hiding when out of stock

[george]

PERSONALLY, I don't like Actinic's back order function. Have given it a couple of goes and I'd prefer to keep orders split in two different ones, items in stock, and items waiting to come in.

Worth browsing through the forum though, I think one of the female crafty types was into this not so long ago. (ooh err)

I do use the ME addon for very regular downloading and uploading when we're not there though.

[kessock]

stock monitoring

Thanks George,

Does it mean if I do not set the site as stock monitoring that it will take orders irrelevant of the state of play with stock?

Why do you say you don't like the back order function? I like to know of fiddley settings and hiccups before they happen.

Thanks.

Mark

[fleetwood]

If you don't like "fiddley settings and hiccups" then best to avoid both back orders and the 'add adjustment' functions.
Maybe they have been improved since, but in version 5 both of these are very tempremental little beasts, that can lock up an order irreversably, if you follow a sequence of clicks that it dosen't like.

Back orders are also quite confusing for the customer, as the back ordered products remain listed in the body of the invoice (albeit, without the price being totalled), as well as being referred to at the bottom of the invoice.
I find that postage quite often goes wrong with back orders, with the postage split you aim to set, not being reflected in the invoices, after the back order has been effected.

Creating a second invoice (as George suggests) is neater, although a real nusiance pre version 7, as offline ordering is not an option.

As far as I understand it, if you set stock monitoring OFF, then you will products will never show an 'out of stock message', or be without an 'add to cart' button. You can of course do both of these things manually, by unchecking 'can be ordered' product by product, and by adding your own 'out of stock' message within the product description

Martin

Martin

[kessock]

stock monitoring

Thanks Fleetwood,

Just to make sure I have read this correctly.

If I select not stock monitoring I will have a add to cart button on every item.

A couple of items I sell come from China and do go out of stock periodically, does it mean that I would be better removing the item whilst out of stock, or can I select only a few items as stock monitoring without too much trouble.

Sorry to go over the same ground but I really want to do it right first time.

All the help is a real help.

Thanks.

Mark

[george]

I think Martin's covered a few of the issues. One I do remember is that they don't always move to `completed` even when everything is shipped, paid, etc.

A wee tip for you could be to maybe have plenty (of the item(s) in question)in `stock`, say ten off or whatever, but put in the item description that the item may sometimes be shipped direct from an overseas suppler, this would buy you a bit of time to source it.

I think partially shipped orders are hard work in Actinic, but you may well find other users who it works perfect for.

I'd rather have something showing `out of stock` that I knew we were getting in again, than not showing it on the 'site at all.

Everyones different though, and I certainly ain't no expert, lol.

[kessock]

Thanks

Cheers for all your help guys.

I will just leave as is for now, and if it starts to look a bit silly I will rethink what to do.

At least having the products online even if they out of stock keeps me in the search engines somewhere.

I am getting sage paypoint shortly and hopwfully this will help keeps things a bit tighter (bit like me really).

One day I will look back at this and think got that was really not as hard as I made out (or maybe not). You never know if all goes to plan I might be able to pay a fool to do it for me.

Regards.

Mark

[Froogle]

well no ?

Customers are the reason we're here. If you need a break the norm would be to bring someone in to cover you !

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?

[fleetwood]

Just checking what I originally said:

and totally tongue-in-cheek non-topic

yes, your right Nicholas, silly me...

...and when you need a SOH guess this isn't the place to come

sheeeeesh!

[Mike Hughes]

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!!!

You can (if you really want to). Just disable ordering and do an upload. All the 'buy now' (or whatever) buttons disappear but the rest of the site stays visible for the search engines.

Mike