Stock status:- in, out & available?

[Air-Tech]

I'm looking at taking some "available to order" lines in at the moment, but I'm not certain how to best work the product stock status text.

At the moment were using "enable online stock control" with either "in stock" or "out of stock" messages displayed (no qty.), I'm figuring that ideally I would like a way of putting in an addition message of "available" on these specific products.

Is this something that is possible without too much complication?

I did also consider entering stock of these items so that the stock message would be "in stock", but putting a noticeable "delivery in X days" into the product text, but I'm thinking that this would be slightly misleading (especially if my supplier is out of stock!)

Any comments on either method much appreciated.



Cheers.

[malbro]

I'm looking at taking some "available to order" lines in at the moment, but I'm not certain how to best work the product stock status text.

At the moment were using "enable online stock control" with either "in stock" or "out of stock" messages displayed (no qty.), I'm figuring that ideally I would like a way of putting in an addition message of "available" on these specific products.

Is this something that is possible without too much complication?

I did also consider entering stock of these items so that the stock message would be "in stock", but putting a noticeable "delivery in X days" into the product text, but I'm thinking that this would be slightly misleading (especially if my supplier is out of stock!)

Any comments on either method much appreciated.

Cheers.

You could design a new layout for these products using some fixed text instead of using the variables that hold the text for in and out of stock. As these are not stock controlled you could leave these items with a fixed message in the same place where the stock message appears.

[Mike Hughes]

I saw a website the other day that had a stock status indicator icon. A small circle that was either Green, Orange, or Red:

- Green: In Stock
- Red: Out Of Stock
- Orange: Available to Order

It's handy if you ever have mutliple lines of product on the one page. Explain the status meaning once and then just have a small stock indicator beside the buy button.

Another variation I've considered is to colour the buy button according to the stock status (using the same colour principle). This could also disable the buy button for out of stock products.

Mike

[Air-Tech]

Thank, appreciated!