10 Fixes for Out-of-Stock eCommerce Experiences

Running an eCommerce store is not a piece of cake, sometimes you have to face many issues. While managing eCommerce, at times you may face out-of-stock situations in your store. 

Have you ever thought about what will be the ultimate solution to this problem? The very first solution that will come to your mind is to delete that page straight forward. Well, there are better ones! 

It is important to keep eCommerce inventory management up-to-date for the better purchasing experience of the customers.

Causes of Product Out-of-Stock

There can be various causes behind out-of-stock situations; here are some of them to keep in mind:

• Differences in Product Counts
• Transportation Issues
• Inadequate Cash Flow
• Bad Inventory Supply
• Delays by Suppliers
• Inaccurate Data

Here are some tips to handle out-of-stock product situations on your eCommerce website:

• Mark as Out-of-Stock:

  Deleting the page is not the only solution you are left with. Even though you are out of stock, still your page is kept on driving traffic to your site.

Instead of deleting your page, you can mark it as ‘out-of-stock’. This way, your site visitors will get to know that your product is out-of-stock at the moment and possibly be grabbed after a few days.

• Allow  Waitlist:

  In case your product got stocked out, it can also help in attracting thousands of users daily, for that you have to do the following things:

• Showcase a relevant product
• Allow customers to add the item to their wishlist.
  With this feature, you can easily tell your customers whether the product is available or not.

• Email Notifications:

  Send email notifications to tell the users whether the products are available or not.  To make it happen, all you have to do is enable the call-to-action button that highlights ‘Email me When Available’.

This method plays a crucial role in attracting new customers as well as old ones by informing them through emails that the products they choose are now available to purchase.

Cross-Selling of an Item:
The solution to the problem that the product is not available allows a cross-sell of similar items. In short, selling products that are quite similar to the out-of-stock product.

• Allow Pre–order:

  More like email notifications, you can use your product page to allow pre-orders. It makes sure that the sale will take place when the product is available.

Therefore, you can give hope to the potential customers to purchase after the availability of the product.

• Mention Restock Date:

  The retailers must tell the customers about restocking the product. Try to give your customers reliable information about the product availability instead of taking orders unnecessarily.

The restocking date can either be mentioned on the product listing or you can remind your users through their contact information.

• Create 404 Page:

  If you have decided to remove the page from the site, you can use the 404 page to tell visitors that the page no longer exists. It would be the best choice to increase your online store’s usability.

Rather than saying that a product no longer exists, you can tell your customer to do the following;

• Go to homepage
• Search for different products
• Look for other products related to their liking

Implementing this can prevent your customers from getting frustrated. Although, using a 404 page will be appreciated by them when they get to know what to do next.

• Implement an Inventory Management System:

  Reflecting out-of-stock to the users will only decline your sales as well as traffic. Your competitors will be one step ahead when your rankings are down. To stay away from this chaos, you can use inventory management for your products.

Showing stockout on your page can leave a great effect on your site’s revenue.

• Steady Inventory Counts:

  Many retailers still physically count their inventory for a safer record. It’s time to upgrade to modern practices; a sound inventory management system can help you by keeping automatic records of the products so that you can always be updated on your inventory levels.

• Have Alternative Vendors:

  To prevent your page from stockout, you need to work with alternative vendors. You can make orders from the most suitable one and also place orders from any other vendor in case of delays. 

In this way you can easily handle the chaos of out-of-stock situations and your customers will also rely on you.

CONCLUSION

Handling stockout situations is quite important for every eCommerce business holder. In addition to preventing losses, it also ensures customer satisfaction.

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