Klaviyo Vol 4: Travelteq’s WhatsApp Advantage

Large volumes of customers were signing up for back in stock alerts but when we looked at what happened after those products came back in stock, the numbers told a different story.

We began noticing a significant performance drop:

• Placed order rates ranged from just 0.05% to 5%, which is far below expectations for such intent-driven traffic
• Customers were clearly losing interest or making their purchase elsewhere long before receiving the standard email notification

Think about the customer journey here. Someone finds a product they want, discovers it's sold out, takes the extra step to sign up for a notification, and then... waits. Days pass, maybe weeks. Their initial excitement cools and they start to browse other options. They forget why they wanted it in the first place.

By the time that email finally arrives announcing the restock, the psychological moment has passed as the urgency is gone, and so is the sale.

This wasn't an issue with deliverability or subject lines, the problem was with timing. Email simply wasn't fast or visible enough to capture customers while their intent was still hot.

We needed to restore that urgency, increase visibility, and reward high-intent subscribers with an experience that matched their enthusiasm.

With Klaviyo's newly launched WhatsApp functionality, we saw an opportunity to rethink the back in stock experience entirely.

Instead of simply notifying customers when a product was available, we built an exclusive early-access program:

How it works:

• A new back in stock sign-up form was created for out of stock products
• Customers were offered a chance to "skip the queue" by signing up via WhatsApp
• WhatsApp subscribers received priority access to the restock 24 hours before email subscribers

This approach leveraged three key principles:

• Exclusivity - Early access before the public creates real value
• Speed and visibility - WhatsApp has significantly higher open rates than email
• Hype - Turning a routine notification into a VIP moment

The role of email: Email sign-ups weren't removed, just strategically staggered:

• WhatsApp subscribers received the back-in-stock alert first
• Email subscribers were notified 24 hours later, once early-access customers had their opportunity to purchase

This created a clear, value-driven incentive to use WhatsApp and helped us test whether channel prioritization could drive higher conversion rates.

The results of introducing WhatsApp priority access were immediate.

Placed order rate jumped to just over 33% compared to the previous range of 0.05% to 5%.

Beyond the core conversion improvement, additional benefits emerged:

• Higher purchase speed due to the exclusivity window
• Increased customer excitement and engagement around restocks
• Improved subscriber quality, particularly among WhatsApp sign-ups
• A new owned channel with strong deliverability and visibility