More important than the wording of the message, I think, is what options the site provides at the point of notification. Suggesting alternative products is good; letting users enter an e-mail address so they can be notified when the item is back in stock is even better. If that's not feasible, at least providing an estimate of how soon the item might be back in stock is also good practice.
Amazon handles low stock and out of stock messages reasonably well. You'll often see "Only 2 left (more coming soon)" on a product detail page for a low-stock item there, and they do a good job of distinguishing between items that are out of stock but expected back, those that have been discontinued, and those of uncertain status--"We don't know when or if this item will be available again." Whenever possible, IMO, out of stock notification should occur at the item level, before the user can add the item to the cart. Adding something to the cart implies that you'll be able to purchase it, and when you suddenly learn at checkout that something isn't available, it's very frustrating. An e-commerce site that I used to work for didn't display out of stock notifications until the cart page, and we received daily complaints about this. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42113 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
