Somebody messages at half past ten at night asking when the olive one comes back in a medium. She has already decided. She has chosen the colour and the size. She is holding her card.
By the time anybody replies on Tuesday she has bought something similar elsewhere, and the restock arrives to an audience of nobody.
Treat it as the highest intent message you get
No persuasion required, no objection to handle, no browsing. The only thing standing between this person and a purchase is stock and a reminder.
Capture three things every time
The exact product, the variant or size, and how to reach her. Without the variant the notification is useless, and most brands capture only the product.
Example conversations
These scripts use information a brand might publish. Your answers should come from your own pages.
Customer: When is the olive jacket back in a medium? Assistant: The product page shows current availability, and olive in medium is not in stock today. I can add you to the waitlist for that exact size and colour so you are messaged the moment it lands. What is the best email or number for that?
Customer: Is it ever coming back or should I give up? Assistant: The page says whether a line is a repeat product or a one off. If it is not returning I would rather tell you than leave you waiting. Would you like me to check and, if it is discontinued, show you the two closest current pieces?
Customer: I missed the last drop, how do I not miss the next one? Assistant: The drops page lists upcoming releases and how early access works. I can add you to the list for the next one so you get notified before it goes public. Which pieces are you most interested in?
Publish the restock position by product
Repeat line, seasonal, limited run or discontinued. Four words on a product page answer the question before it is asked and set the right urgency.
Say when, not just whether
An approximate week is enormously better than nothing. Customers accept an estimate and resent silence.
Offer the alternative immediately
The nearest colour, the nearest size, the similar shape. A large share of waitlist customers buy something else the same evening when it is put in front of them.
Notify the waitlist before the public
It rewards the people who asked, it clears stock faster and it costs nothing. It also turns a routine restock into an event.
Use the waitlist as demand data
What people are waiting for, in which sizes, tells you what to reorder. Most brands guess at this while the answer sits unread in an inbox.
Answer at the hour they ask
Restock questions arrive in the evening and at weekends, precisely when nobody is on the inbox, which is the whole problem in how to answer stock and restock questions without an inbox.
Handle the out of stock moment properly
Every sold out product page is a capture opportunity rather than a dead end, which is the argument in how to recover revenue from out of stock moments.
Launches concentrate the same problem
Everything arrives at once on a drop day, as in launch day questions when a DTC brand drops a product, alongside the material questions in sustainability and materials questions from shoppers.
Getting started
Publish the restock position per product, capture variant level waitlists at any hour and notify the list first. SpideyChat for ecommerce brands answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.