What’s the best practice for sold out items that will be restocked? Keep them visible as sold out or remove sales channels until they’re restocked?
You could use the preorder feature to allow customers to order it.
You shouldn’t remove products online, your 2nd best solution is to hide the button for add to cart or replace it with coming soon
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Hi there, @megantillard !
Definitely a great question to think about.
What @mazen_elorbany suggested is definitely sound. I also second what they said about not removing products from your catalog. Just remove the ability to have your customers order them if you will not be able to fulfill orders at a timely manner.
There is also something to be said about seeing a product in store that you cannot have. It can create more interest on some cases which can cause visitors to revisit your site.
I have also found some apps that may help you in this inquiry:
All these apps come highly rated from the app store and all have free plans for you to avail as well. Definitely let us know how this works out for you.
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Hi @megantillard , great question! We always suggest people starting with telling the truth, visitors might be a bit disappointed, but not lying to them will do you more good in the long run. In this case, just display a “sold out” note and state your reasons (due to lack of supply from vendors, this product might be seasonal, global pandemic affect things etc). At least, visitors are aware of the situations and know what to do next.
Also, you can check out great advice from @Daniel_41 and @mazen_elorbany regarding the “pre-order” options. The most important thing to pay attention to when you use “pre-order” buttons is that you should give your customers specific date and time their wanted products will be restocked/ shipped, they will consider those information and decide whether they’ll wait or not.
Another choice you can think of is to take advantage of “Related products” under your out-of-stock ones. Just provide them more opportunities to look around your store and check out more options.
Hope this helps!
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You can consider adding preorder customization or contact form customization for sold-out products.
You can also add back to stock notification easily with the AVADA Boost Sales app (free).
If you feel like my answer is helpful, please mark it as a SOLUTION. Let me know if you have any questions!
Showing sold out is fine. But if you would like to still continue making sales but indicate to the customer that they are making a pre-order. Our following Shopify themes have a pre-order template built that will display labels on product, collection and homepage. No apps are needed.