The Out of Stock Center holds orders that cannot ship because an item in them is unavailable β and turns that dead inventory moment into a second chance at the sale. Instead of letting those orders rot, the center lets you message every waiting customer the moment the product is back, either manually in one click or automatically with rules. Open it at https://v2.egrow.com/centers/out-of-stock.
Before you begin
- This center is a plan feature. If your subscription does not include it, the page shows a locked-feature notice instead of the tools below.
- Back-in-stock notifications are sent over WhatsApp, so you need a connected WhatsApp sender and an approved message template.
- Orders land here based on stock availability β see Using inventory rules and Managing products for how stock levels are tracked.
How orders get here β and how they leave
The info card at the top shows the global stage this center handles: Out of Stock. In plain words, an order is parked here when at least one of its items has no available stock, so it cannot continue through confirmation, processing, and shipping like a normal order. It waits here β with the customer's money still on the table β until you act.
An order leaves the center in one of three ways:
- Restock β you receive the product again, move the order back into the normal flow, and it ships. This is where the center's notification tools shine: they bring the customer back exactly when you can deliver.
- Swap β you agree with the customer to replace the unavailable item with another product, editing the order from its detail page.
- Cancel β the customer will not wait, and you cancel the order.
For where the Out of Stock stage sits in the overall lifecycle, see The Order Centers explained.
Stats at a glance
Four cards summarize the orders currently in the center: Total Orders, Paid, Pending, and Refunded. The stats follow your current view β select a product (see below) and they recalculate for just the orders waiting on that product, so you instantly see how much revenue one restock will unlock.
The Manual tab: notify customers yourself
The center opens on the Manual tab, built around one job: pick the product that is back, notify everyone waiting for it.
Step 1 β Select the restocked product
A banner asks "Which product is back in stock?". Click Select Restocked Product to open the product picker and choose the item you just received. The banner then shows the product's image and name together with a live count of how many orders are waiting on it, and the table below filters down to exactly those orders. Use Change Product to pick a different one or the x button to clear the selection and see the whole center again.
Step 2 β Review the waiting orders
The table lists each waiting order with its number, date, customer, payment badge, status, and amount due, with a search box and pagination (20 per page). This table is deliberately read-only β there are no checkboxes and rows do not open on click β because the center acts on the whole waiting audience at once rather than on hand-picked rows. To work on a single order, find it from the main Orders page.
Step 3 β Send the back-in-stock notification
Click Notify Back In Stock. A side panel opens and eGrow resolves the audience for you, summarized as, for example, "12 Customers Across 15 Orders (12 Numbers)" β duplicates and orders without a valid phone number are handled automatically. You then:
- Choose the WhatsApp sender (which connected number the message goes out from).
- Choose and fill the message template.
- Click Send Notification.
eGrow creates and immediately dispatches a WhatsApp campaign named Back In Stock - {product} - {date}, and confirms how many recipients the send started for. Every send is a normal campaign, so you can find its delivery results later in your campaigns list.
Note: The send button stays disabled until there is at least one valid recipient, a sender is selected, and the template is complete β you cannot accidentally fire an empty or half-configured campaign.
The Auto tab: automatic restock notifications
Switch to the Auto tab to stop doing step 3 by hand. A master switch turns Automatic Restock Notifications on or off for the whole account: when it is on and a product comes back in stock, eGrow automatically messages the customers whose orders are waiting on it, according to your rules.
Click Add Rule to define one. Each rule has:
- Product Scope β apply the rule to Any Product, or pin it to one specific product or even a single variant. Specific rules let you use a different message (or different sender) for your bestseller than for the rest of the catalog.
- Sender and template β which WhatsApp connection sends the message and which template it uses.
- Order Recency β only notify customers whose waiting orders are recent enough: All, or within the last 7, 30, 60, or 90 days. This keeps you from messaging someone about an order they gave up on months ago.
- Notify Me β get a notification yourself whenever the rule fires, so restocks never go out silently.
- Enabled β turn the individual rule on or off without deleting it.
Existing rules are listed with their scope, template, sender, and recency window, each with its own on/off switch plus edit and delete buttons.
Tip: Keep one broad Any Product rule with a generic template as a safety net, and add product-specific rules on top for the items where a tailored message converts better. A more specific rule gives you finer control where it matters.
Important: Notifying customers does not move the orders by itself. After a restock, remember to advance the waiting orders back into your normal flow (confirmation or processing) so they actually ship β the notification wins the customer back; your team still ships the order.
A practical restock routine
- Stock arrives. Update the product's inventory in Managing products.
- If automatic rules are on, the waiting customers are messaged for you; otherwise open the Manual tab, select the product, and send the notification.
- Move the waiting orders out of the Out of Stock stage so they re-enter confirmation and shipping.
- Watch replies come into your WhatsApp inbox and confirm each recovered order.
Related reading
See The Order Centers explained for the full lifecycle, Using inventory rules for how stock levels drive order routing, and the Shipping & Delivery category β including The Shipping Center β for what happens once these orders ship.