The principle of availability notifications in online stores

An availability notification allows a customer to request an email notification about an out-of-stock product or selected variant. The request will be held until the balance of the product or variant just requested rises from out-of-stock to positive. After sending, the request is marked as processed, and the same pending request will no longer appear in the Demand Report in the Dashboard.

The customer orders an availability notification on the product page

Online store availability notifications are ordered from the product page when the selected product or variant is out of stock. The customer first makes the necessary selections, such as size or color, selects Order availability notification , provides their email address, and sends the request. The request is saved to await stock replenishment and does not generate an email immediately.

The availability request stores the product, email address, store domain name, and, if necessary, the technical identifier of the selected variant, as well as the readable alternative text. No second line is stored for the same product, email address, and variant combination. This means that the customer can request different variants separately, but the same combination is not added multiple times.

The choice of variant determines the target of the notification.

The variant availability notification is targeted to the exact variant combination selected by the customer. For example, if the customer requests a blue size M, the notification will not be sent just for replenishing another size or color of the same product. The system compares the variant ID in the request with the variant ID of the replenished inventory line before processing the email.

For a product without a variant selection, the request applies to the base product. For a variant product, it is recommended to complete the selections before clicking the Order availability notification button so that the request is saved for the correct combination. If the customer needs a notification for multiple sizes or colors, a separate request is made for each desired combination.

An email will be sent when the balance is restored.

The availability notification email is triggered when the previous balance of the inventory line to be replenished is at most 0 and the new balance is greater than 0. Increasing an already positive balance does not trigger notifications again. A balance coming through an ERP integration can trigger the same transition logic when the integration's inventory update uses an update path that supports availability notifications.

Before sending, the system checks that the balance of the relevant inventory line is at least 1 and that the variant ID, if any, matches. The email contains the product link and name, the date of the request, and the selected options when the request concerns a variant. After successful submission, the request status changes to processed.

Note the manual balance update in the Control Panel

The manual positive balance change in the control panel is blocked if the product or selected variant has pending customer stock availability messages. The control panel does not have a function to send pending messages in connection with a balance change. The blocking protects against a situation where the balance would increase but the customer's pending messages would not be sent.

Do not bypass the block by changing another inventory line or deleting the customer request. An ERP inventory update that supports notifications can make a transition to the balance and send pending notifications. Otherwise, an approved maintenance path is required for processing before the balance change. Then, check the balance and pending requests report for that variant.

Track demand with the Requested Products report

Pending demand for availability notifications is tracked using the Requested Products report in the Reports view of the Dashboard. Open /reports , select a report, select Date Range , and open Preview or Export . The default report period is the last 30 days, and Download CSV produces the entire truncated result instead of a preview.

The report shows the pending requests by product ID and name, SKU, number of requests, requester email addresses, requested options, total product quantity ordered, current balance, and last request time. Processed requests, i.e. requests that have already been sent, are not included in the report because the report limits the results to pending status.

What does the demand report cover?

The dashboard report is a read-only view where you can filter by date range and preview or export the results to a CSV file.

Solve the most common problems with availability notification

The availability notification report always checks the product, email address, variant, status, date, and replenished inventory line of the request. If the button does not appear for an out-of-stock product, first make sure that the correct variant is selected and that the product page identifies the combination as out-of-stock. If the new request is rejected as a duplicate, the same email address has already requested the same product and variant combination.

If the email is not sent after the replenishment, verify that the balance actually went from 0 or below to above 0, the SKU on the inventory line is not empty, and the variant ID matches the request. Also, verify that the request still appears in the Requested Products report. Collect the product ID, SKU, selected size or color, customer email address, time of request, and time of balance change for support investigation.