Pushing Shopsite Farther or Custom Programming Limits

[extragear]

Greetings:

We are try to figure out a way to use our suppliers inventory availability on our Shopsite website. The end goal is to,

1. More accurately show whether the item is indeed in stock
2. Provide more accurate times in transit to our customers
3. Provide more shipping options to our customers.

To start with, none of our suppliers can provide us with a real time inventory access. What we can obtain is essentially a excel file containing the part number for each item and the associated inventory count in each warehouse the supplier has. The count is only accurate at the moment we download it. But its better than nothing.

We can create extra fields in the product database for each item. And than we could populate these fields with the inventory count for each warehouse. Perhaps by downloading the products database, matching up our part number to the suppliers part number. Mapping the inventory count to the extra fields that we have created. Then uploading the products database.

At this point, we have the inventory count on a per warehouse basis in Shopsite.

So, can Shopsite or a custom program as mentioned under the developer resources be used to for example,

1. Check the extra fields that represent the warehouses to make sure the item is available. Then tie that in with the preexisting quantity on hand field. And then display populate another extra field that has been inserted in the products more information page with the message instock or out of stock?

2. When a shopper enters their zipcode in the zipcode field on the cart and clicks recalculate. Shopsite or a custom program would look at the customers zip and then check the zip for each warehouse. Id the warehouse with units instock thats closest to the customer and then provide the customer with times in transit and shipping costs from that warehouse?

We would be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried this as well as any developers who would consider this project. I can supply more information as needed.

Thanks

Tim
Cycleluggage.com
607-693-1031

[Jim]

There is no functionality in the shopping cart to add any additional data checking like the inventory that you mentioned, only ShopSite inventory will be checked.

The Shipping api which calculates shipping values is the only possible external interface to the shopping cart screen. You might be able to do your checking for the closest warehouse and return shipping costs from that location. If there are several products in the cart and they ship from different warehouses that could present a problem.

There is the Order API functionality that is done at the final checkout but that is executed after the order is finalized so it probably wouldn't allow you to do what you want.

As for keeping the inventory up to date I would just use the feed from your supplier to update the quantity on hand field of your products through either a tab delimited or or xml format. Adding the quantity to one of the custom fields would allow you to display it on your store pages but it could not be made to interface with the ShopSite quantity on hand field.