How Do I Increase Average Order Value When My Bestsellers Are Out of Stock?
How to Raise AOV Even When Bestsellers Are Sold Out
Raising AOV during a stockout starts with one simple shift: stop treating sold-out traffic as lost by default.
A shopper who lands on an unavailable bestseller already showed intent. That shopper searched, clicked, and cared enough to view the page. If the page stays live in your OpoShop store, you still have a chance to turn that visit into a larger order through a higher-value substitute, a smart bundle, a pre-order, or a future restock signup.
The pages that work best usually do five things well:
If you want a cleaner way to keep sold-out traffic working harder in your store, start with the stockout tools available around your OpoShop setup.
What Does Increasing AOV During a Stockout Actually Mean?
Increasing AOV during a stockout means getting more value from shoppers who landed on an unavailable product instead of watching those visits bounce.
That can happen in a few ways. A shopper can switch to a higher-priced substitute. A shopper can buy an in-stock companion item while joining a waitlist. A shopper can place a pre-order if the restock date is reliable. The point is not to force a sale that does not fit. The point is to keep purchase intent alive and redirect it well.
In ecommerce terms, the problem is pretty specific. Your bestseller usually brings your strongest traffic and often anchors bigger baskets. Once that product disappears, basket size often shrinks because shoppers either leave or settle for a weaker replacement.
A good sold-out page changes that path. Instead of saying "unavailable" and stopping there, the page says, "that exact item is gone right now, but here is the closest match, here is the better set, and here is how to claim the next drop."
Why Stockouts Hurt AOV More Than Most Merchants Realize
Stockouts hurt AOV because your bestseller often does more than sell itself. It pulls other items into the cart.
That is the part many merchants miss. The hero SKU is not just a product. The hero SKU is often the entry point for a larger order. When it disappears, the whole basket can get smaller.
Think about a store on OpoShop where a bestselling jacket is sold out in medium and large. The shopper did not just want any jacket. The shopper wanted that jacket, in that size, right now. If the page hides itself or offers weak recommendations, the visit dies there. If the page shows a better insulated version, a matching accessory bundle, or a pre-order with a clear ship window, the order still has a path.
Stockouts also waste your highest-intent traffic. Searchers who land on a sold-out product page are often closer to buying than homepage browsers. Sending them into a generic collection page usually lowers both conversion and basket value.
How to Increase Average Order Value When Your Bestsellers Are Out of Stock
You increase average order value during stockouts by making the sold-out page do more work, not less.
Start by keeping sold-out bestseller pages live. Do not hide them unless the product is gone for good. A live page keeps SEO value, preserves ad landing pages, and gives you one controlled place to capture demand and redirect it.
Next, collect demand at the variant level. If size 8 is gone but sizes 6 and 10 are still available, the page should know that. If black is sold out but navy is in stock, the page should respond to that. Variant-level back-in-stock alerts matter because they tell you what people actually wanted, not just which product got traffic.
Then show alternatives that make sense for AOV. A random "you may also like" strip is usually too weak. A better move is to recommend adjacent products that solve the same job and carry a higher margin or larger basket potential.
Here is the difference:
Weak: "You may also like" followed by four unrelated low-priced items. Stronger: "Your size is sold out in the bestseller. Here is the upgraded version that is in stock, plus the matching add-on most shoppers buy with it."
That is a better redirect because it matches intent. It also gives the shopper a reason to spend more, not less.
Bundles need a little care here. If one bestseller-driven set is broken because a component is out of stock, do not keep pushing the same bundle blindly. Either rebuild the bundle around in-stock components or swap in a close substitute and explain the change clearly. A broken bundle often lowers trust and drags cart value down with it.
Pre-orders work well when your inbound inventory timing is reliable. If your supplier confirmed the next shipment and you know roughly when units will be available, a pre-order can protect AOV better than a passive alert. If timing is fuzzy, use a waitlist or back-in-stock alert instead. You do not want overselling problems just because demand is high.
One more move matters during restocks: reserve some inventory for subscribers before reopening the product broadly. That protects the people who already showed intent and gives your restock launch a better shot at recovering larger orders. In many OpoShop stores, that one step is the difference between a fast sell-through with recovered revenue and a messy reopen where the most motivated shoppers still miss out.
If your stockout flow is still sending shoppers to dead ends, this is a good point to clean it up inside your OpoShop store.
Best Ways to Recover Higher-Value Orders: Waitlists vs Back-in-Stock Alerts vs Pre-Orders
Waitlists, back-in-stock alerts, and pre-orders each fit a different stockout situation, and the right choice depends on lead time confidence and shopper intent.
| Option | Best use case | How it helps AOV | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waitlist | Demand is high, restock timing is not fixed | Keeps high-intent shoppers engaged and gives you a pool for segmented follow-up | A vague waitlist without updates can go cold |
| Back-in-stock alert | Inventory is coming back soon and timing is fairly clear | Recovers shoppers who wanted the exact item and can bring them back fast | Generic alerts lose relevance if they are not variant-specific |
| Pre-order | Incoming inventory is confirmed and oversell risk is controlled | Preserves the original purchase intent and can keep larger baskets intact | Poor inventory control creates frustration fast |
A waitlist is best when you know demand exists but cannot promise a date yet. A back-in-stock alert is better when you expect inventory soon and want a fast recovery moment. A pre-order is strongest when supply timing is solid enough that you can take payment confidently.
A merchant deciding between these options should ask one plain question: how certain are we about incoming stock? If the answer is "very certain," pre-orders are on the table. If the answer is "somewhat certain," back-in-stock alerts are safer. If the answer is "not certain yet," use a waitlist and keep the conversation going.
This matters at the variant level too. If only one color is out of stock, a variant-specific alert is usually enough. If the entire hero SKU is unavailable for weeks, a waitlist plus substitute recommendations often works better.
Common Mistakes That Lower AOV During Stockouts
The biggest AOV mistakes during stockouts usually come from making the sold-out page less useful right when intent is highest.
The first mistake is turning the page into a dead end. A sold-out page without signups, alternatives, or a future purchase path wastes traffic you already paid for or already ranked for.
The second mistake is hiding high-intent pages. If the product is coming back, keep the page live. In an OpoShop store, that page can still capture emails, show substitutes, and preserve search visibility.
The third mistake is using generic recommendations. If the hero SKU is a bestselling everyday sneaker, showing unrelated clearance items is not going to lift order value. The replacement offer needs to feel like a real next choice, not filler.
The fourth mistake is ignoring unavailable demand. If you do not track which size, color, or variant people wanted, you lose useful buying signals. That makes future purchasing and future restock campaigns much weaker.
The fifth mistake is reopening inventory without a subscriber plan. If a restock goes live to everyone at once, you can miss the easiest recovered sales. A reserved subscriber window gives earlier signups a fair shot and helps you measure recovered revenue from sold-out traffic more cleanly.
What We Recommend for Shopify Merchants Handling Bestseller Stockouts
We recommend using sold-out pages as active conversion surfaces, then sorting shoppers into the right recovery path based on stock certainty.
Keep the product page live. Capture demand first. Then decide whether each shopper should see a waitlist, a back-in-stock alert, or a pre-order option. That order matters because you cannot recover demand you never captured.
For a merchant with a sold-out hero SKU and adjacent higher-margin products still in stock, the page should do three jobs at once. It should explain the stockout clearly, offer the closest in-stock substitute, and collect the shopper's preferred variant for the next drop.
For a merchant dealing with partial variant stockouts, the page should not act like the whole product is gone. If size medium is unavailable, say that. If charcoal is out but olive is available, say that. Specificity keeps shoppers moving.
For a merchant planning a restock launch, the inventory plan should include a reserved portion for subscribers before the product reopens broadly. That protects intent and makes measurement easier inside your OpoShop reporting and app stack.
Best answer: Keep bestseller pages live, collect variant-level demand, and route shoppers based on certainty. Use waitlists when timing is unclear, back-in-stock alerts when restocks are close, and pre-orders when incoming inventory is confirmed. If you sell on OpoShop, build the stockout flow around the page the shopper already wanted, not a generic fallback page.
FAQs
Should I hide sold-out products or keep them live for SEO?
Keep sold-out products live if the item is coming back. A live product page can still rank, capture demand, and redirect shoppers to better alternatives, which is far better than turning that traffic into a dead end.
What is the difference between a waitlist and a back-in-stock alert?
A waitlist collects interest before you know exactly when inventory will return. A back-in-stock alert is a message sent when the product or variant is available again, usually when the restock timing is much clearer.
Are pre-orders worth offering for sold-out products?
Yes, if incoming inventory timing is reliable and you have tight stock control. Pre-orders are a strong option when you want to preserve the original purchase intent instead of asking shoppers to wait and maybe forget.
How do I improve conversion rate on a sold-out product page?
A sold-out product page converts better when it gives shoppers a clear next step. That usually means a variant-specific signup, a close substitute, a bundle built from in-stock items, or a pre-order option if the arrival date is dependable.
Can I collect back-in-stock signups for specific variants like size or color?
Yes, and you should. Variant-level signups tell you whether shoppers wanted black in medium, blue in small, or another exact option, which makes both restock messaging and inventory planning much sharper.
How do I measure revenue recovered from sold-out traffic?
Track signups from sold-out pages, restock campaign clicks, orders placed after those messages, and average order value on recovered orders. In an OpoShop store, the cleanest view comes from tying page-level stockout traffic to the alert, waitlist, or pre-order path that brought the shopper back.
Summary
The best answer is not "wait for inventory."
A stockout does not have to shrink basket size if the sold-out page keeps working. Keep bestseller pages live, capture demand at the variant level, recommend stronger alternatives, rebuild bundles carefully, and choose between waitlists, back-in-stock alerts, and pre-orders based on how certain the next inventory arrival is.
If you want a cleaner way to capture demand when products sell out, see how Restockly can help you turn sold-out traffic into waitlists, alerts, and recovered sales.
