a product comes back in stock. For those with integrated 3PL systems this creates and amazing automated flow. If you are still manually managing your inventory; as soon as stock is added once again to your Shopify store, all of the pending customers will be sent either an email or message.
The reason why this process is so powerful is because it is:
- SPECIFIC. We are accurately recording exactly what our customer wants
- TIMELY. As soon as this stock lands the customer is sent the message
- CUTS THROUGH. Specifically, for SMS messages, the delivery and following open rate is extremely high.
If you take this a step further, imagine using the same process for a pre-launch product. One of the hardest things to do when running an SME is trying to ‘guess’ what the demand will be once a product finally arrives. Pre-marketing is something that is done extremely poorly across the board, but it is very powerful and used by all major companies around the world. Think Apple and Tesla events!
When you set up a new product on your Shopify store (even if it has not yet even been ordered) the back in stock feature within Konigle will get to work, turning traffic into a live database of people ready and willing to buy.
What if they don’t come back and buy?
It’s true. Many customers have a need and want the product now. Between when they sign up on the back in stock button, they very well may have gone off and bought a competitive product to meet their needs.
Not all is lost. Here are a couple of reasons why I love the back in stock feature even if they do not come back and buy.
- Trust building activity. The fact that this system enables you to follow through on your word and update the customer when the item launches or is back in stock is a credibility building exercise. You made a promise and this feature follows through for you. In a world where authenticity is key and trust is hard to develop, this feature is a power tool to set you apart from your competition.
- Marketing is about being top of mind! It never hurts to once again pop up on someone’s email or phone, especially when they have asked for that message. Being a ‘top 3’ brand in your given industry is always the gold standard in marketing.
- Relationships over time. In business, especially when working with products and fast-moving consumer goods, developing a brand level relationship with your client is critical. The adage a customer will say ‘NO’ 9 times before they say yes on the 10th still holds true. Having the client details on your database means they will get amazing content from you over time. Assuming you are creating educational and compelling information, you have the possibility to expand your brand at the same time move it into one of those ‘top 3’ positions mentioned earlier.
Konigle makes it easy to use this information for re-ordering and forecasting. Of course, the gold standard in re-ordering is based upon rolling sell-through and seasonal variations. However, by having a picture of demand via the back in stock feature, it is simply another data point that can be considered on the growth of a product through times when it is out of stock. Added with more traditional forecasting methods, it can give a more accurate picture of what demand for a product may look like into the future.
