Everything you need to set up the Back in Stock block — a built-in email signup form that lets customers register for notifications when a sold-out product becomes available again.
A back-in-stock notification is an email signup form that appears on your product page when a product or variant is sold out. Instead of losing a potential sale, customers can enter their email address and be notified when the item is available again. This helps you capture demand, recover lost sales, and keep customers engaged with your store.
In the Boardwalk theme, the Back in Stock block displays a compact "Notify Me" email form directly on your product page whenever the selected variant is unavailable. The form automatically shows and hides as the customer switches between variants — it only appears when the chosen option is sold out. When a customer submits their email, a new customer entry is created in your Shopify admin with the product and variant details attached, so you know exactly which item they're waiting for.
Follow these steps to add a back-in-stock notification form to your product pages in the Boardwalk theme.
In your Shopify admin, go to
Online Store → Themes, find Boardwalk,
and click Customize. Use the page
selector dropdown at the top center of the editor to
navigate to a Product page template.
In the Theme Editor sidebar, find your product page content area. Click Add block and choose Back in stock from the list. The block will appear among your other product page blocks.
Drag the Back in stock block to your preferred position within the product page layout. A common placement is directly below the Add to Cart button or the variant picker, so customers see the signup form right where they'd normally make a purchase.
To see the block in action, use the product picker at the top of the Theme Editor to preview a product that has at least one sold-out variant. The notification form will only appear when the selected variant is unavailable — if all variants are in stock, the block stays hidden.
Note: If you don't have any sold-out
products to test with, you can temporarily set a
product's inventory to zero in your Shopify admin under
Products → Inventory to see the form
appear. Remember to restore the inventory after testing.
Click Save in the Theme Editor. The back-in-stock form is now live on your product pages and will automatically appear whenever a customer selects a sold-out variant.
The Back in Stock block is fully automatic — once you add it to your product page, it handles visibility and data collection without any extra configuration.
The form is hidden by default and only becomes visible when the currently selected variant is sold out. When a customer switches to a different variant using the variant picker, the block instantly updates — showing the form if the new variant is unavailable, or hiding it if the variant is in stock. No page reload is needed.
The block displays a short heading ("Get notified when this product is back in stock.") followed by an email input field and a "Notify Me" button. The layout is side-by-side on desktop and stacks vertically on mobile.
When a customer submits the form, a new customer record
is created in your Shopify admin under
Customers. The customer is automatically
tagged with back-in-stock and the specific
variant ID, and a note is attached with the product
name, variant name, and variant ID — making it easy to
identify exactly which item they want.
After submitting, the customer sees a green confirmation message letting them know they're on the list. If there is an issue with the email address (for example, an invalid format), a red error message appears explaining the problem. Both messages include an icon for clear visual feedback.
The block keeps track of all variant availability for the product. When a customer switches variants, the hidden form fields automatically update to record the correct product title, variant name, and variant ID. This means the customer entry in your Shopify admin will always reflect the exact variant they were looking at when they signed up.
When customers sign up for notifications, their information is saved directly in your Shopify admin. Here's how to find and manage those signups.
In your Shopify admin, navigate to
Customers from the left-hand menu.
Use the search bar or filter options to search for
customers tagged with
back-in-stock. This will show you all
customers who have signed up for a notification through
the block.
Click on any customer to view their details. The
Notes field will contain the product
name, variant name, and variant ID they signed up for.
The customer's tags will also include a variant-specific
tag (e.g., bis-variant-12345678) so you can
filter by specific variants.
When you restock the product, you can email the
customers on your list to let them know. Use Shopify's
built-in email tools, a third-party email marketing app,
or create a customer segment based on the
back-in-stock tag to send targeted
notifications.
Note: The Back in Stock block collects customer signups, but it does not automatically send notification emails when a product is restocked. You will need to send those emails manually or use an email marketing app that supports automated back-in-stock workflows.
The Back in Stock block includes several features that work automatically — no apps or custom code needed.
The block automatically detects which variants are in stock and which are sold out. It shows the signup form only when the customer selects an unavailable variant and hides it immediately when they switch to one that is available. This happens instantly without a page reload.
Signups are saved directly to your Shopify customer
list using Shopify's built-in contact form system. Each
signup includes the customer's email, a
back-in-stock tag, a variant-specific tag,
and a note with the full product and variant details.
No third-party app or external service is required.
The email field and submit button display side by side on desktop screens. On mobile devices, they stack vertically so the form is easy to use on smaller screens.
Customers see a clear success message with a checkmark icon after signing up, or an error message with an alert icon if their email address is invalid. The success message scrolls smoothly into view so customers know their signup was received.
The form automatically inherits your theme's fonts, colors, input styles, and button styles, so it looks consistent with the rest of your product page without any manual styling.
All text in the block — including the heading, email placeholder, button label, success message, and error messages — can be translated through Shopify's language editor. This makes the block ready for international stores without any extra setup.
The block uses proper form labels (visually hidden for screen readers), descriptive ARIA attributes, focus indicators for keyboard navigation, and role attributes for success and error feedback regions. This ensures the form is fully usable for customers who rely on assistive technology.