I’m looking to create a waitlist for out-of-stock products but I don’t want something simply alerts everyone when I add the items back to the store.
Ideally, I’d like to leave the product as ‘sold out’ on the Shopify store but give me the option to look at the existing waitlist, pick the first person off the top of that list and then send them an email with the opportunity to purchase when I have some in stock, without making them publicly available on the website.
I currently have a ‘notify me when back in stock’ function set up but this creates the same problem of people who have been waiting all rushing to buy at the same time for available items and doesn’t give them priority order status.
Hey @Sabzor You can use an app like LockSmith in combination with a back in stock alerts app like STOQ to achieve this.
Use LockSmith to lock the product page with a specific code or specific customers
Add the code to your back in stock email/SMS template.
Turn off “Automatic notifications” in STOQ
Head to our Reports > Send notifications manually > Select your first customer and click “Notify”
This will send an email to that specific customer with the access code, which they can use to open the product page. Customers will likely place an order with the same email they got a notification on, so you’ll be able to track if this works well too.
Let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything I can do to get you set up.
Instead of making the product publicly available again, you can keep it unlisted, check your existing waitlist, and notify customers from the list first.
This works well if you want to give customers priority access rather than having everyone rush to buy at the same time.
You can notify the people on your waitlist first, then make the product publicly available later when you’re ready.
The important part is not only notifying the first person. It is treating each restock as a small allocation with a clear expiry.I would give the selected customer a private purchase window, such as 24 or 48 hours, and reserve only the quantity you are willing to hold for them. If they do not complete the purchase in that window, the allocation expires and the next person in the queue is invited.
That avoids two common problems: holding stock indefinitely for someone who never returns, and accidentally sending the same limited item to several people at once. It also gives you an audit trail for who was offered access, when the offer expired, and whether the item was purchased.Whether that is done through an app or a manual process, I would make the rules visible to customers when they join the list. Priority feels fair when the release order and expiry are clear.
You can use an app like LockSmith in combination with a back in stock alerts app like 