Out of stock and backorder emails to customers

When you've sold something you don't have, email the customer before your promised shipping time runs out and give them a real choice: wait for a date you can stand behind, or cancel for a full refund. A substitute is a third option only if they say yes to it first.

Below are five emails for the situations a small store meets, how to adjust the order in Shopify, and what the FTC's rule on mail and internet orders allows for US customers. Words in double braces, like {{order_number}}, are blanks: fill each one from the order or your supplier's confirmation, never from memory.

Before you write: three questions

1. Will you ever get it? If the product is discontinued or the supplier can't deliver, skip to Template 4. The FTC's guide is direct about this: if you decide you can never ship, "you must promptly cancel the order and make a full refund."
2. Do you have a date? Only a date your supplier has confirmed counts. A hopeful guess is how one backorder email becomes three.
3. Is the rest of the order in stock? If so, the customer may want the rest now (Template 5).

Situation	Email
Restock date confirmed, close to your original promise	Template 1
No date, or a date far beyond your promise	Template 2
You have a close alternative	Template 3 (ask, don't send)
You can't get it at all	Template 4
Only part of the order is out of stock	Template 5

Template 1: backordered, with a confirmed date

Hi {{first_name}},

I'm sorry — {{item_name}} from your order {{order_number}} is out of stock. Our supplier has confirmed new stock for {{restock_date}}, and we'll ship your order on {{new_ship_date}}.

If you'd rather not wait, reply to this email and I'll cancel the order and refund you in full. If we don't hear from you, we'll take it that you're happy to wait, and ship on {{new_ship_date}}.

{{your_name}}

For US orders, the last sentence is not decoration. If the new date is 30 days or less after the time you first promised, the FTC rule lets you treat silence as agreement, but only if the email says so.

Template 2: backordered, no date yet

Use this when you don't know when stock arrives. If you do have a date but it's more than 30 days after your original promise, replace the first paragraph with that date; the rest of the email stays the same.

Hi {{first_name}},

{{item_name}} from your order {{order_number}} is out of stock, and I can't yet give you a date: {{reason_for_backorder}}.

You can cancel at any time before we ship and get a full refund — just reply "cancel".

If you'd like to wait, please reply "keep my order". If we haven't heard from you and haven't shipped by {{automatic_cancellation_date}}, we'll cancel the order and refund you in full automatically.

{{your_name}}

Two parts of this email come straight from the rule. When you can't give a date, the FTC requires you to give the reason for the delay, detailed enough that the customer can judge how long it might be. And when the date is unknown or more than 30 days late, the notice must tell the customer the order will be cancelled automatically unless they agree to wait. Set {{automatic_cancellation_date}} to your original promised shipping time plus 30 days, and put it in your calendar: on that date, any order with no reply gets cancelled and refunded.

Template 3: offering a substitute

Ask first. Never ship the alternative and hope.

Hi {{first_name}},

{{item_name}} from your order {{order_number}} is out of stock, and I don't have a date for new stock.

I do have {{substitute_item}} in stock. It differs in {{what_is_different}}, and costs {{substitute_price}} against {{original_price}}. {{price_difference_sentence}}

Would you like me to send that instead? If you'd rather wait for the original, or cancel for a full refund, that's fine too — just tell me which. I won't send anything different without your yes.

{{your_name}}

Spell out every difference: colour, size, material, model. Under the FTC rule, any feature shown or mentioned in your advertising counts as material, so a "very similar" item usually isn't the same item. If the customer agrees, edit the order in Shopify: remove the original item and add the new one, because Shopify's help centre says that to swap items, you remove the unwanted item and add a new one. For more on swaps, see exchange request email replies.

Template 4: cancelled, because you can't get it

Hi {{first_name}},

I'm sorry — we can't get {{item_name}} again, so I've cancelled your order {{order_number}} and refunded {{refund_amount}} to {{refund_method}}.

{{optional_alternative_sentence}}

{{your_name}}

Cancel and refund before you send it. The steps are in order cancellation email replies. For US customers, refund to the original payment method: for rule-required refunds, the FTC's guide says you "cannot substitute credit toward future purchases, credit vouchers, or scrip."

Template 5: part of the order is out of stock

Hi {{first_name}},

Most of your order {{order_number}} is ready, but {{item_name}} is out of stock until {{restock_date}}.

Would you like us to send the rest now and {{item_name}} when it arrives, or would you prefer us to refund {{item_name}} ({{item_refund_amount}}) and send the rest straight away? Either way, reply and I'll sort it today.

{{your_name}}

If the customer chooses the refund, you can refund only the missing item in Shopify: open the order, click Refund, set the quantity for that item, and check the Summary before you click Refund. Shopify's help centre notes that refunding an unfulfilled item removes it from the order, so it can't be fulfilled later by mistake.

How much to refund on a partial order also has a US rule: if you ship some but not all of an order, you refund the difference between what was paid and what the shipped items would have cost. With a flat shipping fee, the FTC's guide says you need not refund shipping when you ship some items; if your shipping charge rises with the number or value of items, you keep only the part that fits what you shipped.

What the FTC rule allows for US orders

The FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule covers most goods ordered online. For backorders, its guide says the rule "provides only two ways of responding": get the customer's agreement to the delay, or give a full and prompt refund. The main points for a backorder email:

• Timing. You must seek the customer's consent reasonably quickly after you learn you can't ship on time, and never later than the time you promised, or 30 days if you promised none.
• What it must say. A definite new shipping date, or a statement that you can't give one; that the customer can cancel for a full and prompt refund; and a way to cancel at your expense, such as replying to the email. Email is an accepted way to send the notice.
• Substitutes. Not without the customer's express agreement beforehand. "Materially different" means different in a way likely to affect the customer's choice, and the guide lists design, style, colour, fabric and promoted end use.
• Refunds. Within seven working days after cancellation for most payment methods, or one billing cycle if you extended the credit yourself.

If the date slips a second time, send a renewed notice before the date passes. Silence no longer counts as consent then. The whole rule is in the FTC's 30-day shipping rule, and delays that aren't about stock are covered in shipping delay email templates.

Stop selling what you don't have in Shopify

Shopify's default prevents most backorders: with Track quantity on, a product set to Stop selling when out of stock can't be added to the cart once inventory reaches zero. To check a product, go to Products, open it, and look at the Inventory section.

Continue selling when out of stock is a choice you make per product or variant. Shopify suggests it for pre-orders, items you can restock quickly and made-to-order products. If you use it, every order past zero is a backorder, and it needs one of the emails above. If you take advance orders on purpose, see pre-order email templates.

Two catches from Shopify's help centre: the setting doesn't apply to orders placed in Shopify POS, and with more than one location, an item can show as out of stock online even when stock sits at a location that doesn't fulfil online orders.

When AI drafts the backorder email

An AI drafting tool writes a friendly backorder email in seconds, and it will put a restock date in it that nobody gave it. That invented date is exactly what the FTC rule asks you to have a reasonable basis for.

Corresso keeps the order number, tracking details and dates as blanks in every draft, and a rule written in code holds any draft where the AI wrote one itself. It also holds a draft that promises a refund or a replacement without citing a document allowed to offer one. With Shopify connected, the order sits beside the email, and a person checks it, fills the blanks and presses Send. How Corresso drafts replies.