Every “Out of stock” label is a customer you are about to lose. They wanted to buy, the product was not there, and unless you give them a reason to return, they will buy it somewhere else. A WooCommerce back in stock notification fixes that: shoppers leave their email on the sold-out product, and WooCommerce emails them automatically the moment you restock.
Here is how to set it up for free, with no code.
Does WooCommerce do this out of the box?
No. Core WooCommerce shows an “Out of stock” message and stops there — there is no built-in waitlist or restock email. You have to add that behaviour, either by hand or with a plugin.
The manual route (and why most people skip it)
You can build a version yourself: add a form to the out-of-stock template, store submissions somewhere, and hook woocommerce_product_set_stock_status to email everyone when the status flips back to in-stock. It works, but it is real developer time and you own the maintenance forever. For a single feature, it is rarely worth it.
The free plugin route (5 minutes)
The Back in Stock for WooCommerce plugin adds the whole flow automatically:
- Install and activate it.
- On any out-of-stock product, an “Email me when it’s back” form now appears — no template editing.
- When you restock the product, everyone on the waitlist is emailed automatically.
You also get a dashboard showing who is waiting for which product, which doubles as free demand data for your restocking decisions.
Best practices for restock emails
- Send immediately. The first store to email a waiting customer usually wins the sale.
- Link straight to the product, not the homepage.
- Watch the waitlist counts. A product with 40 people waiting is a signal to reorder more — and to consider a small price test.
- Keep signup to one field. Just an email address; every extra field loses signups.
Turn stockouts into your next sale
Out-of-stock does not have to mean lost revenue. With a simple waitlist and automatic restock emails, every sold-out product quietly collects demand and converts it the moment you have inventory again. It is one of the highest-ROI things you can add to a WooCommerce store, and it costs nothing.