Using an image to represent instock status

[extragear]

Hello:

I made some experimental templates (the product and more info templates) in which the quantity on hand is shown. The tag used was

PRODUCT.QuantityOnHand

I am curious how we would show a graphic rather than the numeric count? Browsing through the online Shopsite stores there is at least site using a graphic. See the following:

http://www.marquel.com/store/21895info.shtml

All the customer really needs to see is if its in stock or not.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tim

[dortchjm]

This should work.


[-- IF PRODUCT.Quantity "0" --]
[i]Display your out of stock image[/i]
[-- ELSE --]
[i]Display your in stock image[/i]
[-- END_IF --]


Janice

[dortchjm]

Oops! I meant PRODUCT.QuantityOnHand

Janice

[extragear]

Thanks, that worked great.

[extragear]

How about defining whether an item is instock or not when it comes to items with subproducts. As an experiment I setup a test item with three subproducts. Then assigned them to my test templates and includes. For my product template, I essentially inserted what I used for a non-subproduct item in the area in the template that defines whats listed in the dropdown. (the dropdown on the more info page)

See the following:

Before insertion

[-- DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]
<option value="[-- Product.RecordNumber --]">[-- PRODUCT.Name --] - [-- IF Product.SaleAmount --][-- Product.SaleAmount --][-- ELSE --][-- Product.Price --][-- END_IF --]</option>
[-- END_DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]


After Insertion

[-- DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]
<option value="[-- Product.RecordNumber --]">[-- PRODUCT.Name --] - [-- IF Product.SaleAmount --][-- Product.SaleAmount --][-- IF PRODUCT.QuantityOnHand "0" --] Out of Stock [-- ELSE --] In Stock [-- END_IF --][-- ELSE --][-- Product.Price --][-- END_IF --]</option>
[-- END_DEFINE SUBPRODUCT --]

The outcome was what I wanted. This being if the units instock is NOT equal to zero, the words instock are appended to the products name and price in the dropdown. And if the units do equal zero, then the words out of stock are appended. So now we can indicate, in the case of sub products, if the item is instock or not.

So here is my question, is this methodology correct? That being modifying the product template?

Thanks

[dortchjm]

Are you asking if it's ok to modify the product template? If it works, do it!

Janice

[extragear]

I should be clearer. What I am asking is, did the procedure I used to show if a unit is in stock valid?

I tested it and it seems ok. But thought that if others have used or tried it, they might point out some draw backs.

Our goal is to tie our inventory (its maintained offline) in with the website. We've figured out how to extract the units on hand from our inventory and from our suppliers. Also how to upload that information.

I would assume others have refined this. As you would imagine, if you can indicate to the online shopper that,

1. You have the item in stock
2. When would it ship
3. Where it would ship from and how long before they would get it.

Your conversion rate will increase.

You've been really helpful on this by the way.

Thanks

Tim

[Jim]

That method will only show if it is instock at the time that you published your pages. It will not be accurate after some one has purchased an item.

If you want to show real-time inventory you would need to use one of these tags
[-- ProductInventoryPopUp {link name} --] Create a link that will make a pop-up window displaying the Quantity On Hand, where link name is the text for the link.
[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {description text} --] Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes (SSI), where description text appears before the number.

[extragear]

Jim

Thats a drawback we considered. Its a work in progress. We do plan on uploading the quantity on hand every day. Its better than nothing. I did inquire about the SSI method, but our hosting company said they didnt think it would work with the way our templates are. Something about having PHP.

As for the popup method. I had set that up. But weighed it against a usability factor. So I thought we would try a simpler approach by just using an icon to represent instock/out of stock.

I would be interested in knowing if anyone has tied in an indicator as to where the item will ship from. For example using one of the extra fields and an if statement. Lets say you upload the quantity on hand at your main warehouse. This QOH would go in say extra field six. Then using an if statement such as we did from the instock/out of stock example of above to indicate it would ship from that warehouse.


Thanks

Tim

[dortchjm]

I haven't tried anything with inventory as I drop ship most items. Those I ship from my location are custom and are not in stock anyway. Most of my suppliers don't even have live inventory on their websites (I love those that do) so it's one of those things I'll look into in the future as technology evolves. Sounds like a lot of work to me, but if you're processing huge amounts of orders and have the information available, it makes sense.

I'd like to find a solution for calculating shipping from multiple warehouses. I'm up to 9 now and growing. Looks like to me somehow you have to trick UPS into thinking that your zip code is not what it really is as it's tied to your UPS account, my fear is if we can fix it in ShopSite, will UPS error or stop it? For now I have a picture of a UPS Ground map for each warehouse stored on my computer and manually estimate the arrival time and pass that information on to my customer through email when I send them their invoice.

I haven't done this yet, it's on my todo list, of taking those UPS Ground images and inserting a pop-up at the bottom of my more information page in my availability text (which is controlled in my products template with IF statements and the Product.Brand although I could use an extra product field) saying something that this item ships from warehouse XYZ click to estimate shipping time. I know my customers are reading this paragraph that currently tells them when the item is expected to ship. The problem I'm getting is sometimes the warehouse is within one day from the customer and I'm 3 days away from them, so they assume it's shipping from me and they add expediated delivery.

Janice