Understanding Low Stock Alerts

Low Stock Alerts give you two layers of inventory protection. First, you receive automatic email alerts when any product drops below your configured threshold — so you can reorder before it sells out. Second, DemandLoop sends urgency notifications to your back-in-stock subscribers to drive conversions while inventory is still available.

What you'll accomplish

• Understand how merchant alerts and customer alerts work together
• Configure global and per-product stock thresholds
• Set up daily digest emails for consolidated inventory monitoring
• Control alert frequency with cooldown and daily cap settings

Requirements

• DemandLoop app installed on your store
• Products with inventory tracking enabled
• Essentials plan or higher (Low Stock Alerts is not available on the Free plan)

How Low Stock Alerts Work

DemandLoop monitors your inventory levels in real time. When a product's quantity drops below the threshold you set, two things can happen:

1. Merchant Alert

You receive an email immediately when stock falls below the threshold. The email includes the product name, current quantity, your threshold, and suggested actions (reorder, adjust marketing, update settings).

Flow:

1. Inventory changes in your store (sale, manual adjustment, sync)
2. DemandLoop checks the quantity against your threshold
3. If below threshold and not in cooldown — alert email is sent to you
4. Alert is recorded in history to prevent duplicate notifications

2. Customer Alert

Your back-in-stock subscribers who already received a restock notification — but haven't purchased yet — get an urgency email: "Only X left!" This creates a natural sense of urgency that drives conversions.

Flow:

1. Same inventory threshold triggers the check
2. DemandLoop identifies eligible subscribers (active BIS subscription, already notified about restock, not in cooldown)
3. Urgency email and/or web push notification is sent
4. Attribution token is included to track conversions

Threshold Configuration

Global Threshold

Set a single threshold that applies to all products in your store.

Go to: Low Stock → Settings

• Threshold quantity — the inventory level that triggers an alert (default: 10 units, range: 1–1,000)
• Alert cooldown — minimum time between alerts for the same product (default: 24 hours, range: 1–168 hours)

Example:

Global threshold: 10 units
Cooldown: 24 hours

Product "Blue Sneakers" drops to 9 units → Alert sent
Same product drops to 8 units 2 hours later → Skipped (cooldown active)
Same product drops to 5 units 25 hours later → Alert sent again

Per-Product Overrides

Not all products need the same threshold. A high-volume product might need a threshold of 50, while a slow-moving item only needs 3.

Go to: Low Stock → Thresholds

Create a product-specific override:

1. Search for the product or variant
2. Set a custom threshold quantity
3. Optionally set a different cooldown period
4. Save

Threshold resolution order (highest priority first):

1. Variant-specific threshold (if set)
2. Product-specific threshold (if set)
3. Global threshold
4. No threshold configured — no alert

Multi-Location Support

If your store uses multiple inventory locations, you can set location-specific thresholds. A warehouse with 5 units might be fine, while a retail store with 5 units needs immediate attention.

Merchant Alert Email

When inventory drops below your threshold, you receive an email containing:

• Product name and variant — which item is running low
• Current quantity — how many units remain
• Threshold — the level you configured
• Suggested actions — reorder inventory, update listings, pause marketing, adjust settings
• Link to dashboard — go directly to your Low Stock products page

Daily Digest

Instead of (or in addition to) individual alerts, you can receive a single daily summary of all low stock products.

Go to: Low Stock → Settings → Daily Digest

• Enable daily digest — on/off toggle
• Send time — choose when to receive the digest (default: 9:00 AM)

What the digest includes:

• Total count of products below thresholds
• Count of critical items (very low stock)
• Product table with current stock, threshold, and severity badge
• CSV attachment for bulk reorder planning

Customer Urgency Notifications

Who Receives Them

Customer low stock alerts are sent only to subscribers who meet all three criteria:

1. Active BIS subscription for the low-stock variant
2. Already received a restock notification (they know the item is back)
3. Not in cooldown (haven't received a low stock alert recently)

What They Receive

Email:

• Subject: "Hurry! Only X left: [Product Name]"
• Urgency banner highlighting the remaining quantity
• Product image, name, variant, and price
• "Shop Now" call-to-action with attribution tracking
• Unsubscribe link

Web Push (if enabled):

• Browser notification with product name and stock count
• Click leads to product page with attribution token

Rate Limiting

To protect your customers from notification fatigue:

• Daily cap: Maximum 3 low stock alerts per customer per 24 hours (across all products)
• Per-product cooldown: Same product cannot trigger a repeat alert to the same customer within the cooldown window

Setting Up Low Stock Alerts

Step 1: Enable Merchant Alerts

1. Go to Low Stock → Settings in the DemandLoop admin
2. Toggle Enable low stock email alerts to on
3. Set your global threshold (e.g., 10 units)
4. Set your alert cooldown (e.g., 24 hours)
5. Save

Step 2: Add Product Overrides (Optional)

1. Go to Low Stock → Thresholds
2. Click Add threshold
3. Search for a product or variant
4. Enter the custom threshold quantity
5. Save

Step 3: Enable Daily Digest (Optional)

1. Go to Low Stock → Settings → Daily Digest
2. Toggle Enable daily digest to on
3. Set your preferred send time
4. Save

Step 4: Enable Customer Alerts (Optional)

1. In Low Stock → Settings, find the Customer Alerts section
2. Toggle Enable customer low stock alerts to on
3. Customer alerts will be sent automatically when thresholds are crossed and eligible subscribers exist

Free vs Paid Plans

On the Free plan, you can browse the Low Stock settings page and see preview cards, but all modification actions require an Essentials plan or higher.

Verify

After setting up Low Stock Alerts, confirm:

• Merchant alerts are enabled in Low Stock → Settings and a global threshold is set
• A test product with inventory at or below the threshold triggers an alert email to your inbox
• Per-product overrides (if created) appear in the Thresholds list and take priority over the global threshold
• The daily digest arrives at your configured time with a summary of low stock products
• Cooldown prevents duplicate alerts for the same product within the configured window
• (If customer alerts enabled) Eligible BIS subscribers receive the urgency email when stock drops

FAQ

Q: How quickly do alerts arrive after inventory changes? Alerts are triggered in real time by inventory change webhooks. Merchant alert emails typically arrive within a few minutes of the inventory update.

Q: Will I get an alert every time someone buys a unit? No. The cooldown period prevents repeated alerts for the same product. If your cooldown is 24 hours, you receive at most one alert per product per day — regardless of how many units sell.

Q: Can I set different thresholds for different variants of the same product? Yes. Per-variant overrides are supported. For example, you can set a threshold of 5 for "Size S" and 20 for "Size M" of the same product.

Q: Do customer alerts go to all my subscribers? No. Only subscribers who have an active back-in-stock subscription for that specific variant, have already received a restock notification, and haven't purchased yet. This ensures urgency messages reach genuinely interested customers.

Q: What happens if I'm on the Free plan? You can view the Low Stock settings and product pages in read-only mode. To enable alerts, thresholds, and digest emails, upgrade to the Essentials plan or higher.

Q: Do customer low stock alerts count toward my email limits? Yes. On plans with email limits, customer low stock alerts count toward your monthly email quota.

Troubleshooting

Problem: No merchant alert email received after stock dropped below threshold Likely cause: Cooldown is still active from a previous alert, or merchant alerts are disabled Fix: Check Low Stock → Settings to confirm alerts are enabled. Verify the cooldown period — if a previous alert was sent recently, the next alert is suppressed until the cooldown expires. How to confirm: Check your email (including spam folder) and review alert history in the DemandLoop admin.

Problem: Customer subscribers did not receive a low stock notification Likely cause: No eligible subscribers exist (none have received a prior restock notification), or the daily cap was reached Fix: Customer alerts only target subscribers who already received a restock email but haven't converted. If no subscribers match this criteria, no alerts are sent. Check event logs for low_stock.no_eligible_subscribers. How to confirm: Go to Subscriptions → Active and verify that matching subscribers exist with a restock notification in their history.

Problem: Getting too many alerts for the same product Likely cause: Cooldown period is set too low Fix: Increase the alert cooldown in Low Stock → Settings. For most stores, 24 hours is a good default. High-volume stores may prefer 48–72 hours.

Problem: Daily digest email not arriving Likely cause: Digest is disabled, or no products are currently below threshold Fix: Verify the toggle is enabled in Low Stock → Settings → Daily Digest. The digest is only sent when at least one product is below its threshold. Also check your spam folder.

Next Steps

• How Notifications Work — understand the full notification lifecycle
• Understanding Smart Wishlist — save products and auto-subscribe to alerts
• Understanding Plans & Pricing — compare plan features
• Understanding Analytics — track performance and revenue