The restock email that converts: what to write, when to send it

The shopper asked for this email

A restock email is not marketing. The shopper typed their address into a form on a product they wanted and asked to be told when it was back. That is why open rates on restock emails are two to three times those of a newsletter, and why the email should read like an answer, not a campaign.

Everything below follows from that: say the product is back, show it, give the button, and get out of the way.

The subject line

Name the product. "The waxed canvas tote is back" beats "Good news!" every time, because the shopper is scanning for the thing they wanted. If the product has variants, name the one they asked for: "Linen camp shirt, size M, is back in stock". Keep it under fifty characters so it survives on a phone.

The body

• One product, one image, one price. The image is the product photo from your catalogue. If there is a variant, show the variant.
• One sentence of context. "You asked us to let you know when it was back. It is, at $148." Nothing about your brand story.
• Urgency only if it is true. "23 people were waiting for this one" is a fact and works. "Only 2 left!" when there are 40 will cost you the next email.
• One button, to the product page. Not the homepage, not a category. The product page, with the variant preselected if the app supports it.
• A plain unsubscribe link. Required, and it protects your sender reputation.

When to send

As soon as stock is back, within the hour if your plan checks hourly. The exception is the middle of the night: a restock detected at 3 am should wait for the morning, both for open rates and so that your support team is there when the questions come. Set the sending hours in the app rather than hoping the restock happens at a good time.

If you received fewer units than there are shoppers waiting, cap the emails to the quantity. Emailing 200 people for 10 units sends 190 of them to a sold-out page a second time, and the second disappointment is the one they remember.

Who it comes from

Your store, from your domain. An email from "yourstore.com" is opened; one from an app's shared address is filed. Authenticating your domain takes three DNS records and is the highest-return ten minutes in the whole setup.

What to measure

Open rate tells you the subject line and sender are right. Click rate tells you the body is right. The order rate, the share of emailed shoppers who bought, tells you whether the price and the timing were right. Track all three per product: a low order rate on one product with a high click rate usually means the price moved or the variant was wrong, not that the email failed.

A restock email that does its job reads in five seconds and takes one click. Anything you add after that is for you, not for the shopper.