Smart Waitlist for WooCommerce automatically notifies customers when an out-of-stock product is back in stock.
When a product runs out of stock, a “Notify Me When Available” form appears on the product page. Customers enter their name and email to join the waitlist. The moment you restock the product, every pending subscriber receives a personalized notification email — automatically.
Core Features
- Automatic restock detection — hooks directly into WooCommerce stock management; no manual steps required.
- Variable product support — per-variation waitlists, so customers subscribe to the exact variant they want.
- Double opt-in support — require email confirmation before users are added to the waitlist (now a core free feature).
- Smart form display — form appears only on out-of-stock products; hidden when stock is available.
- Duplicate prevention — customers cannot accidentally subscribe twice.
- Honeypot spam protection — invisible field blocks automated spam submissions.
- HMAC-signed unsubscribe links — every notification email contains a secure, one-click unsubscribe link.
- Batch notifications — large waitlists are processed in background batches via WP-Cron to avoid timeouts.
- Admin dashboard — searchable, filterable, sortable subscriber list with bulk actions (delete, mark as notified).
- Per-product settings — enable or disable the waitlist individually for any product.
- Waitlist capacity limits — optionally cap the number of subscribers per product (or per variation) to control stock flow.
- WooCommerce Settings integration — configure waitlist emails under WooCommerce > Settings > Emails and waitlist behavior under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Waitlist.
- Theme-overridable templates — copy templates to your theme for complete HTML customisation.
- GDPR tools — personal data export and erasure via WordPress Privacy Tools (Tools Erase Personal Data).
- Developer-friendly — action and filter hooks throughout; documented phpdoc on every method.
- WPCS-compliant — all database queries use
$wpdb->prepare(); all output is escaped; nonces on every form. - HPOS compatible — declared compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage.
Pro Version
Need to reach customers where they actually read messages? Smart Waitlist Pro adds:
- WhatsApp notifications — send restock alerts through the WhatsApp Business Cloud API using approved message templates.
- Coupon with notification — auto-generate a WooCommerce coupon and include it in the restock alert.
Everything in this free plugin, including unlimited waitlists, double opt-in, and email notifications, stays free. Learn more about Pro
Privacy
This plugin stores subscriber names, email addresses, and optionally phone numbers in a dedicated database table ({prefix}swfwc_waitlist). Data is retained until manually deleted by the site administrator or until the subscriber unsubscribes. No data is shared with third parties. Plugin data is fully removed on uninstall.
Personal data can be exported and erased via Tools Erase Personal Data in compliance with GDPR Article 17 and Article 20.
Consider updating your site’s Privacy Policy to reflect this data collection.
Email Setup Guide
Email Configuration
- Configure a reliable SMTP or transactional email plugin first.
- Send a test email from the SMTP plugin and confirm it arrives.
- Go to WooCommerce Settings Emails.
- Enable and review Waitlist Signup Confirmation.
- Enable and review Waitlist Restock Notification.
- Test the waitlist flow with one out-of-stock product and one real email address.
Email Production Checklist
- SMTP or transactional email test succeeds.
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are configured for the sending domain.
- Signup confirmation email arrives.
- Restock notification email arrives after stock changes to
instock. - Unsubscribe links work.
- Emails are not consistently landing in spam.
License
Smart Waitlist for WooCommerce is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or any later version.
Smart Waitlist for WooCommerce is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.