Description
HDWebmobile Back In Stock & Waitlist adds a “Notify Me” signup to out-of-stock products, then reliably emails subscribers when the item comes back — processed through WooCommerce’s own Action Scheduler in the background rather than sent inline, so a slow or failed send never gets silently dropped.
Key Features
- AJAX “Notify Me” signup on out-of-stock simple products — no page reload
- Restock detection hooks WooCommerce’s own stock-status change event, reliably
- Notifications are queued through Action Scheduler (bundled with WooCommerce) and logged on every attempt, success or failure
- Fair batching: if only a few units are restocked, only that many of the oldest waiting subscribers are notified — the rest stay queued for the next restock or a manual batch
- Notification email is a real WooCommerce transactional email (WooCommerce > Settings > Emails), so merchant email styling and subject/heading customization apply automatically
- One-click, no-login-required unsubscribe link in every notification
- Admin waitlist screen (WooCommerce > Waitlist) with search, status filter, and a manual “Notify next batch” action
Limitations (please read before installing)
- Email notifications only — no SMS/push in this version
- Single-step signup (email + optional name); no double opt-in — a deliberate choice to keep signup friction low
- Variable-product (per-variation) waitlist signup and restock detection is included in the code but is not currently reliable on all WooCommerce versions: some versions have a data-layer issue where saving stock changes to an existing product variation does not persist the change or fire the usual stock hooks. Test variation restock notifications on your own site before relying on them; simple products are unaffected and fully supported.
- Fair batching depends on the product tracking a real stock quantity; if stock isn’t managed, all waiting subscribers are notified at once
- The manual “Notify next batch” admin action runs synchronously on click; very large pending waitlists (several hundred+) could approach PHP’s execution time limit
How to Use
1. No setup required to start collecting signups
As soon as the plugin is active, any simple product with stock status “Out of stock” automatically shows an “Enter your email and we’ll let you know when this is back in stock” form in place of the normal Add to Cart button (Screenshot 1). There’s nothing to configure to turn this on.
2. What a customer sees
They enter their email (name is optional) and click Notify Me. The form submits over AJAX — no page reload — and immediately confirms “You’re on the list! We’ll email you when it’s back.” (Screenshot 2).
3. What happens when you restock
Update the product’s stock status back to “In stock” (or increase its stock quantity) the normal way, through the product edit screen, a CSV import, or any other plugin. This plugin hooks WooCommerce’s own stock-status-change event — you don’t need to do anything else. Notification jobs are then queued through Action Scheduler (bundled with WooCommerce) and sent in the background, so a large waitlist never blocks your restock save.
4. Fair batching for limited restocks
If you only restocked a few units, only that many of the oldest waiting subscribers are notified — the rest stay queued for the next restock, or you can notify a batch manually (see below). This prevents an email blast promising stock to more people than you actually have.
5. Manage the waitlist
Go to WooCommerce > Waitlist (Screenshot 3) to see every signup with its product, email, name, status (Waiting / Notified), signup date, and notified date. Search by email or filter by status, and use the “Notify next batch” action if you want to trigger a send manually instead of waiting for the next stock update.
6. Customize the notification email
The notification is a real WooCommerce transactional email under WooCommerce > Settings > Emails, so it inherits your store’s email header/footer styling automatically and its subject/heading are editable there like any other WooCommerce email.
7. Unsubscribing
Every notification email includes a one-click unsubscribe link that needs no login — customers who no longer want restock alerts can remove themselves instantly.
Screenshots



Installation
- Upload the plugin files to the
/wp-content/plugins/hdwebmobile-back-in-stock-waitlistdirectory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress. WooCommerce must already be installed and active.
- That’s it — out-of-stock products automatically show a “Notify Me” signup. Manage subscribers and customize the notification email under WooCommerce > Waitlist and WooCommerce > Settings > Emails.
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Contributors & Developers
“HDWebmobile Back In Stock & Waitlist” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
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Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release: AJAX waitlist signup for simple products and variations, Action Scheduler-driven restock notifications, fair quantity-aware batching, WC_Email integration, one-click unsubscribe, admin waitlist management screen.
