Do I need a separate back-in-stock app?

Not if email alerts are what you need. Simple Chat already captures restock intent, through a storefront notify-me button or in chat, and emails customers when the variant is available again. A dedicated waitlist app would mean paying a second monthly fee for a capability you already have.

The going rates: paid back-in-stock plans on the Shopify App Store commonly start around $10 to $19.99 per month. STOQ Lite lists $10/month, Swym Back in Stock Alerts lists $19.99/month for 1,000 alert requests, and Alert Me starts at $4.99/month. SMS and WhatsApp are often extra on top. Those list prices were checked in August 2026.

How customers get on the list

• On the storefront, through a notify-me button you can add that collects their email and registers the selected variant without opening chat.
• In chat, when the AI offers an email alert on an out-of-stock product.
• Logged-in shoppers can have their email auto-detected in chat, skipping the retyping.

Every subscription is tied to the specific variant the shopper asked about, not a generic product-level list.

When stock comes back

Inventory returns, meets your restock threshold, and Simple Chat emails every subscriber for that variant. The email template, subject line, and threshold all live in settings. No CSV exports, no hand-built restock campaign.

Where a specialist app still earns its fee

Simple Chat sends email restock alerts, not SMS or WhatsApp. If you need those channels, or a marketing-automation restock journey with a tool such as Klaviyo as the primary channel, keep the specialist app for that.

On cost: there's no extra monthly waitlist fee. Product-page signup doesn't open a billed conversation, and restock conversations the assistant closes in chat still bill at $0.29 per AI resolution, the same as any other support work.