How to Automate Backorder Management and Notifications

Stockouts are inevitable. Demand spikes, supplier delays, and forecasting errors mean that every business eventually sells something it does not currently have in stock. The difference between a frustrated customer and a loyal one comes down to how you handle the backorder. Manual backorder management -- where someone tracks a spreadsheet of backordered items, periodically checks with suppliers, and individually emails customers -- is slow, error-prone, and impossible to scale. Automating the entire backorder lifecycle from detection to fulfillment transforms a customer service nightmare into a seamless experience.

This tutorial covers building a complete backorder automation using Make.com, your e-commerce platform, and your inventory sync system.

The Backorder Automation Workflow

Fig. 1 — Complete backorder detection, notification, and fulfillment workflow

Step 1: Detect Backorder Conditions at Order Time

When a new order webhook fires, the first thing your automation should do is check inventory availability for every line item. Query your inventory management system (or the storefront's inventory API) to compare ordered quantities against available stock. If all items are available, the order flows to normal fulfillment. If any item has insufficient stock, the order enters the backorder pipeline.

There are two scenarios to handle differently. In a partial backorder, some items are available and others are not. Ship the available items immediately and backorder only the out-of-stock items. In a full backorder, hold the entire order if your business policy requires shipping complete orders, or split it if you allow partial shipments. Make this configurable per customer or per product category.

Step 2: Create and Track Backorder Records

For each backordered line item, create a structured record in a Make.com data store or Airtable base. The record should include the order ID, customer details, backordered SKU, quantity needed, date the backorder was created, expected restock date (pulled from your supplier), and current status (Pending, Supplier Confirmed, In Transit, Received, Fulfilled).

Assign an estimated fulfillment date based on your supplier's typical lead time. If you have historical data, use the average lead time for that specific SKU. If not, default to your supplier's stated lead time plus a 2-day buffer.

Step 3: Send Proactive Customer Notifications

The moment a backorder is created, send the customer a clear, honest email. Do not bury the bad news. Lead with the ETA and give them options. A good backorder notification includes the item name and quantity that is backordered, the expected ship date, a link to cancel the backordered item for a refund, and a link to choose an alternative product if available.

Then set up automated status updates. When the supplier confirms the restock shipment, send an update: "Great news -- your backordered item has shipped from our supplier and is expected to arrive at our warehouse on [date]." When the item arrives and ships to the customer, send the standard shipping confirmation with tracking.

Step 4: Automate Supplier Communication

When a backorder is created, automatically generate a purchase order to your supplier for the needed quantity. If you already have a standing order schedule, instead add the backordered quantity to the next PO. Use an HTTP module to submit the PO via the supplier's API, or generate a PO document and email it.

Set up a monitoring scenario that polls the supplier's order status endpoint daily. When the supplier confirms a ship date, update the backorder record's ETA and trigger a customer update email if the date differs from the original estimate. For suppliers without APIs, use email parsing to extract confirmation details from their reply emails.

Step 5: Auto-Fulfill When Stock Arrives

This is the step that makes the entire automation worthwhile. When your inventory system records a stock receipt (goods received at your warehouse), a webhook fires. The automation queries the backorder data store for all pending backorders matching the received SKU. It then processes them in order of creation date (first in, first out).

For each backorder that can now be fulfilled, the automation creates a fulfillment in your storefront or ShipStation, generates a shipping label, updates the backorder record to "Fulfilled," and sends the customer a shipping confirmation with tracking details. If the received quantity is less than the total backordered amount, fulfill as many orders as possible and keep the rest in the queue.

Fig. 2 — FIFO backorder fulfillment queue with partial fulfillment handling

Step 6: Escalate Chronic Backorders

Not every backorder resolves quickly. Build escalation logic for items that remain backordered beyond a threshold (e.g., 14 days). The automation should alert your procurement manager, suggest alternative suppliers from your vendor database, and optionally reach out to the customer with options: continue waiting, accept a substitute product, or cancel for a full refund.

For products that are frequently backordered, feed the data into your demand planning. If SKU "WG-2045" has been backordered more than 5 times in 90 days, trigger an alert to increase the reorder point or safety stock level in your inventory system.

Expected Results

Companies that automate backorder management typically see customer satisfaction scores for backordered items improve by 35-50% (because of proactive communication), cancellation rates on backorders drop by 60%, and the time from restock arrival to customer shipment shrinks from 2-3 days to under 4 hours. For a comprehensive look at solving inventory challenges, read our cost of poor inventory management analysis or explore how multi-warehouse routing can reduce backorders in the first place.

"Before automation, backorders were our biggest source of support tickets. Now customers get proactive updates and most don't even contact us. Cancellation rate on backorders dropped from 40% to under 15%." — Wholesale distributor, 2,000+ SKUs