Every Shopify store runs out of stock eventually. A supplier delays. A product goes viral. A seasonal spike hits harder than expected. The real problem isn't the stockout — it's how you handle out-of-stock products on Shopify. Most merchants do one of two things: hide the product entirely or leave it sitting there with a grayed-out "Add to Cart" button. Both cost you money.

The best way to handle out-of-stock products on Shopify is to keep the product page live, add a "Notify Me" back-in-stock button, enable pre-orders when restock timing is known, push sold-out items to the bottom of collections, show alternative product recommendations, and use 301 redirects for permanently discontinued SKUs. Hiding or deleting the page destroys SEO value and breaks inbound links.

Stockouts push 69% of shoppers to a competitor, according to multiple ecommerce studies. That's not just a lost sale — it's a lost customer. If they find what they want somewhere else, they're not coming back to check whether you restocked. Meanwhile, hiding the product breaks inbound links from Google, social media, and email campaigns. Visitors land on a 404 page and bounce. Your SEO takes a hit. You lose the traffic you already paid for.

Don't Hide Out-of-Stock Products (Here's Why)

The instinct to hide sold-out items makes sense on the surface. Why show something people can't buy? But that product page has value you can't see in your Shopify dashboard.

If the product has been live for months, it probably has backlinks from blogs, social shares, or Google search results. Every one of those links drives traffic to your store. The moment you unpublish the page, those links become dead ends. Google crawls the 404, deindexes the page, and the SEO authority you built evaporates.

A better approach: keep the page live and give visitors something to do when they get there. That "something" is where the revenue recovery happens.

Shopify added an "Unlisted" product status that removes items from your storefront search and collections without deleting the URL. It's useful for discontinued products you want to phase out quietly. But for items you plan to restock, even "Unlisted" is too aggressive — you want customers to find the page and take action.

How Should You Handle Shopify Out-of-Stock Products? Add Notifications

A "Notify Me" button on an out-of-stock product page does two things: it captures a warm lead, and it tells you exactly how much demand exists for a restock.

The numbers back this up. Back-in-stock emails hit 65% open rates — roughly 3x higher than standard marketing emails. Omnisend's 2025 data shows these notifications convert at 6.46%, the highest of any email automation type. That's because the intent is already there. These aren't cold subscribers. They asked to be told when the product returns.

Setup takes minutes. Apps like Back in Stock by Amp or Appikon add a "Notify Me" button to any product that hits zero inventory. When you restock, the alert fires automatically. No manual work. (For a full breakdown of options, see our best back-in-stock notification apps roundup.)

The data you collect also shapes purchasing decisions. If 500 people sign up for a restock alert on one SKU and 12 sign up on another, you know where to put your next purchase order.

Enable Pre-Orders Instead of Waiting

Back-in-stock alerts recover customers after the restock. Pre-orders recover them right now.

Instead of telling a customer "this isn't available," you're saying "this is coming — reserve yours today." The psychology shifts from disappointment to anticipation. And you collect payment (or a deposit) upfront, which helps cash flow and proves demand before you commit to a large restock.

Shopify supports pre-orders through the "Continue selling when out of stock" inventory setting, but it doesn't communicate the pre-order status to customers. You need a pre-order app (Timesact, PreOrder Now, or similar) to add proper messaging: expected ship dates, deposit options, and order management.

Pre-orders work especially well for products with predictable restock timelines. If you know the next batch arrives in 3 weeks, a pre-order with a clear delivery estimate converts far better than a vague "Notify Me" button. If restock timing is uncertain, stick with back-in-stock alerts instead.

Push Out-of-Stock Items to the Bottom of Collections

Even when you keep OOS products live on their individual pages, they shouldn't sit at the top of your collection pages. A customer browsing your "Best Sellers" collection shouldn't hit three sold-out items before finding something they can actually buy.

Shopify's collection sorting lets you push sold-out products to the bottom automatically:

Go to your collection in Shopify admin
Under "Sort," choose "Best selling" or your preferred default
For manual collections, drag sold-out items to the bottom
For automated collections, use inventory-based sorting conditions

Some themes support "Sold Out" badges automatically. If yours doesn't, a quick theme code edit or an app like Out-of-Stock Police can add visual indicators and auto-sort sold-out products to the end of every collection.

The goal is simple: don't let out-of-stock items block the path to products people can buy right now.

Show Alternative Products on Out-of-Stock Pages

An out-of-stock product page with no alternatives is a dead end. The customer wanted something, you don't have it, and you're giving them zero reasons to stay.

Adding related product recommendations directly on the OOS page keeps the browsing session alive. "This item is currently unavailable — here are similar products you might like" gives the visitor a next step that doesn't involve your competitor's website.

Shopify's native product recommendations work here, but they're generic. For better results, manually curate 3-4 alternatives that genuinely match what the customer was looking for. If a specific blue running shoe is sold out, recommend other blue running shoes in the same price range — not a random selection from your catalog.

If your store uses EasySell's order form, you can display cross-sell recommendations directly within the form, giving customers an alternative path to checkout without leaving the product page.

Use 301 Redirects for Permanently Discontinued Products

Everything above applies to products you plan to restock. But what about items you're never bringing back? A seasonal product that's done. A SKU you've replaced with an updated version. A product line you've dropped entirely.

For these, a 301 redirect is the right move. It tells Google (and visitors) that this page has permanently moved to a new location. The SEO authority from the old URL transfers to the new one. The customer lands on a relevant product instead of a dead page.

Rules for good 301 redirects on Shopify:

Redirect to a closely related product, not the homepage. A redirect from a discontinued red jacket to a similar red jacket makes sense. A redirect to your homepage looks like a soft 404 to Google and confuses the visitor.
Set it up in Shopify admin under Settings → Store → Navigation → URL Redirects. Enter the old path and the new destination.
Avoid redirect chains. If Product A redirects to Product B, and later Product B gets discontinued, don't redirect B to Product C. Update A's redirect to point directly to C.
Don't mass-redirect everything to one page. Each redirect should land on the closest match available.

Check Google Search Console periodically for 404 errors on old product URLs. Each one is a signal that you need a redirect in place.

Communicate Clearly on the Product Page

However you handle stockouts, the product page itself needs clear messaging. Vague language like "Currently unavailable" without context frustrates customers. Better options:

Temporarily out of stock + expected restock date: "Back in stock by May 15" gives certainty
Sold out + Notify Me button: "This item sold out — enter your email and we'll let you know when it's back"
Pre-order available: "Ships in 2-3 weeks — reserve yours now"
Discontinued + alternatives: "We've upgraded this product — check out the new version below"

Each scenario gets a different message. The worst thing you can do is leave a generic "Sold Out" label with no next step. That's where the 69% abandonment rate comes from — not the stockout itself, but the lack of an alternative.

Start With One Change Today

You don't need to implement all five strategies at once. Pick the one that matches your biggest inventory gap right now.

If you have products that regularly sell out and come back, set up back-in-stock notifications first — the conversion rates alone make it worth the 10-minute setup. If you have dead product pages returning 404 errors, open Google Search Console and start adding 301 redirects. If your collection pages are cluttered with sold-out items, sort them to the bottom before your next ad campaign sends traffic there.

And if stockouts keep happening, the real fix is upstream — inventory forecasting helps you reorder before you hit zero. Stockouts are inevitable. Lost customers aren't.