Receive Alerts When New Products Become Available

We’ve received a number of inquiries recently about how to receive notifications when an out of stock product becomes available on an e-commerce site so we thought we’d take the time to provide an overview of this use case and a few ways in which one could set this up on ChangeTower. 

Why Monitor Product Pages on e-Commerce Sites?

So, why would someone care about receiving notifications about changes to a product’s stocking status? There a number of reasons why individuals and businesses would like to know when certain products become newly available, drop below a certain threshold, and/or sell out completely.

Get Notified when a Product is Back in Stock

To the surprise of no one who has tried to buy tickets to a sold out concert or get their hands on the hot holiday gift of a particular year, it turns out that some people can make a pretty decent living by buying hot ticket items and reselling them at a premium on secondary markets. Regardless of whether it’s tickets, hot gift ideas, or even big items like a Tesla, it pays to be the first to know if / when popular items become available for purchase for less than they’re selling online.

Receive Notifications when Online Inventories Reach Certain Levels

There’s also a major benefit for retailers as well. While some retailers still struggle to stock enough inventory to meet expected demand, every retailer struggles with the timing. The issue of when to order / manufacture new inventory is an age old problem and one that has significant cost implications for the business. As the owner of an e-commerce site who knows it takes 6 weeks to receive a new shipment once s/he places the order, it’s crucial that the order be placed enough in advance so that it arrives before s/he stocks out but not so far in advance that the business incurs unnecessary inventory holding costs. What makes this such a hard problem to solve? Demand. Unfortunately for business owners, demand is extremely tough to predict, especially for long-tail items typically sold online.

Step-by-step Guide for Monitoring e-commerce Websites

Whether your an individual hustler looking to take advantage of temporary supply / demand disequilibriums or an e-commerce retailer needing to know if / when to place your next inventory order, website monitoring tools can solve a real need. While it might take a little effort to tailor the Monitors so that they account for the particulars of a specific web URL’s design, it’s worth the effort when the alternative is manual monitoring or worse – lost sales! Here’s a guide for setting up Monitors on a Product’s web URL:

Step 1: sign up for a website monitoring tool like ChangeTower

Step 2: Create the monitor

Step 3: Set your notification criteria

Step 4: Ensure you’re alerted when the criteria is met

Step 5: Buy, order, or sell – what you do with this information is up to you!

Feedback for us?

User feedback is the best way that we know to learn, grow and evolve. Have a feature you want to see? Want to see improved capabilities in an existing tool or feature? Let us know!