Get website orders for books that are out of stock but on the way
Many shops do not like to get online orders for things that are out of stock as they can be difficult to fill, time consuming for staff and frustrating for customers.
The solution to date has been to make people enquire about out of stock items rather than order them, with the ‘Notify Me’ option.
The ‘Notify Me’ button has been a great success, especially as it mimics over the counter enquiries. A downside is that it forces people to 'enquire' about stock that is on the way, when it would be far better to take an order.
This need to take orders for books that are on the way has grown in importance with the rise of pre ordering.
We have now implemented a setting that lets stores show not only that the title may be out of stock, but that it is on order and available to purchase. Quantities can also be included. Additionally, if an item is out of stock and not on order, customers can also order the item. If stores prefer NOT to allow this kind of ordering then the 'Notify Me' setting can be applied.
This improvement is useful in itself but it’s also the first step to adding a specific pre ordering option.
The next step is to automatically add a pre order flag to titles you have on order (but not in stock) and where the availability date is in the future - so watch this spot.
To implement this in your store untick settings > website - Allow ordering when an item is out of stock & not on order.
Check out some of the other features we've rolled out on Feature Ideas
