September 23 2022, 14:55

A new update on my Hybrismart.com: Implementing Back-in-Stock and Price Drop Alerts

In this article, I explore the potential pitfalls and mechanisms that can be developed to tackle and possibly eliminate obstacles when implementing Back-in-Stock and Price Drop Alerts. This content is aimed at product owners, solution architects, and developers. It is independent of SAP Commerce, making it relevant for any custom solution (though there is a brief chapter about the OOTB module).

By using back-in-stock notifications, customers are alerted when a product they recently showed interest in becomes available again. Similarly, a customer might want to subscribe to updates on a product’s price and receive notifications when its price decreases.

As a result, customers are more likely to return and make a purchase. These two functionalities are often deemed essential for nearly any marketplace solution.

The implementation and design of these features are also perceived to be straightforward and quick. However, this is not always the case — several points might be overlooked during the design phase. In this article, I focus on the potential pitfalls and best practices in implementing “Back-in-stock notifications” and “Price drop alerts”.

Overview

Users

Registered/Authenticated

Anonymous

Double opt-in?

Subscriptions

Notify Me Buttons

Don’t Notify Me About This Product

Registry of Subscriptions

How Often and When to Stop

Handling Languages and Currencies

Handling Discontinued Products

Handling Multi-site Products

Handling Variant and Configurable Products

Duplicate Subscriptions

Canceling Subscriptions

Notifications

Handling Product URLs and Categories

Handling Availability and Price Groups

Handling Multiple Subscriptions

Minimum Inventory and Price Drop Rules

Notification Intervals

Service Suspend/Restore

Integrating with Web Analytics

Reporting

Solution (diagrams)

Back in Stock Alerts

Price Drop Alerts