Inventory tracking vs. status symbols

[Nikolaus Gruchot]

Hi there,

I am just looking @ the inventory tracking feature of shopsite and figured
that it is rather not useful for us.

We are selling 1. via the online shop as well as we 2. offer printable
download forms from our website, so that people can write down their order
and fax it to us (highly recommended practice, we generate an additional 35%
of orders this way!!) and 3. we do offer the possibility to companies using
their own company purchasing program to generate a printed order and fax it
to us for processing.

Only in case 1, the inventory would be tracked by shopsite. Case 2 or 3
would need manual ajustment.

Furthermore there are good selling products that run out of stock some
times, but this is no big deal as we can re-order them within 24 hrs, so the
shipping to the customer is not done during the same day, but one working
day later. Using inventory tracking would prevent orders for such an item to
come in.

When I am checking the online shops I am shopping myself with here in
Germany, starting with amazon.de, avitos.com (computers), dell.de,
computeruniverse.net and some more, not one of them will prevent you to
order a product which is out of stock.

The stores all use some kind of wording or symbols to "rate" the shipping
time for the product. Such as with amazon.de you will read: usually ships
within 24-48 hrs or usually ships in 1-2 weeks. With other shops you have a
green arrow pointing up indicating that a product is normally in stock and
shipped immediately, a yellow arrow pointig sideways to indicate that the
product ships normally within a week, a red arrow pointing downwards to
indicate that the product is ordered when the customer orders it and that it
usually takes 2 weeks to ship it. A red cross indicates that a product has
run out and cannot be re-ordered anymore, but it is still listed for
information purposes.

I would consider such a "rating" system extremely useful, as it allows the
merchant to give additional information to the customer, without preventing
orders from being placed.

It could be realized by simply adding a "rating" field in the product
database. The symbols to be displayed when a product has a shipping rating
of "1" for example could be defined in the store preferences.

Comments from the other shopsite merchants here? I would be interested to
learn if and how do you provide inventory / shipping information to
customers?

Best regards,

Niko

[Switch Hits]

Nikolaus,

I think adding StoneEdge Order Manager and Product Manager
could solve all your problems listed. Would it be too much to
ask your customers to place the order online with "Faxing Order"
as a payment method. That way everything will come through
your database for inventory and they can still fax in their payment
information with the order. And you have your choice of how you
want to handle out of stock orders...message, no message,
stock email when the order comes in letting them know you're waiting
on a fresh batch, etc.

With family from Baden-Baden,
Jimmy Hilburger
www.switchhits.com


"Nikolaus Gruchot" <gruchot@watersafety.net> wrote in message
news:affin6$g1t$1@support.shopsite.com...

Hi there,

I am just looking @ the inventory tracking feature of shopsite and
figured
that it is rather not useful for us.

We are selling 1. via the online shop as well as we 2. offer
printable
download forms from our website, so that people can write down their
order
and fax it to us (highly recommended practice, we generate an
additional 35%
of orders this way!!) and 3. we do offer the possibility to
companies using
their own company purchasing program to generate a printed order and
fax it
to us for processing.

Only in case 1, the inventory would be tracked by shopsite. Case 2
or 3
would need manual ajustment.

Furthermore there are good selling products that run out of stock
some
times, but this is no big deal as we can re-order them within 24
hrs, so the
shipping to the customer is not done during the same day, but one
working
day later. Using inventory tracking would prevent orders for such an
item to
come in.

When I am checking the online shops I am shopping myself with here
in
Germany, starting with amazon.de, avitos.com (computers), dell.de,
computeruniverse.net and some more, not one of them will prevent you
to
order a product which is out of stock.

The stores all use some kind of wording or symbols to "rate" the
shipping
time for the product. Such as with amazon.de you will read: usually
ships
within 24-48 hrs or usually ships in 1-2 weeks. With other shops you
have a
green arrow pointing up indicating that a product is normally in
stock and
shipped immediately, a yellow arrow pointig sideways to indicate
that the
product ships normally within a week, a red arrow pointing downwards
to
indicate that the product is ordered when the customer orders it and
that it
usually takes 2 weeks to ship it. A red cross indicates that a
product has
run out and cannot be re-ordered anymore, but it is still listed for
information purposes.

I would consider such a "rating" system extremely useful, as it
allows the
merchant to give additional information to the customer, without
preventing
orders from being placed.

It could be realized by simply adding a "rating" field in the
product
database. The symbols to be displayed when a product has a shipping
rating
of "1" for example could be defined in the store preferences.

Comments from the other shopsite merchants here? I would be
interested to
learn if and how do you provide inventory / shipping information to
customers?

Best regards,

Niko

[loren_d_c]

Niko,

You can modify the ShopSite inventory numbers for products (to sync up with
off-line systems, for example) fairly easily via a Product upload. With a
Product Upload you do not have to upload all fields, so you could just upload a
file with only the SKU and new Inventory number, or just the Name (if all names
are unique) and the new Inventory number.

Also, you can allow ordering of products whose Quantity on Hand falls below 0 by
just not setting an Out of Stock Limit for that product. Or, if there IS some
limit you want to set, it can be a negative number (if for example you wanted to
allow up to 50 to be ordered over what your Quantity on Hand is because you know
you will receive a shipment of 50 more of that item tomorrow).

In the next version of ShopSite Pro there will be 5 extra fields per product in
Custom Templates that can be used for just about any purpose you can image on
the store pages including showing some kind of 'popular item' icon, and even
pass it on to the Order API which could use it in some backend system or use it
to create a custom receipt.

Of course, it is probably also possible right now, either using one of the
product fields that you aren't using, or modifying one. For example, in ShopSite
Pro where each poroduct can have it's own order button defined, you could add a
little icon to the Order button for each product indicating how popular the item
is or how long it may take the product to ship, and include a key for these
icons in the Page Header of each page. Or something similar.

The per-product order buttons in ShopSite Pro can be set individually by editing
each product, or by PowerEdit, or by a product upload.

-Loren


Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi there,

I am just looking @ the inventory tracking feature of shopsite and figured
that it is rather not useful for us.

We are selling 1. via the online shop as well as we 2. offer printable
download forms from our website, so that people can write down their order
and fax it to us (highly recommended practice, we generate an additional 35%
of orders this way!!) and 3. we do offer the possibility to companies using
their own company purchasing program to generate a printed order and fax it
to us for processing.

Only in case 1, the inventory would be tracked by shopsite. Case 2 or 3
would need manual ajustment.

Furthermore there are good selling products that run out of stock some
times, but this is no big deal as we can re-order them within 24 hrs, so the
shipping to the customer is not done during the same day, but one working
day later. Using inventory tracking would prevent orders for such an item to
come in.

When I am checking the online shops I am shopping myself with here in
Germany, starting with amazon.de, avitos.com (computers), dell.de,
computeruniverse.net and some more, not one of them will prevent you to
order a product which is out of stock.

The stores all use some kind of wording or symbols to "rate" the shipping
time for the product. Such as with amazon.de you will read: usually ships
within 24-48 hrs or usually ships in 1-2 weeks. With other shops you have a
green arrow pointing up indicating that a product is normally in stock and
shipped immediately, a yellow arrow pointig sideways to indicate that the
product ships normally within a week, a red arrow pointing downwards to
indicate that the product is ordered when the customer orders it and that it
usually takes 2 weeks to ship it. A red cross indicates that a product has
run out and cannot be re-ordered anymore, but it is still listed for
information purposes.

I would consider such a "rating" system extremely useful, as it allows the
merchant to give additional information to the customer, without preventing
orders from being placed.

It could be realized by simply adding a "rating" field in the product
database. The symbols to be displayed when a product has a shipping rating
of "1" for example could be defined in the store preferences.

Comments from the other shopsite merchants here? I would be interested to
learn if and how do you provide inventory / shipping information to
customers?

Best regards,

Niko

[Nikolaus Gruchot]

Hi Loren,

thanx, the was the push in the right direction. I will implement the status
symbol using the SKU field, so that it appears directly under the price and
before the SKU, this is a better place for us then the order button (to far
down on the more info pages). Only draw back, I cannot do it power editing,
as the SKUs of the products are obviously all different.



Niko

"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3D1B76DD.1F0892B6@yahoo.com...

Niko,

You can modify the ShopSite inventory numbers for products (to sync up
with
off-line systems, for example) fairly easily via a Product upload. With a
Product Upload you do not have to upload all fields, so you could just
upload a
file with only the SKU and new Inventory number, or just the Name (if all
names
are unique) and the new Inventory number.

Also, you can allow ordering of products whose Quantity on Hand falls
below 0 by
just not setting an Out of Stock Limit for that product. Or, if there IS
some
limit you want to set, it can be a negative number (if for example you
wanted to
allow up to 50 to be ordered over what your Quantity on Hand is because
you know
you will receive a shipment of 50 more of that item tomorrow).

In the next version of ShopSite Pro there will be 5 extra fields per
product in
Custom Templates that can be used for just about any purpose you can image
on
the store pages including showing some kind of 'popular item' icon, and
even
pass it on to the Order API which could use it in some backend system or
use it
to create a custom receipt.

Of course, it is probably also possible right now, either using one of the
product fields that you aren't using, or modifying one. For example, in
ShopSite
Pro where each poroduct can have it's own order button defined, you could
add a
little icon to the Order button for each product indicating how popular
the item
is or how long it may take the product to ship, and include a key for
these
icons in the Page Header of each page. Or something similar.

The per-product order buttons in ShopSite Pro can be set individually by
editing
each product, or by PowerEdit, or by a product upload.

-Loren

[Guest]

Niko, don't use the SKU field for this purpose .. you'll regret it in a year
from now when your store grows.

Joachim
webmaster@chinasprout.com

Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi Loren,

thanx, the was the push in the right direction. I will implement the status
symbol using the SKU field, so that it appears directly under the price and
before the SKU, this is a better place for us then the order button (to far
down on the more info pages). Only draw back, I cannot do it power editing,
as the SKUs of the products are obviously all different.



Niko

"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3D1B76DD.1F0892B6@yahoo.com...
Niko,

You can modify the ShopSite inventory numbers for products (to sync up
with
off-line systems, for example) fairly easily via a Product upload. With a
Product Upload you do not have to upload all fields, so you could just
upload a
file with only the SKU and new Inventory number, or just the Name (if all
names
are unique) and the new Inventory number.

Also, you can allow ordering of products whose Quantity on Hand falls
below 0 by
just not setting an Out of Stock Limit for that product. Or, if there IS
some
limit you want to set, it can be a negative number (if for example you
wanted to
allow up to 50 to be ordered over what your Quantity on Hand is because
you know
you will receive a shipment of 50 more of that item tomorrow).

In the next version of ShopSite Pro there will be 5 extra fields per
product in
Custom Templates that can be used for just about any purpose you can image
on
the store pages including showing some kind of 'popular item' icon, and
even
pass it on to the Order API which could use it in some backend system or
use it
to create a custom receipt.

Of course, it is probably also possible right now, either using one of the
product fields that you aren't using, or modifying one. For example, in
ShopSite
Pro where each poroduct can have it's own order button defined, you could
add a
little icon to the Order button for each product indicating how popular
the item
is or how long it may take the product to ship, and include a key for
these
icons in the Page Header of each page. Or something similar.

The per-product order buttons in ShopSite Pro can be set individually by
editing
each product, or by PowerEdit, or by a product upload.

-Loren

[Nikolaus Gruchot]

Hi Joachim,

thank you for the hint. I have already realized this. I have experienced a
bit. And I am now putting a status symbol at the end of the product
description and on top of the more information text. When clicking on the
symbol a new window opens and shows all status symbols and their
explanation.

I had placed the status symbol first in the product description field on
top, so that it did display directly underneath the price and the SKU, but
the shopsite search function cannot handle product descriptions that start
with an img. The search result page would produce no product description at
all, but only the frames with no pictures displayed. Unfortunately I had
already manually put status symbols with some 200 product prior to realize
it.

On the other hand: I have shipping status symbols on for lots of products
now (still working on it) and we get fewer calls "Do you have this item in
stock, when will it ship?) and more orders

Niko

<webmaster@chinasprout.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3D23ACFE.6FB18C76@chinasprout.com...

Niko, don't use the SKU field for this purpose .. you'll regret it in a
year
from now when your store grows.

Joachim
webmaster@chinasprout.com

Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi Loren,

thanx, the was the push in the right direction. I will implement the
status
symbol using the SKU field, so that it appears directly under the price
and
before the SKU, this is a better place for us then the order button (to
far
down on the more info pages). Only draw back, I cannot do it power
editing,
as the SKUs of the products are obviously all different.