v10 - More about 'real time stock control'

[brucet]

Since we first mentioned plans to introduce a new real-time stock control feature in v10 there have been quite a few questions and a bit of speculation about what this might cover and how it will work, so we thought it was worth setting the record straight. Some of the details still have to be worked out, but the basic outline is now pretty clear.

Essentially, the new feature will have three elements.

1. On the web site, stock levels will be counted down automatically and in real time as orders are placed. As soon as a customer completes the checkout, stock levels will be reduced for all the products they ordered. When the last of a particular product is ordered online, it will be taken out of stock immediately, and no further orders accepted. This is the major difference from the ‘stock monitoring’ functionality in previous versions.

As a consequence, actual stock counts can be displayed on the web pages if desired.

2. On the local PC, the new feature works in a similar way to the old one. Stock levels are decremented whenever a new order is added, or when online orders are downloaded.

3. The final element is the ability to sync stock levels automatically between website and desktop on a regular and frequent basis. The achievable frequency will vary between sites depending on factors such as broadband speed, PC and server capacity, number of products and volume of orders; but in most cases synchronization should take place in seconds. This is made possible by a change of architecture, whereby stock level changes are stored in separate transaction files on both the web site and the local PC. This dramatically increases the speed of synchronization compared with the current method. It requires the sync server, and will not be available with Actinic Catalog. It is fully compatible with Actinic Link for EPOS, enabling automatic stock synchronization across all channels.

[grantglendinnin]

Thanks for the update Bruce, IMO the stage of "As soon as a customer completes the checkout" will be the riskiest factor, as Paypal in particular, can be a pig for not 'completing' the order, thus a PSP-Pending order is created. Will stock be allocated for X time period for PSP Pending orders? Will there be a setting to allow stock to be assigned to PSP-Pending orders, or not to assign stock to PSP-Pending orders?

[brucet]

The distinction between allocated and shipped stock is another area that is on our radar, but it won't be in v10.

Stock will be decremented when an order is placed, regardless of payment method or whether payment has been received.

[TraceyHand]

Does that mean that the 30+ order that permanently occupy my psp payment pending tab would also be depleting the online stock?
How is this fixed? Can or does it depend on whether you choose (in actinic) to 'allocate stock for psp pending orders'?
How do we 'fix' those online levels for orders/customers who place repeated failed orders before a successful one?
Oooh I have more questions but phone is playing up

[brucet]

Sorry, yes - 'real time stock' will respect the 'Allocate Stock for PSP Pending Orders' checkbox.

Just to clarify - there are no changes at all in the way stock is handled compared with the current 'stock monitoring'. The only difference is the automation.

[Darren B]

ok following on from this, when an order is placed online it will down stock the products regardless of payment being made?

so when you download these orders and some fall in to pending psp what happens to the stock then, do you need to sync to add them back on to the site stock levels if you dont allocate stock to pending psp orders?

[brucet]

I'm not sure I can answer that at this stage. The preference would definitely be that if 'Allocate Stock for PSP Pending Orders' is not ticked, no stock is allocated for them in the first place. But I'm not sure what technical issues there might be with regard to communication with the PSP.

Some of the specifics still have to be nailed down, depending on what hurdles we encounter during development and testing.

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

If 'Allocate Stock for PSP Pending Orders' is ticked I assume a potential problem could arise if the customer has problems with the payment and goes through the checkout several times creating mutliple orders in PSP pending and thereby depleting the stock levels each time which could then result in the item they are trying to pay for showing out of stock.

[bentleybloke]

Sounds interesting. Two questions:

1. Will it be possible to indicate in the basket layout whether something is in stock or out of stock?
   
2. Will the stock level at time of ordering be recorded with the order? It would be very useful to know whether the item was indicated as in stock or not when the order was placed. It would also jog the memory if stock is looking low

[brucet]

As I say, the actual stock handling will be the same as the current 'stock monitoring'. If an item is out of stock, the 'add to cart' button will be suppressed and shoppers won't be able to order it.

You will be able to sell ahead by setting the 'Suspend orders if below' value for a product to a negative number, but in this case the catalogue will take that number into account when declaring a stock level. So if you have none in stock but set 'Suspend orders if below' to -10, a stock level of 10 will show on the site.

You can set a different value for 'Warn if below', and if stock falls below that value you will get a warning when you download the orders.

[Duncan Rounding]

So as I undertsand it the v10 stock control is the same as it is now in v9 except the download/upload is automated and faster as well as being decremented online.

[brucet]

Yes, plus the actual stock levels can be shown on the web pages, and the automatic synchronisation extends to Actinic EPOS as well.

[TraceyHand]

I'm just gutted that I don't actually NEED this any more!!
I may have to open a new website, just to take advantage

[rmorrow]

Stock will be decremented when an order is placed, regardless of payment method or whether payment has been received.

'real time stock' will respect the 'Allocate Stock for PSP Pending Orders' checkbox.

These 2 appear to contradict each other, but my reading of it is that the 'Allocate Stock for PSP Pending Orders' checkbox is only respected once orders have been downloaded i.e. at the time of download, Actinic will allocate stock to the order based on this setting. However, in the meantime, the online stock will have been reduced regardless of the payment status, so there is still the possibility of items incorrectly going out of stock where a PSP payment is cancelled / unsuccessful. I guess the frequency of order download and stock upload will affect this (although some shop owners want to turn their PC off sometimes!!).

[brucet]

The second statement was intended to qualify the first. AFAIK it is the one exception, and operates in real time on the web site the same as everything else.