Backup Products setup guide

• Backup products is only available in Customer Portal v3 (CPv3).

• Backup products depends on Swap Recommendations. Set up your Swap Recommendation rules before configuring backup products if you haven't already, since they determine which products are surfaced first when a subscriber picks a backup.

• Your inventory policy must be set to Only order items in stock for out-of-stock detection to work correctly. Learn more in our Inventory policy guide.

• Backup products isn't supported for prepaid subscriptions.

What are backup products?

When a product on a subscriber's order is out of stock, Backup products lets them pick a substitute ahead of their next billing date instead of receiving nothing for that item. The substitute is used for that order only. Once the original product is back in stock, it returns to the subscription as usual.

Subscribers can set a backup proactively at any time from their subscription card, or choose one reactively when prompted after their product goes out of stock.

Backup products only affects the item that's out of stock. It never removes or replaces the subscriber's original product from their subscription going forward.

How to set up backup products

Step 1: Navigate to Out of stock settings

In the left-hand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Storefront > Customer Portal, then click the Advanced tab. Open the Out of stock items section.

Show out of stock items must be enabled first. Backup products builds on top of this setting and won't appear if it's off.

Step 2: Enable backup products

1. Toggle on Enable backup products.

2. The automatic backup prompt (covered below in Step 4) follows the Days before billing value you've already set for out-of-stock items. For example, if that value is 3, subscribers are prompted once their next charge is 3 days away or less.

Step 3: Confirm your Swap Recommendation rules

The products a subscriber sees first when choosing a backup come from your Swap Recommendation rules. In the left-hand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Products > Products, then click the Swap recommendations tab to review or create rules for your out-of-stock-prone products.

Subscribers can still browse other collections beyond the curated list, the same way they can in the regular swap modal. Learn more about configuring rules, fallback behavior, and priority in our Swap Recommendations setup guide.

Step 4 (optional): Send a quick action for backup selection

Learn more about getting started with Quick Actions here.

Instead of waiting for subscribers to set a backup themselves, you can set a backup prompt with a Set backup product quick action.

1. In the left-hand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Grow > Quick Actions.

2. Click Create new action, then select the Set backup product action.

3. Under Product to set backup for, click Select product and choose the out-of-stock product you want to set it for.

4. Fill in the rest of the details, then Save action and copy URL.

The Set backup product quick action isn't supported for prepaid subscriptions.

How customers set a backup product

Subscribers can set a backup product proactively at any time form their customer portal, or they can be notified to select a backup product when their product goes of stock.

Setting a backup from the Customer Portal

1. On the relevant product's subscription card, the subscriber clicks More.

2. They select Set backup products from the menu.

3. In the Select a backup product modal, the subscriber can search by name or browse by collection tab, then pick a variant and click Select.

4. They confirm by clicking Select backup.

Products from your Swap Recommendation rules for that item are surfaced first, but subscribers can still browse other collections and aren't limited only to the curated list.

Notifying subscribers via Skio’s Billing reminder notification

Skio's native Billing reminder notification can automatically prompt subscribers to pick a backup product for any out-of-stock item, as long as you add the backup merge variables to the template.

1. Navigate to the template: In the left-hand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Retain > Email Notifications > Billing reminder.

2. Wrap the backup copy in the conditional block: Use {{#oos_backup}}...{{/oos_backup}} to wrap any copy that should only appear when a subscriber has an out-of-stock item with a backup product set. This block is hidden automatically for subscribers who don't meet that condition, so no additional logic is needed.

3. Insert the link: Inside the block, add {{oos_backup_product_link}} to insert the quick action link that lets the subscriber select a backup product.

For example:

{{#oos_backup}}
Good news — you can choose a backup product for your out-of-stock item. {{oos_backup_product_link}}
{{/oos_backup}}

Because this link is generated automatically per subscriber, you don't need to create or manage separate quick action links for this method — that's only required for the Klaviyo method below.

Notifying subscribers via a Klaviyo flow

If you send out-of-stock or billing communications through Klaviyo instead of Skio's native notifications, you can add a manual call-to-action (CTA) to prompt subscribers to select a backup product. For example, you can add this to Item Out of Stock or Upcoming Order flow emails.

The quick action link for selecting a backup product is generated on a per-product basis. You'll need a separate link for each product you want to offer a backup option on, and your flow will need to display the correct link depending on which product is out of stock.

1. Create a Set backup product quick action link for each product you want to offer a backup for.

2. In Klaviyo, open the Item Out of Stock or Upcoming Order flow email and add your backup product CTA copy.

3. Use Klaviyo's conditional content blocks to display the matching quick action link based on which product is out of stock, so each subscriber sees the correct link for their product. See Klaviyo's guide on using conditionals in messages for the exact syntax.

See all Skio event metrics here.

What the subscription card shows afterward

Once a backup is selected, it appears as a Backup selection row beneath that product on the subscription card, with a Change link to update it later.