Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

[2CDev]

I am not beta testing, but wondering about the Inventory Control of Attributes. Will it support size/color combos the way the Viking Coders module does? As in, tracking all possible combinations of attributes for each product?

Also, will there be an automatic recovery of inventory from expired baskets, etc?

Will it offer things like Pre-Order of out-of-stock items?

Will this functionality be compatible with modules or javascripting that changes the image of the item per attribute chosen?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Yes on tracking of all possible combos.

No built in auto-recovery that will still require a mod, like Emporium Plus's Restock Shelves

Yes you can pre-order out of stock

Yes it's compatible the modules/js that update images and we're building that in very soon as well so it's stock part of this new feature set.

[2CDev]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Yowsa...what a happy girl I yam!

Sounds fabulous! You are about to make me and a lot of clients very very happy!

Do you have an ETA on public release yet?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

The ETA is ASAP, but what that really means is RC1 will likely be out next week (toward the end) and then once we complete the full release test plan that is part of PA-DSS we'll fully release it. My best guess is end of this month first week of April.

[2CDev]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Great Rick...we are all very excited...and thanks to all the beta testers out there!

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Hi Rick,

I have a couple of questions about Inventory control and Wombat.

(question 1)
I have a product that I added 5 to stock. Made inventory active, set the out of stock level to "0", then set the 'Hide Out of Stock Products' drop down to yes.

When I looked at the product on the website I could see that stock was now at 5 and when I added all 5 to my basket it sent me an email (which it should - I have that set) but I could still see the "out of stock" item on the website. Why did it not hide the product?

I use the viking coders module on another store and it has this feature but when I add all 5 to my basket currently instead of hiding the out of stock item it gives the customer the "product cannot be found page" but still adds the quantity to the basket. This is a little annoying. Is there a way to fix the "product not available" situation for the viking coders module?

(question 2)
Also, is there a way to add a note field so we can indicate on which shelf the stock is located? We have a large amount of stock and it would be nice to have this feature.

(question 3)
Is there a way to include the stock level when the customer checked out? It would be nice to see that if we have 20 widgets in stock on the website and a customer orders 25 that the invoice that is emailed (or printed on the second release of wombat) would indicate:

item: WidgetABC Stock: 20 location: 15-C Ordered: 25

That way we could see that 20 came from stock and we need to order 5 for the customer and which location so it could be picked easily.


Currently we use another program to track stock for us but it would be great if Miva could handle stock and we could get rid of the other program.

[wcw]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

1) The hide out of stock applies to lists (category, product list, search). It does not apply to a direct link access to the product. That is how it should be. Instead of hiding, it should disable or hide the add to basket button. That way the customer sees it is out of stock because they have all of them in the basket. It also allows the search engine to still index it. You could use the tool kit to do a redirect to a special page, but I wouldn't do that if you plan to restock the item.

2) Use custom product fields.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Christine,

For #3, where do you want to see that?

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Hi Rick and Bill,

#1 - What if the product is discontinued and we only have 1 available? This is when we typically use the "hide out of stock" option.

#2 - Great idea Bill, I hadn't even considered that.

#3 - ideally when the merchant email is sent to us (we use the module from emporium plus) or when Wombat is able to print invoices.

[wcw]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Just hide the add to basket button, which it already does. Then delete the product when you get the out of stock email. Nobody can overorder because the button is gone.

In the picklist you could use the tool kit to show the location from a custom product field.

However, trying to determine what the stock level was before they shop not easily done. You could have 5 people buying the same item at the same time, each decreasing available until they are gone. The original value would have to be obtained by adding up how many are in those 5 people's baskets and adding to the current stock level. Then if two of those decide not to checkout, the number would be meaningless. You really just need to know the backorder amount after all 5 had finished ordering.

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

The problem we have with relying on the "out of stock" email is that since the basket empties every 60 minutes we could get multiple emails throughout the day as customers are adding the product to the basket. Multiply that by 20 products and we don't know which products are actually purchased.

However, trying to determine what the stock level was before they shop not easily done.

I never thought about that. I will have to work through all the scenarios to see what we "really need to know"

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Currently, an order comes in and purchasing manually searches our stock list for the item number to see if we have stock.

1. If we have enough stock, the location is listed on the invoice and the order goes out for picking

2. If we don't have enough stock, what is available is removed from stock by the shipping department and the rest is ordered in by purchasing.

so we basically just need to know when a customer order 10 widgets are those 10 widgets coming from stock or do they need to be ordered in?

I'm just not sure how to do this with Miva.

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

However, trying to determine what the stock level was before they shop not easily done. You could have 5 people buying the same item at the same time, each decreasing available until they are gone. The original value would have to be obtained by adding up how many are in those 5 people's baskets and adding to the current stock level. Then if two of those decide not to checkout, the number would be meaningless. You really just need to know the backorder amount after all 5 had finished ordering.

So you are correct. We don't need to know that there were 2 in stock before the order was placed, we just need to know there is enough to cover the customer's order from stock.

[wcw]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

Well you could use the Tool Kit to show how many were still in stock for the basic product code. It would not tell you the number for the specific attribute variant if you are using the attribute inventory feature. So you might see -2 for the instock variable. That would tell you the basic product was over sold. If using attribute inventory you'd have to figure out which variant. Their order could have more than one variant in the basket.

[crozon]

Re: Wombat Attribute Inventory Control

I guess I didn't think it through all the way. I didn't realize it would be this complicated. I didn't want our purchaser to have to flip back and forth between orders and the inventory list to see if we have enough inventory to cover the order.

Thanks for your help Bill. :-)