Turn off email back-in-stock alerts in STOQ

STOQ uses the Email alerts toggle to control whether customers can sign up by email and whether email notifications are sent when products are restocked. When you turn the toggle off, email signups stop being collected and no automatic email alerts are sent. Existing signups are preserved in your database and will be used again if you re-enable email alerts later. This setting can be accessed from two places in the app: the Signup widget channels settings and the email template editor.

Why Turn Off Email Alerts

There are situations where disabling email alerts is useful.

• SMS-only strategy. If you prefer to communicate with customers only by text message, turning off email keeps your signup form focused on phone numbers.
• Temporary pause. If your store is on a break or fulfillment is paused, disabling email alerts prevents customers from expecting products that cannot be shipped yet.
• Switching email providers. If you are migrating from STOQ's built-in emails to Klaviyo or another platform, you may want to turn off STOQ email alerts to avoid duplicate notifications.
• Testing phase. During initial setup or testing, you may want to disable email alerts until your templates, sender details, and DKIM records are fully configured.
• Reducing noise. If you are restocking frequently and do not want customers to receive alerts for every small inventory change, you can temporarily disable emails while adjusting your notification settings.

Prerequisites

Before turning off email alerts, make sure the following are in place.

• You need access to the STOQ app in your Shopify admin.
• No specific plan is required. Email alerts can be turned off on any plan, including free.

How to Turn Off Email Alerts

There are two places where you can disable email back-in-stock alerts. Both control the same setting.

Option 1: From the Signup Widget Settings

1. Open the STOQ app from your Shopify admin.
2. Click Back in stock alerts in the left menu.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. In the Signup widget section, click Customize widget. This opens the widget customizer.
5. In the left panel, click Channels (under Notification channels).
6. Find the Email alerts toggle.
7. Click the toggle to turn it off.
8. Click Save changes.

Option 2: From the Email Template Editor

1. Open the STOQ app from your Shopify admin.
2. Click Back in stock alerts in the left menu.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. In the Notifications section, click the notification you want to edit (e.g., Back In Stock - Notification).
5. Click Customize email. This opens the email template editor.
6. In the left panel, find the Email alerts toggle at the top.
7. Click the toggle to turn it off.
8. Click Save changes.

What Happens When Email Alerts Are Off

When you disable email alerts, the following changes take effect.

• No email notifications are sent. Customers who previously signed up will not receive email alerts when a product is restocked. Existing signups are preserved but no emails go out.
• No email signups are collected. The signup form on your storefront will no longer show the email field. Customers cannot register by email for restock alerts.
• SMS alerts are not affected. If you have SMS alerts enabled, they continue to work independently. Customers can still sign up by phone number and receive text messages.
• Existing signups are preserved. All customer email signups remain in your database. They are not deleted when you disable email alerts.
• Manual sends still work. You can still send manual email notifications from Reports > Back in stock even when automatic email alerts are turned off, as long as the email toggle on the template is enabled.
• Signup widget stays visible. If SMS alerts are enabled, the signup form still appears on your storefront for phone number signups. If both email and SMS are off, the form will not appear.
• Reminder notifications are also paused. Reminder emails (Reminder 1 and Reminder 2) will not be sent while email alerts are disabled on the primary notification.

Verifying Email Alerts Are Off

After you turn off email alerts, you can verify the change on the Home page of the STOQ app.

1. Go to Home in the left menu.
2. Look at the Back in stock status card.
3. The Automatic restock alerts status will show as not enabled if no alert channels (email or SMS) are active.

If you only turned off email but still have SMS alerts enabled, the status will show "Automatic SMS restock alerts are enabled" instead.

How to Re-enable Email Alerts

To turn email alerts back on, follow the same steps above and click the Email alerts toggle to turn it on. Click Save changes. Automatic email notifications will resume the next time a product is restocked.

Known Limitations

Keep these points in mind when turning off email alerts.

• Turning off email does not cancel emails that were already triggered before you toggled off. They may still be delivered.
• You cannot turn off email alerts for a single product. The setting applies globally to all products across your store.
• There is no way to bulk-delete signups by disabling alerts. Contact support if you need to remove signups.
• Each reminder notification has its own email toggle inside the template editor. Disabling the primary notification's email toggle does not change the reminder toggles, but reminders will not send if the primary email alert is off.
• Disabling email alerts has no effect on SMS alerts. Turn off SMS separately if needed.

Troubleshooting

FAQs

Q. Will I lose my customer signups if I turn off email alerts?

A. No. Turning off email alerts does not delete any signups. All existing customer registrations are preserved. When you re-enable email alerts, those customers will receive notifications the next time a product is restocked.

Q. Can I turn off email alerts for just one product?

A. No. The email alerts toggle is a global setting that applies to all products in your store. You cannot disable it per product. If you need selective control, keep email alerts on and use manual sends from the Reports page for specific products.

Q. Does turning off email alerts affect SMS alerts?

A. No. Email and SMS are independent channels. Disabling email alerts has no effect on SMS. Customers who signed up by phone number will continue to receive text messages when products are restocked.

Q. Will the "Notify me" button still appear on my store?

A. It depends. If SMS alerts are still enabled, the signup form will appear with only the phone number field. If both email and SMS are turned off, the signup form will not appear on your storefront (assuming the signup widget is still enabled).

Q. Can I still send manual email notifications with email alerts turned off?

A. Manual sends from Reports > Back in stock depend on the email toggle inside each notification template, not the channel-level email toggle. If the template's email toggle is on, you can still send manual emails even when the channel-level toggle is off.

Q. Do reminder notifications stop when I turn off email alerts?

A. If the primary notification's email toggle is turned off, reminder emails will not be sent because the primary alert needs to go out first. Each reminder template also has its own email toggle that can be controlled independently.

Q. How do I check the current status of email alerts?

A. Go to the Home page of the STOQ app. The Back in stock status card shows whether automatic email and SMS alerts are enabled or disabled. You can also check the toggle state in Back in stock alerts > Settings > Signup widget > Customize widget > Channels.

Q. Is there a way to temporarily pause email alerts?

A. Yes. Turning off the Email alerts toggle is the recommended way to temporarily pause emails. Since signups are preserved, you can re-enable the toggle later and resume sending without losing any data.

Updated on: 09/04/2026