Backorders/Inventory Tracking

[Chris]

Hi all,

I thought I was onto something by setting up Shopsite Inventory Tracking
for our backordered items with quantity of "0" in all 3 inventory
columns to alert people to the out of stock item before they submit
their order. However, we want them to be able to backorder the item.
It appears that Shopsite doens't allow an item to be ordered if it is
showing out of stock. When I click "Checkout", I get an error message.
Is there any way I can change this to allow the out-of-stock item to be
(back)ordered?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

[loren_d_c]

You can either remove the Out of Stock Limit or set it to a negative number
so that the product can still be ordered until it's Quantity on Hand reaches
that negative number as well.

There is currently no way to automatically indicate that it is out of stock
yet allow it to be ordered at the same time. You could do this by adding
text, maybe the word 'back-ordered', to the name of the product (or product
description, or whatever, although name is convenient because it shows up on
the shopping cart screens and the receipts), then when you get more in stock
take that out of the name.

-Loren



Chris wrote:

Hi all,

I thought I was onto something by setting up Shopsite Inventory Tracking
for our backordered items with quantity of "0" in all 3 inventory
columns to alert people to the out of stock item before they submit
their order. However, we want them to be able to backorder the item.
It appears that Shopsite doens't allow an item to be ordered if it is
showing out of stock. When I click "Checkout", I get an error message.
Is there any way I can change this to allow the out-of-stock item to be
(back)ordered?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

[Chris]

But, when I do that (remove the Out of Stock limit) .....it doesn't appear that
the message appears on the shopping cart either.

Chris

MLCS

Loren wrote:

You can either remove the Out of Stock Limit or set it to a negative number
so that the product can still be ordered until it's Quantity on Hand reaches
that negative number as well.

There is currently no way to automatically indicate that it is out of stock
yet allow it to be ordered at the same time. You could do this by adding
text, maybe the word 'back-ordered', to the name of the product (or product
description, or whatever, although name is convenient because it shows up on
the shopping cart screens and the receipts), then when you get more in stock
take that out of the name.

-Loren

Chris wrote:

Hi all,

I thought I was onto something by setting up Shopsite Inventory Tracking
for our backordered items with quantity of "0" in all 3 inventory
columns to alert people to the out of stock item before they submit
their order. However, we want them to be able to backorder the item.
It appears that Shopsite doens't allow an item to be ordered if it is
showing out of stock. When I click "Checkout", I get an error message.
Is there any way I can change this to allow the out-of-stock item to be
(back)ordered?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

[loren_d_c]

Like I said, there is no way to alert the shopper (automatically, via the Inventory
Tracking feature) that the item is out of stock and still allow them to order the
item.

-Loren



Chris wrote:

But, when I do that (remove the Out of Stock limit) .....it doesn't appear that
the message appears on the shopping cart either.

Chris

MLCS

Loren wrote:

You can either remove the Out of Stock Limit or set it to a negative number
so that the product can still be ordered until it's Quantity on Hand reaches
that negative number as well.

There is currently no way to automatically indicate that it is out of stock
yet allow it to be ordered at the same time. You could do this by adding
text, maybe the word 'back-ordered', to the name of the product (or product
description, or whatever, although name is convenient because it shows up on
the shopping cart screens and the receipts), then when you get more in stock
take that out of the name.

-Loren

Chris wrote:

Hi all,

I thought I was onto something by setting up Shopsite Inventory Tracking
for our backordered items with quantity of "0" in all 3 inventory
columns to alert people to the out of stock item before they submit
their order. However, we want them to be able to backorder the item.
It appears that Shopsite doens't allow an item to be ordered if it is
showing out of stock. When I click "Checkout", I get an error message.
Is there any way I can change this to allow the out-of-stock item to be
(back)ordered?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

[Chris]

Has this been made an Enhancement request? If not, I will be making it one--it seems
a rather obvious feature, IMHO.

Does anyone have any work-arounds that have worked for them?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Loren wrote:

Like I said, there is no way to alert the shopper (automatically, via the Inventory
Tracking feature) that the item is out of stock and still allow them to order the
item.

-Loren

Chris wrote:

But, when I do that (remove the Out of Stock limit) .....it doesn't appear that
the message appears on the shopping cart either.

Chris

MLCS

Loren wrote:

You can either remove the Out of Stock Limit or set it to a negative number
so that the product can still be ordered until it's Quantity on Hand reaches
that negative number as well.

There is currently no way to automatically indicate that it is out of stock
yet allow it to be ordered at the same time. You could do this by adding
text, maybe the word 'back-ordered', to the name of the product (or product
description, or whatever, although name is convenient because it shows up on
the shopping cart screens and the receipts), then when you get more in stock
take that out of the name.

-Loren

Chris wrote:

Hi all,

I thought I was onto something by setting up Shopsite Inventory Tracking
for our backordered items with quantity of "0" in all 3 inventory
columns to alert people to the out of stock item before they submit
their order. However, we want them to be able to backorder the item.
It appears that Shopsite doens't allow an item to be ordered if it is
showing out of stock. When I click "Checkout", I get an error message.
Is there any way I can change this to allow the out-of-stock item to be
(back)ordered?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

[Nikolaus Gruchot]

Hi Chris,

I have been facing the same problem. Here is what we did (we have about 700
products in our store, if you have more it may not be suitable for you, as
the there is manual work involved):

1. We do not use the inventory tracking of shopsite

2. We have created a page with order status symbols and explanations (See:
http://www.watersafety.net/d/order/dstatus.htm ) -> Create your own symbols
using a color theme that follows your shop layout!

3. We have included a short version of the order status symbols with few
words explanations in all our pages that have products listed on by putting
the needed code in the shopsite text 2 field of the ->pages. See
http://www.danshop.com/pelimicrocases.html at the end of the page as
example.

4. According to our regular stock-keeping and experience with our purveyors,
we have manually implemented the symbols with our products using
the ->products->product description and products->more information text
fields of shopsite. (We use the standard product layout buil-into shopsite).
See again page http://www.danshop.com/pelimicrocases.html as example. Click
on any listed case for the look of the more information page.
Attention: In the "more information text" field the order status symbol (img
tag) can be the first thing, so that the symbol is listed directly
underneath the price and/or SKU. BUT in the "product description" field it
is mandatory that you have some text, before putting in the code for the
order status img tag -> If the order status picture is the first thing in
the product description you will receive crummy results when using the
search function of shopsite!

5. If you implement these symbols manually, your customer can see what the
most probable time it will take for his order to ship and will not bother
you within 1 day, if a product is listed as "Usually ships within 3-5 days".

6. IMPORTANT: Assign an ALT text to your order status symbols. You will get
an extreme advantage concerning search engines!! How?

See below a search result for "1520 Peli Koffer" from Google for one of our
store pages:
------
1520 Peli-Koffer schwarz
.... 1520 Peli-Koffer schwarz. Euro 220,00 14052 Artikel ist am Lager oder
kurzfristig versandfertig (in der Regel 1-2 Werktage) Der größte ...
------
in order to make it easier for you, here is the english translation:

1520 Peli-Case black
.... 1520 Peli-Case black. Euro 220,00 14052 Item is in stock or ships
at short term (usually within 1-2 working days) The biggest ...

The customer looking to BUY this products gets all needed information that
makes him click:

-> Name of the product, he wants to buy
-> Price of the product
-> SKU number (not essential here)
-> Order status information (hey cool, ships within 2 days)
-> First words of the product description

The information is coming from the following Shopsite product database
fields:

1520 Peli-Case black -> Name of the product in the shopsite product database
.... 1520 Peli-Case black. -> Name of the product in the shopsite product
database
Euro 220,00 -> Price of the product in the shopsite product database
14052 -> SKU of the product in the shopsite product database
is in stock or ships at short term (usually within 1-2 working days) -> The
text from the IMG ALT text tag from the more information page text field of
the product database. It is important that the image for the order status is
the first thing in the "more information text" field and has the wanted ALT
text assigned to get this result.
The biggest ... -> First words of the product description in the more
information page text field of the product in the shopsite product database,
AFTER the ALT text of the order status symbol IMG.

It is bit of work to implement this, but the results are rewarding. We have
very few calls now, if a product is in stock and if some orders a product
that shows 1-2 days delivery but it is out of stock, the customer fully
understands, if we call him up and explain that our back-office is only
updating the order status symbols once every day, and it may be that the
product is not in stock regardless the symbol displayed

Another advantage is that it looks like we are having a fully integrated
inventory system at work (which is not the case) but it increases
credibility of the shop.

Best regards from Germany,

Niko

P.S: To the Shopsite folks: The x-mas-shopping rush is over and went very
well. Thank you for this stable and excellent program that you have created
)

"Chris" <sawdust@mlcswoodworking.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3E02104B.6A3580C3@mlcswoodworking.com...

Has this been made an Enhancement request? If not, I will be making it
one--it seems
a rather obvious feature, IMHO.

Does anyone have any work-arounds that have worked for them?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Loren wrote:

Like I said, there is no way to alert the shopper (automatically, via
the Inventory
Tracking feature) that the item is out of stock and still allow them to
order the
item.

-Loren

[Chris]

Hello Nikolaus,

Thanks so much for for the detailed advice. It sounds like a good system EXCEPT
we use all custom pages (which has certain drawbacks like this one, but makes
for a much more use friendly and eye-pleasing design).

For now, we're toying with othe ideas, such as an automated response e-mail
immediately AFTER ordering. We've also submitted an enhancement request to
Shopsite.

Thanks and happy holidays!

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi Chris,

I have been facing the same problem. Here is what we did (we have about 700
products in our store, if you have more it may not be suitable for you, as
the there is manual work involved):

1. We do not use the inventory tracking of shopsite

2. We have created a page with order status symbols and explanations (See:
http://www.watersafety.net/d/order/dstatus.htm ) -> Create your own symbols
using a color theme that follows your shop layout!

3. We have included a short version of the order status symbols with few
words explanations in all our pages that have products listed on by putting
the needed code in the shopsite text 2 field of the ->pages. See
http://www.danshop.com/pelimicrocases.html at the end of the page as
example.

4. According to our regular stock-keeping and experience with our purveyors,
we have manually implemented the symbols with our products using
the ->products->product description and products->more information text
fields of shopsite. (We use the standard product layout buil-into shopsite).
See again page http://www.danshop.com/pelimicrocases.html as example. Click
on any listed case for the look of the more information page.
Attention: In the "more information text" field the order status symbol (img
tag) can be the first thing, so that the symbol is listed directly
underneath the price and/or SKU. BUT in the "product description" field it
is mandatory that you have some text, before putting in the code for the
order status img tag -> If the order status picture is the first thing in
the product description you will receive crummy results when using the
search function of shopsite!

5. If you implement these symbols manually, your customer can see what the
most probable time it will take for his order to ship and will not bother
you within 1 day, if a product is listed as "Usually ships within 3-5 days".

6. IMPORTANT: Assign an ALT text to your order status symbols. You will get
an extreme advantage concerning search engines!! How?

See below a search result for "1520 Peli Koffer" from Google for one of our
store pages:
------
1520 Peli-Koffer schwarz
... 1520 Peli-Koffer schwarz. Euro 220,00 14052 Artikel ist am Lager oder
kurzfristig versandfertig (in der Regel 1-2 Werktage) Der größte ...
------
in order to make it easier for you, here is the english translation:

1520 Peli-Case black
... 1520 Peli-Case black. Euro 220,00 14052 Item is in stock or ships
at short term (usually within 1-2 working days) The biggest ...

The customer looking to BUY this products gets all needed information that
makes him click:

-> Name of the product, he wants to buy
-> Price of the product
-> SKU number (not essential here)
-> Order status information (hey cool, ships within 2 days)
-> First words of the product description

The information is coming from the following Shopsite product database
fields:

1520 Peli-Case black -> Name of the product in the shopsite product database
... 1520 Peli-Case black. -> Name of the product in the shopsite product
database
Euro 220,00 -> Price of the product in the shopsite product database
14052 -> SKU of the product in the shopsite product database
is in stock or ships at short term (usually within 1-2 working days) -> The
text from the IMG ALT text tag from the more information page text field of
the product database. It is important that the image for the order status is
the first thing in the "more information text" field and has the wanted ALT
text assigned to get this result.
The biggest ... -> First words of the product description in the more
information page text field of the product in the shopsite product database,
AFTER the ALT text of the order status symbol IMG.

It is bit of work to implement this, but the results are rewarding. We have
very few calls now, if a product is in stock and if some orders a product
that shows 1-2 days delivery but it is out of stock, the customer fully
understands, if we call him up and explain that our back-office is only
updating the order status symbols once every day, and it may be that the
product is not in stock regardless the symbol displayed

Another advantage is that it looks like we are having a fully integrated
inventory system at work (which is not the case) but it increases
credibility of the shop.

Best regards from Germany,

Niko

P.S: To the Shopsite folks: The x-mas-shopping rush is over and went very
well. Thank you for this stable and excellent program that you have created
)

"Chris" <sawdust@mlcswoodworking.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3E02104B.6A3580C3@mlcswoodworking.com...
Has this been made an Enhancement request? If not, I will be making it
one--it seems
a rather obvious feature, IMHO.

Does anyone have any work-arounds that have worked for them?

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com

Loren wrote:

Like I said, there is no way to alert the shopper (automatically, via
the Inventory
Tracking feature) that the item is out of stock and still allow them to
order the
item.

-Loren