hiding when out of stock

[kessock]

Hi everyone,

Still fighting a now winning battle (yea ha), I have another I hope little question that I cannot see covered.

If I want to hide a product altogether when it is out of stock (yes I am using stock monitoring) how would I go about it.

I am hoping that I can simply change a setting somewhere that will apply this rule to all products as I have thousands I will be uploading fairly soon.

I currently have suspend if below 1 selected, but think that quite a lot of the time I will not have every item in stock and feel currently out of stock is a pain for customers to see everywhere and does not look too professional.

Thanks again.

Mark

[george]

I've a similar dilema. Things I expect to get back in again soonish I just leave on the 'site, things I expect to get in again but no idea when I `hide`, things that are unlikely to get in again I delete.

At the moment I update as I go along but every month or so I run a Stock Warning report, that lists all the items that are affected.

Slightly off topic. Hidden items don't do anything for your site search enginewise so worth considering that too.

[kessock]

report

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, I can see the advantage of running reports etc, but this is ok in my eyes if you are running a limited number of lines.

I will eventaully be stocking around 9,000 and have others to order, so the thought of going through umpteen sheets just to suspend hide etc would kill me.

I think Actinic need to tweak this somehow as it is a real pain.

I am running with line 50 and want to get everything to gel together with as little hassle as possible.

Do you ever wish you had not started something.

I did think of buying the sage web program to do all for me, and wish I had as they work a whole lot better together (line 50 and sage e-commerce that is) and it would work with the paypoint program I am about to buy.

I was thinking of Actinic checkout epos software but as this will not run out of the box with line 50 I shelved that idea.

Thanks.

Mark

[Duncan Rounding]

Slightly off topic. Hidden items don't do anything for your site search enginewise so worth considering that too.

I think this is a very impoprtant point - if the item is only temporarily out of stock and you delete the item then a linked visitor will have to get redirected to your homepage or suchlike. You are also likely to loose your SE links if the robot no longer sees the info on the page.

[kessock]

back orders

Hi,

that makes sense, would I therefore be better to change my settings to back orders rather than suspending them all together, as if they are OOS my supplier can get most items to me with a day or so.

If this is the case a point in the right direction would be good as to how I change this.

Thanks.

Mark

[fleetwood]

You also need to watch out for the following scenario:

Customer orders product, but you find that product is out of stock

You set stock control for this product to 'on', with qty in stock at zero, which generates the out of stock notice, and removes 'add to cart' on next upload.

You still expect stock in, but original customer decides not to wait and cancels.

Cancelling the order sets 'in stock' figure back to 1 from 0, as system believes a previously ordered copy is now available for sale.

On upload, item now shows up as in stock again, even though you still have none!

Martin

[Duncan Rounding]

Business Settings|Order Processing and select Allow back-ordering. There's also a section in the Actinic program help file on Back ordering.

[kessock]

Is this right

Hi,

Is it right then that if I simply turn off stock control I will simply get orders, and if I have no stock my sage program will automatically shout at me so I can get in overnight.

Thanks.

Mark

[fleetwood]

On an even 'more' off-topic, and totally tongue-in-cheek non-topic, wouldn't it be great to be able to 'hide' the entire store for a day so you could take a break, without losing any business or SE ratings!!!

Orders are great, but boy I'm sure we could all use a holiday every now and then without worrying about the consquences to the online store

(guess whose having an overworked Sunday!!!!!!)



Martin

ps: if any of my customers are reading this - I really am grateful for the business

pps: if George is reading this, why aren't you working?

[kessock]

problem

Thanks for that,
I have just checked and realised that I have "bypass catalogue order proccessing selected, so does this mean I cannot do it.

Regards.

Mark

[kessock]

dream

We can dream, a day off not sure what you mean!

Seem to be working on this 8 am until 2 am at present, new store opening approaches fast.

On a more serious note, if I set my site as not a stock monitoring site will this in effect has the same result as allowing back orders?

Thanks.

Mark

[george]

pps: if George is reading this, why aren't you working?

Took a couple of pics from our workplace carpark this afternoon...


http://www.geo.clara.co.uk/images/sunday0503.jpg

http://www.geo.clara.co.uk/images/sunday0503a.jpg

[fleetwood]

Is stepping out from the workplace into the carpark counted as a holiday?

Nicer views than I have though - I look out onto the back of the restaurant next door. If only their customers could see what I see, they sure wouldn't eat there!

Martin

[george]

I didn't take any of when my car stuck (twice).

[kessock]

back orders

On a more serious note, if I set my site as not a stock monitoring site will this in effect has the same result as allowing back orders?