Leveraging E-commerce Mobile Apps to Handle Stock Outs on Shopify

Customers visit your store with great excitement or the hope of purchasing the best product they are actively looking for. But this excitement quickly turns into disappointment when they find the out-of-stock message. As a result, they feel betrayed and immediately leave your site with anger and frustration and start searching for better alternatives that provide them with similar products.

The unavailability of specific products in the inventory leads to a lot of missed sales opportunities that ultimately cost your business.

So, how can you overcome the stockout problem and manage it cleverly?

In this blog, we have introduced the strategy to handle stockouts with e-commerce mobile apps.

What Are the Consequences of a Stockout?

Damage Your Brand Reputation:

When customers crowd your store to buy their desired products but those products run out of stock, they will leave your store without wasting even a single second and reach out to another store. This spoils your brand's reputation.

Reduce Profit:

A stockout can cause massive losses in sales as it forces customers to abandon your store unwillingly due to out-of-stock products and turn their eyes to your competitors. This leads to a significant loss in revenue.

Additional Costs on Stock Outs Management:

Managing stockouts comes with additional operational costs that include expedited shipping fees, additional administrative costs, and increased marketing expenditures to win back lost customers.

Poor Customer Experience:

One bad experience wipes out hundreds of good experiences. If customers fail to get what they want, it can lead to dissatisfaction, and they might not visit your store again.

Impact Your Brand’s Reliability:

When customers find their products out of stock, they can feel cheated and rush to your competitors. This means, you are not only losing customers, but their trust in your brand as well.

Strategies to Handle Product Stock Outs Situation

Let’s discover the strategies that help minimize Shopify product stockouts.

Track Inventory Automatically

With the use of e-commerce inventory management apps, you can keep your stock level updated in real time across all sales channels. Try not to display products that are not available in the inventory. It allows your marketing team to stop promoting a product that is not in stock.

Running ads for out of stock products can irritate users and force them to find a reliable alternative. Transparency in inventory stock can further increase sales.

Set Up Automated Reordering Systems:

Apart from receiving updates on out-of-stock, there is a need to have reordering systems that will create opportunities for more purchase orders in the event of below-stock levels and ensure an uninterrupted supply of products.

Add a “Notify Me” Button:

It is not so that every customer abandons your store due to out-of-stock products. There is a certain group of customers who keep patience and wait for a better response. Ensure that a Notify Me button is added to the right below the out-of-stock button on your Shopify mobile app, which will increase your brand reliability among customers.

Analyze Sales Data:

By analyzing sales data, you make accurate predictions of future demand, which allows you to maintain your stock level perfectly. You can track certain types of products that are expected to be in high demand in the future, allowing you to manage the stock accordingly and prevent stockouts.

Set Up Automated Restock Push Notifications:

Push notifications within the app demonstrate significantly higher open rates than emails and SMS. It is one of the easiest ways to engage closely with customers. They also help improve customer retention and win back their trust in your brand.

Give Personalized Product Recommendations:

When specific variants or shades are unavailable, enhance conversions by guiding customers to available options or recommending similar product categories. Don't forget to activate pre-orders to provide a personalized shopping experience and anticipate future purchasing demand.

Display Customer Reviews and Brand Ratings:

Showcasing customer reviews, even in the event of out-of-stock products, helps keep customers’s interest high. Sharing authentic customer stories that offer insights into your product's quality and usage helps keep potential customers engaged and informed while enhancing your credibility.

Reviews give customers assurance and appeal to them to wait for a while until the product is stocked instead of searching for alternatives elsewhere.

Offer Personalized Customer Support:

Offer customers support features like live chat to notify them when a product is restocked again and maintain transparency regarding any discontinuations. With the widget, you are able to cross-sell and offer personalized recommendations, indicating to customers that their browsing experience in your store is important.

Enhance Product Visibility Online:

Managing the visibility of out-of-stock items in your app's search results is key to minimizing customer frustration. You should focus on products that are in stock, which can divert customers' attention from unavailable items.

However, ensure accessibility is maintained. It's important that in-demand items that are out of stock remain discoverable to those actively searching for them. Don’t let them face a 404 error page. Make sure you use visual cues like badges or distinct text colors to clearly mark out-of-stock items for customers before they click on the product.

Conclusion:

A stockout situation is something that can’t be avoided. This is due to high demand or inaccurate inventory management. Every e-commerce business has to deal with this unavoidable problem, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be resolved.

By following the above-mentioned strategies along with e-commerce mobile apps, you can successfully overcome the stockout issue and turn losses into profits.