Want to capture demand for products that are temporarily sold out? The Waitlist module in Merchant Pro lets your customers sign up to an email waitlist for out-of-stock or on-backorder products.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up and enable the Waitlist module in Merchant Pro.
Before you get started, make sure you’ve installed and activated the Merchant plugin on your WordPress site. If you’re using premium modules, ensure you have Merchant Pro installed and active. This feature requires Merchant Pro.
Once the stock status of a product changes to Out of stock or On backorder in WooCommerce (update the status manually or with WooCommerce’s stock tracker), a waitlist signup form replaces the add-to-cart button on the product page until the product is available again. Merchant Pro then automatically emails subscribers when the product is back in stock.
In the screenshot below, you can see an example of the Waitlist module on a WooCommerce product page. For the example, we used the free Beauty demo of our Botiga theme:
By default, Merchant Pro only shows the waitlist signup form for out-of-stock products. There’s an option in the module’s settings to enable it for on-backorder products, too:
Set the stock status of a product to out of stock on its WooCommerce product page. Scroll down to the Product data section, open the Inventory tab, and change the Stock status option to Out of stock. You can also make WooCommerce track your stock quantity automatically by checking the Track stock quantity for this product checkbox:
Open the Waitlist module
Open your Merchant dashboard by clicking the Merchant menu in the left sidebar of your WordPress admin area.
Under the Boost Revenue heading, click the Waitlist module to open its settings page:
Configure the form settings
On the admin page of the Waitlist module, you’ll find three groups of settings:
- Form settings
- Email settings
- Shortcode settings (for developers)
First, find the Form Settings section and configure the following options:
- Display on backorders? – Enable the waitlist for backorders. The waitlist form then appears on the product pages of both out-of-stock and on-backorder products.
- Form title – The text Merchant Pro shows above the waitlist signup form.
- Form email label – The placeholder text shown inside the input field (for example, Your Email Address).
- Form button text – The label of the signup button (for example, Notify Me).
- Form success message – The message Merchant Pro shows customers right after they submit the form.
Once the form settings are configured, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page.
Customize the email settings
You’ll find the Email Settings right under the Form Settings. Merchant Pro emails your subscribers twice:
- New subscriber email (automated):
- Subscribers receive it when they sign up for the notification.
- Merchant Pro sends it automatically as soon as a customer clicks the Notify Me button.
- Stock update email (manual or automated):
- Subscribers receive it when the product is back in stock.
- Send the stock update emails manually, or set up Merchant Pro to send them automatically when the product’s status changes to In stock on the WooCommerce product page.
In the Email Settings section, you get access to the following options:
- Send emails automatically – Set whether to send the stock update emails manually or automatically.
- Email new subscribers – Compose the text of the new subscriber email. The Click here to preview the new subscriber email option lets you preview the message.
- Email in-stock update – Compose the text of the stock update email. The Click here to preview the stock update email option lets you preview the message.
Once the email settings are configured, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page.
Enable the module
To activate the module, click the Enable button at the top of the page:
Send the stock update emails
You can send the stock update emails automatically or manually. Toggle between the two options in the Email Settings (see the email settings step above).
i. Set up automatic stock update emails (recommended)
If you have the Send emails automatically option toggled on in the module’s Email Settings, Merchant Pro emails the subscribers automatically once the product’s status changes to In stock on the WooCommerce product page.
ii. Send the stock update emails manually
Click the Products » Wait List Subscribers option in the left sidebar of your WordPress admin area.
Here, you’ll find the list of subscribers. Check the subscribers you want to email, click the Bulk actions dropdown at the top of the page, select the Send Email option, then click the Apply button. Once you click Apply, Merchant Pro emails the selected customers:
Set up an SMTP plugin instead of the default mailer (optional)
By default, Merchant Pro uses WooCommerce’s built-in mailer() method, powered by the PHPMailer library, to send emails.
Because the default mailer can sometimes be unreliable, Merchant Pro also lets you send emails using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). To send emails with SMTP from a WordPress site, you’ll need to:
- Install an SMTP plugin such as WP Mail SMTP or Easy WP SMTP (the method we recommend for most users). These plugins give you access to email logs, so you can see which emails were sent and which weren’t.
- Or configure the SMTP settings manually.
In both cases, sign up for an email API that provides SMTP functionality, such as the Gmail API, SendGrid API, or Mailjet API. You don’t have to write any code. You only need to insert the API key or ID into the settings of the SMTP plugin.
If you use WP Mail SMTP (you’ll need the paid version to access the logs), below you can see an example of how it’s configured with the Gmail API:
Once the SMTP plugin is configured, Merchant Pro automatically uses it to email your waitlist subscribers. You don’t need to change anything else on the module’s admin page.
Enable the waitlist shortcode (for developers)
You’ll find a third group of settings on the module’s admin page under the Use shortcode heading. Here, enable the [merchant_module_wait_list] shortcode to display the waitlist signup form in a custom location on your WordPress site.
After changing the Use shortcode option, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page:
Note: If the subscribe email is sent but the restocking email is not, check the merchant_pro_background_task_wait_list_send_emails action hook. This hook uses Action Scheduler to send restocking emails as a background task.
Video walkthrough
Check out the video below for a live demo of the Waitlist module:
Frequently asked questions
Below, we’ve answered some of the most common questions about the Waitlist module in Merchant Pro.
When does the signup form appear?
The form replaces the add-to-cart button when a product is out of stock. Enable the Display on backorders? option to also show it on on-backorder products.
Are subscribers emailed automatically when a product is restocked?
They can be. Turn on Send emails automatically and Merchant Pro emails subscribers the moment the product’s status changes to In stock. Otherwise, send the emails manually from Products » Wait List Subscribers.
Can I place the signup form somewhere other than the product page?
Yes. Enable the shortcode setting and use the [merchant_module_wait_list] shortcode to display the form in a custom location.
That’s it! You’ve successfully set up and enabled the Waitlist module in Merchant Pro to capture demand for out-of-stock products.
Next, would you like to add urgency for low-stock items? Check out our guide on Stock Scarcity to learn more.
