Magento 2 back-in-stock notification is a great way to reduce cart abandonment due to product unavailability. It allows customers to sign up for product alerts and be notified when a product is back in stock. 

However, it works only for registered customers and only in case you display out-of-stock products on the storefront. As an alternative, we offer you to create a Magento back-in-stock category where you gather all products you've restocked within a certain period.

Don't worry, you won't have to manually add and remove products from this category. You just need to enable Automatic Categories for Magento 2

So, let's check how you can optimize your stock management with the Magento 2 back-in-stock or any other date-based category.

There are a few steps included in the process, but the result is worth the effort.

To create back-in-stock category for Magento: 

1. Create Magento category

Before enabling any dynamic category rules you have to create a category which all the products will be added to. In this case, it's the Back-in-Stock category. 

Just follow the regular process of creating a category in Magento.

Magento Back in Stock Category

2. Create Date-based Attribute

To create date-based conditions for the back-in-stock category, you have to create a custom attribute

  • Give it a Default Label Arrived At and choose Date as a Catalog Input Type for Store Owner

Date Attribtue Magento

  • Fill out the Advanced Attribute Properties.

Advanced Attribute Properties

  • Configure Storefront Properties and don't forget to set Use for Promo Rule Conditions to YES, so we can use this attribute for our category conditions.

Product Attribute Storefront Properties

Note: don't forget to add the date attribute to your products attribute set since you will have to set the Arrived At Date manually once products are back in stock.

Product Date Attribute

3. Create a Rule for Back-in-Stock Category

Finally the best part — creating a Dynamic Category Rule.

  • Go to Catalog > Dynamic Category > Rules and Add New Rule
  • Enable it, set a Rule Name, add a Description and specify the rule Priority.
  • Choose the Category Type as Static and set what Categories to add products to. In our case, it is the Back-in-Stock Category we've created before.
  • Select the Websites where the rule will be applied and the method to Apply the rule By. The best option is to use All Events.

Dynamic Category Rules Information

Automatic Category Rule

Finally, set Conditions to add products to Magento's back-in-stock category automatically. Choose the date attribute we've created and set the number of days within which products have been returned to stock. 

Back in Stock for Magento

Additionally, you can set the sorting for the products within the back-in-stock category. Simply choose what product attribute to Sort Product In Category By and specify the Direction

sort products in magento categories

If you like, Preview products that will be added to the Back-in-Stock Category for Magento 2, and don't forget to Save the rule. Press the Save and Apply button to apply it.

Preview Products in Category

Once you apply the conditions, your dynamic category rule is put to action. And if you check the Back-in-Stock category on the storefront, you'll see all the products that were back in stock within the last N days. In our case, the last 15 days.

Magento Back in Stock Product Category

The Back-in-Stock Magento category is one of the most convenient ways to organize your back-in-stock products. Besides, it is a great option to opt for to increase customers' anticipation of some products even if you've already enabled the out-of-stock notifications. 

Automatic category rules handle the most time-consuming part. You just have to configure the conditions. Correspondingly you can create any data-based attributes and create not only the Back-in-Stock category, but New Products, Products of the Month, and any other product collection based on multiple product attributes. 

Try it out on our live demo and see how it works.