How to use the out of stock sign-up form

You will learn

Learn how to collect email subscribers to a particular list who want to hear updates about out of stock items, so you can notify them when items are back in stock. By collecting subscribers via the out of stock form and adding them to a specific list, you can send them a tailored welcome series, give them the opportunity to backorder the product (if you’ve set up a backorder page for your site), or message them via a campaign once you’ve restocked. This form is a great opportunity to collect subscribers, even if you are experiencing out of stock issues or supply delays. 

Before you begin

There are 2 important things to keep in mind about this process:

• You must set the form live manually after your product goes out of stock. 
• If you want to collect subscribers for multiple products, you’ll need to create separate forms (and separate accompanying lists) for each out of stock product and display each form on that specific page. 

Process overview

The necessary steps to set up this process are:

1. Create a list to add subscribers who want to notifications about the out of stock product to.
2. Set up an out of stock sign-up form for your product that will collect interested subscribers.
3. Message subscribers with your desired content.

Then, repeat this process if there are other out of stock products you’d like to collect subscribers for. 

Create your list

First, you’ll need to create a list for shoppers who fill out the sign-up form to be added to. You'll create the sign-up form after creating the list.

1. In your Klaviyo dashboard, navigate to Audience > Lists & segments.
2. In the upper right corner, select Create List/Segment.
3. Choose List.
4. Name your list (Product) Out of Stock Subscribers, with the specific product included if you’re enabling the form for multiple products, choose any tags you would like to use, and click Create List.
   
   
5. Your list will be set to double opt-in by default. If you’d like, you can learn how to enable single opt-in, but we recommend that you stick with double opt-in. 
   

Next, you’ll need to set up your form in order to add subscribers to your list. 

Set up your sign-up form

Set up a sign-up form to collect names and contact information from those who are interested in the out of stock product. New subscribers who sign-up through this form will be added to the list you just created.

1. To set up your out of stock form, navigate to the Sign-up forms tab to be shown the forms library.
2. Scroll down and click on the Looking for something? template.
   
3. In the details modal that appears, edit the form name and choose the (Product) Out of Stock subscribers list.
4. Click Create Form. You’ll be brought to the form builder where you can customize your form's content and style to fit your goal and brand.
   
5. Select the Targeting & behavior tab.
6. Scroll down to the Targeting section, then select Show to all visitors.
7. Under Targeting by URL, select Only show on certain URLs.
8. Set the URL to Exactly Matching, and add the URL of the product page you’d like your sign-up form to appear on. 
   
   
9. When your product goes out of stock, you’ll need to set the form live manually in order to collect subscribers at the right time. Set the form live by entering the form editor for your sign-up form, then clicking Publish.

Message out of stock subscribers

Once you have created your out-of-stock sign-up form and collected a list of interested subscribers, you can send follow-up messaging related to the product. Here are a few different options:

• Create a welcome series for new subscribers who signed up for the out of stock item, but have never signed up before and are new to your brand. You can tailor this welcome series to mention that they will receive another email when the item they are interested in is restocked.
• If you’ve set up a way to allow customers to pre-order products on your site, send a campaign to out of stock subscribers with a link to backorder the product. This is a great way to give subscribers first dibs on backordering, if the page isn’t otherwise findable or linked from the product page on your site. 
• Once the product has been restocked, send a campaign to subscribers with a notification that you’ve restocked and a link to the product.

Additional resources

• Understanding how back in stock flows work
• Understanding the double opt-in process
• How to create an email welcome series