Sold Out in Sales Week: Alternatives in the Chat Instead of a Lost Visitor

Black Friday and Cyber Monday fall at the end of November, in 2026 on 27 and 30 November. In that week individual sale items sell out faster than usual, and the product page then only says that the item is not available. Some visitors leave at that point, others ask in the chat: will the item be back, is there something comparable, can an alternative still arrive before the weekend? This article shows what a shop assistant can know about availability at that moment and what it cannot, what alternatives that hold up look like, and what the answer looks like when nothing fits. It also shows the limit: no invented scarcity, no countdown tone in the conversation and no commitment the shop cannot keep. At the end comes what to set up before sales week and what can be evaluated afterwards.

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Labels in the illustration

• Question in the chat
• Where the answer comes from
• Outcome
• Visitor asks
• Is the item still in stock?
• How many are left?
• Will it be back in stock?
• What is similar?
• Can it arrive by Friday?
• What fits instead?
• The intent to buy is stated
• Availability
• Catalogue
• only items in stock, delivery time
• Shopware CE
• queried in the shop when answering
• Shop unreachable
• last synced state, named as such
• Quantity, restocking
• only with a separately connected
• inventory system, else open
• Available
• Product card with price and delivery time
• from the catalogue or the shop
• Sold out: alternative
• same feature, price range, delivery time
• one reason each, as a row or a comparison
• Nothing fits
• say so plainly and offer an inquiry
• created only after confirmation
• Deliberately not in the chat
• no invented scarcity, no countdown, no reservation, no back-in-stock alert, no restocking promise
• Quantities and deadlines only where a source carries them

Sold out in sales week: three outcomes in the chat

A question about a sold-out item is a buying signal

In an ordinary week a sold-out item is an isolated case. In sales week around Black Friday and Cyber Monday it affects part of the range at the same time: reduced items attract demand, and whatever was stocked thinly can sell out quickly. The product page then shows a note that the item is not available and rarely offers more than the way back to the category. Anyone who opens the chat window at that moment usually does not want small talk. They have picked an item, know its features and have a price range in mind, often a date as well, for instance for a present that has to arrive before a particular day.

This question is a buying signal, and a precise one. It names what is needed, and it shows that the decision to buy has already been made, just not for an item that can be delivered. The assistant's task is therefore not to persuade but to clarify the situation: is the item there, is there something with the same feature, or is there nothing suitable right now? The advice itself follows the same rules as any other product question, as described in the article on guided selling in chat. What differs is the starting point: the visitor is no longer searching, they have already found their item, seen on the product page that it is sold out and come to the chat with that information.

What the assistant knows about availability and what it does not

On availability the assistant's catalogue carries two details per item: a yes or no and a delivery time in days. Nothing more is in there. For a shop based on Shopware Community Edition the catalogue is taken from the shop and synced on a schedule, and the assistant queries price and availability of a named item in the shop at the moment of the answer. If the shop cannot be reached, it names the last synced state and says that it is that. If the catalogue of another shop system is handed over as a file or through the delivery interface, availability is as current as the last delivery. How the shop assistant keeps these sources apart is described in detail on its page.

For sales week this means two things. First, the product search only shows what the catalogue lists as available. An item listed there as not available appears in no card, no comparison and no bundle, not even when the visitor names it by item number. With Shopware Community Edition the same applies when the query in the shop reports it as not available at that moment. So the assistant does not see the sold-out item in the search and cannot tell it apart there from an item the range does not carry at all. It then says that it finds nothing for this right now and searches for the feature the visitor needs. Second, a discontinued item drops out of the catalogue after the next sync; if a sync fails, the existing stock stays in place and the error is reported. What is on the cards comes from the catalogue, not from the model's text. A quantity, on the other hand, is only named by the assistant if a separately connected inventory system supplies it; without one it says that it has nothing on file rather than estimating a figure.

Alternatives that hold up

An alternative holds up when it does the same job, not when it has a similar name. Someone looking for a sold-out coffee grinder with conical burrs is better served by a different model with conical burrs than by the successor model of the same name that has flat burrs. For this the assistant searches the full text of titles and descriptions in the catalogue. The catalogue has no separate field for replacement items; the assistant finds an alternative through the feature the visitor names. Whether it is found therefore depends on whether that feature is in the title or description.

• The same feature: dimensions, material, connection or intended use match what the visitor needs from the sold-out item. A similar name is not a reason.
• The same price range: the suggestion lies within the range the visitor named, for instance with the price of the sold-out item. The price on the card comes from the catalogue, with Shopware Community Edition from the shop.
• Deliverable in time: the delivery time in days is on the item. If the visitor named a date, it belongs in the reason.
• One reason per suggestion: the assistant says why an item fits and names where it differs from what the visitor said, such as a price above the stated range or a delivery time beyond the stated date. It does not have the sold-out item's own details from the catalogue.
• Few suggestions: four cards per answer by default, six at most. More hits do not make the choice easier.

The form in which alternatives appear depends on the situation. If there are several suitable items, the assistant shows them as a row of product cards with image, title, price, rating, delivery time and a button. If there are two obvious replacements, it places them side by side as a comparison: price, main features, rating. If only one hit remains after the search, there is no comparison, and the assistant says so instead of inventing a second item.

When nothing fits: say so plainly and offer an inquiry

Not every sold-out item has a replacement in the range. If the search finds nothing with the same feature, the answer is that nothing suitable is available right now, not an approximation. This answer is less comfortable than a card with the next best hit, but it holds: an item that does not fit may come back, and the visitor remembers that the advice did not hold up. If an answer is left without a basis, it is recorded as a gap; from the Pro package the gap list shows after sales week what people asked for.

The second part of the answer is an offer. The assistant can offer an inquiry to the team, for instance when the visitor wants to know whether the item will be reordered, or when a larger quantity is involved. For this it asks for name, contact route and request in the conversation, shows what would be handed over and only creates the inquiry once the visitor confirms. How this is set up is described under the lead assistant. The reply to the inquiry comes from the team, not from the assistant.

• The sold-out item with its item number, so the team does not have to ask.
• The feature being looked for, such as size, dimensions or version, in case an alternative is also an option.
• A time frame, if the item is needed by a particular day.
• The contact route the visitor provides, and no further details the request does not need.

No invented scarcity in the chat

Sales week has its own tone: notes about low remaining stock, clocks running down, deadlines until midnight. The general line for suggestions in a conversation, no pressure and no invented scarcity, is covered in the article on cross-selling in the conversation. A sold-out item adds a temptation of its own: to push the alternative with a note that it, too, will soon be gone. The annex to Section 3(3) of the German Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG) opens with the sentence that the following commercial practices are always unlawful towards consumers; number 7 concerns exactly this tone:

With a sold-out item the same rule applies to the assistant as with the alternative: it states availability, delivery times and deadlines only as they come from a source. The end of a promotion is in the stored promotion terms, a quantity only in a separately connected inventory system. Phrasing meant to create urgency does not belong in the assistant's instructions; how such limits are set is shown in the article on the system instruction. If an answer still contains a quantity, a percentage or a deadline in days or hours that is not in the source material, the check steps in: such details are checked against the source material afterwards, whatever cannot be found there is replaced, and the visitor receives the correction as a separate message. Answers that follow this rule sound roughly like this:

• “I cannot find an available item for this right now.”
• “This is the state of the last sync with the shop; the shop could not be reached just now.”
• “I have no quantity on file for this.”
• “I cannot say anything about restocking. I can create an inquiry to the team if you confirm.”

Bait advertising: what number 5 of the annex requires

A second item in the annex concerns sales week directly, but it starts with the offer, not with the conversation. Number 5 describes bait advertising: goods are offered at a specified price although the trader has grounds for believing they cannot be supplied in reasonable quantities, and this is not disclosed. The wording:

The disclosure that number 5 speaks of is the trader's responsibility and is tied to the offer. An assistant does not replace it. It can, however, pass it on: if the promotion terms, including a note on stock levels, are on a shop page held in the knowledge base, the assistant answers questions about them from that text and names the source. If nothing is there, it says that nothing is on file. What stock level is reasonable in an individual case is a legal question this article does not answer; specialist advice is the right route for that. What an assistant may say about prices and strike-through prices is covered in the article on prices in the chat.

What the EU sweep on Black Friday found

That scarcity claims in sales weeks are not a side issue is shown by a sweep carried out by the European Commission and the national consumer protection authorities. Between November and December 2025, authorities from 25 countries together with the Commission looked at how prices were presented around Black Friday and Cyber Monday; 314 traders (European Commission) were screened. The focus was on price reductions, price comparisons and total prices, but pressure-selling techniques were also covered. The Commission sums up the finding on its page about sweeps in one sentence:

Put another way: the share of traders using pressure-selling techniques such as scarcity claims or countdown timers was 18 per cent (European Commission), and in more than half of these cases this appeared misleading. Following the sweep, national authorities may launch formal enforcement procedures if infringements are confirmed. The sweep looked at traders' websites, not at their chats. That changes little about the assistant's task: it should not mention any scarcity that does not come from a source. Quantities, percentages and periods given as a number are checked against the source material. Wording without a number, such as a note about a few remaining pieces or an end later the same day, is not recognised by the check; that is what the assistant's instructions and the test questions before the promotion are for.

Setting up before sales week

What works in the chat during sales week is decided beforehand. Most of the points are not technology but care of data that is already in the shop. A run-through a few weeks before the end of November makes sense, as soon as it is clear which items are part of the promotion.

• Check the sync: with Shopware Community Edition, check that the scheduled sync runs without an error message. With a delivered catalogue, plan more frequent deliveries for sales week, because the answers are only as current as the last delivery.
• Sale items as test questions: for every sale item, ask one question about availability and one about an alternative and read the answer before a visitor does.
• Features in the text: put size, dimensions, material, connection and intended use in the title or description, because that is what the assistant searches. As features on the item they also appear on the card and in the comparison.
• Make replacements findable: for every sale item, check whether an available item with the same feature is in the catalogue and carries that feature in its title or description.
• Check delivery times: keep the delivery time in days on the item up to date, because in sales week it often answers the question about the date.
• Store promotion terms: add the duration of the promotion and notes on stock levels as a page in the knowledge base, so the assistant answers from the text.
• Set up the inquiry: create the inquiry to the team with the required fields needed for a sold-out item.

Evaluating afterwards: topics, gaps, drop-offs

After sales week the conversations show what was asked for and what could not be had. Conversation analytics groups the visitor questions of a period into topics and ranks them by frequency, with the value of the preceding period of equal length alongside. Answers without a source are recorded as gaps and, from the Pro package, appear as lines in the gap list. Drop-offs are not recorded but derived: an open conversation with at least one visitor message that has gone quiet without an inquiry, appointment or cart. Each drop-off shows the point and the last question.

What the analysis does not do belongs in the picture too: it does not say why someone dropped off, and it does not prove that an alternative rescued a purchase. It shows cases, their number and the point at which a change can take effect. For the next promotion that is often enough: one more feature in the description, one more replacement item in the range, a promotion term that is now in the knowledge base. How this fits together in an online shop is shown on the page about the assistant for online shops.

Frequent questions