Canonical for duplicate pages in ecommerce site and the product out of stock

[shoesonline]

I’m an SEO for an ecommerce site that sells shoes

I have duplicate pages for different colors of the same product (unique URL for each color),

Conventionally I have added canonical tags for each page, which direct to a specific product URL

My question is what happens when a product which the googlbot is direct to, is out of stock but is still listed in the canonical tag ?

[LauraSultan]

If the canonical page disappears when it's out of stock, the user will get a 404 error when they try to access that URL. You'll need to canonicalize duplicates to a generic product or category page that won't disappear when the product is out of stock.  Furthermore, if a product goes out of stock and you'll have more in stock later, it's best (for SEO purposes) to leave the page with an "out of stock" notice rather than remove it completely from the website.

[sdeane1]

I have a similar query. However in my case if the out of stock item is discontinued the page is removed but available product variations may remain.

What happens in the case where my canonical is out of stock and the page removed but other product variations are available?

Thanks,

[LauraSultan]

To my knowledge, the behavior of the googlebot is not influenced by whether or not the product is out of stock. Is the page still accessible when the product is out of stock, or does it not display at all?

If the product page remains with an "out of stock" message, that's what users from search will see. If the product page becomes inaccessible when it goes out of stock temporarily, users from search will likely see a 404 page.

You may want to canonicalize to a higher level category page rather than one of the product variation pages.  That way, it won't be an issue if one product variation goes out of stock.

May I ask which ecommerce software you are using?