Manage Waitlist Products

Waitlists allow shoppers to express interest in a retailer's sold-out products. By adding a product to their waitlist, shoppers can receive a notification when the retailer restocks the product. It will automatically appear in the shopper's cart, and if the shopper has preauthorized the product, CommentSold will automatically process the order and invoice the shopper.

Retailers can manage products on their Waitlist page, including hiding waitlist products, clearing a product's waitlist, and filtering waitlist products.

How Managing Waitlist Products Benefits Your Business

Keep your list of waitlist products simple (and preserve data) by hiding those products you do not wish to reorder at the moment.
Quickly filter waitlist products by collection and restock status.
Clear the waitlist for products you no longer wish to stock and/or do not plan to restock.

Waitlists & Pre-Authorization

Waitlists and pre-authorization help you capture demand for out-of-stock products and automatically fulfill orders once items are restocked. Customers can choose whether to simply waitlist or to pre-authorize a purchase for faster fulfillment.

Expected Behaviors

Customers are not charged until the item is restocked.
Customers can cancel pre-authorized items by removing them from their waitlist.
Shops cannot remove a customer’s pre-authorization on their behalf.
Pre-authorized waitlists jump the line and are fulfilled before non-authorized waitlists.
Customers can still choose to use a non-authorized waitlist.
The Allow Store Credit option will automatically apply any available store credit toward an authorized item.
If a customer first waitlists without pre-authorization and later authorizes the same item, the system uses their original waitlist date to determine their place in line.

How Waitlist Automation Works

When inventory is added back for a waitlisted product, CommentSold checks the queue and assigns stock based on pre-authorization status and the date the item was waitlisted.

Example:

Customer A waitlists a top on 1/1
Customer B pre-authorizes the same top on 1/3
Customer A pre-authorizes the top on 1/5

When the item is restocked, Customer A gets the item first. Even though Customer B pre-authorized earlier, Customer A’s original waitlist date (1/1) takes priority once they pre-authorize.

Hide a Waitlist Product

Select Waitlist in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Select the checkbox to the left of each product you wish to hide.
Select Hide Selected in the top-right corner of the page.
To view hidden products, select Filter.
Select the Hidden checkbox.
Select Apply.

Filter Waitlist Products

Select Waitlist in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Select Filters.
Choose your filter parameters.
- Date Last Posted. View products you have posted in a specific frame of time. Once filtered, the timestamp will also state where (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, mobile app, etc.) you posted the item.
- Restock Status. View products based on a specific restock status (e.g., Checking, Reordered, Restock Processed, etc.).
- Collections.
Select Apply.

Clear a Waitlist

When clearing a waitlist, you can clear a product waitlist (i.e., remove it from the waitlist of all shoppers) and clear the waitlist of a specific customer.

Clearing the waitlist for an entire product is ideal when you no longer wish to carry the product and/or do not intend to restock the product. You can complete these steps once you've archived a product.

Select Waitlist in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Locate the product waitlist you wish to clear and select the three-dot icon to the far right of the row.
Select Clear Waitlist from the drop-down.
Confirm your action by selecting Confirm.

Clearing the waitlist for a specific customer is best suited for those who might abuse waitlists to hoard products, and those who routinely waitlist products only to un-waitlist them once restocked.

Select Customers in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
Locate the customer in question and select their name.
Scroll and locate the Waitlist section.
To remove all products, select Remove All Items From Waitlist at the top of the section.
To remove a single product, select the three-dot icon to the far right of the product row, then select Remove from Waitlist

Troubleshooting Issues

Expand this section to know about the common errors and how to troubleshoot them.

Having trouble?

Here are some common questions and resolutions.

Issue: Restocked item waitlist is not moving or being carted for customers on the waitlist

Check the First Paid, First Served setting under Setup > Shop > Selling Preferences.
- If this setting is enabled, only pre-authorized waitlist items are processed when restocked.
- Non-authorized items will not move to carts, and customers will not be notified.
- Use the Email Waitlist feature to prompt shoppers to preauthorize and to notify them when items return to stock.
Check the Night-time Expire setting under Setup > Shop > Shopping Cart.
- If disabled, inventory updates made during the timeframe will not move waitlisted items to carts.
- These items will move once the set time has passed.

Learn More

Set Up Waitlists. Learn how to set up and configure your waitlist settings.
Enable Waitlist Preauthorization. Learn how to enable waitlist preauthorization for your shoppers to approve the immediate purchase of a product once restocked.
How a Shopper Can Preauthorize Waitlist Items. Learn how shoppers can preauthorize waitlist products to process once restocked.