Let's talk about stock, baby!

Let’s talk about B2B. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things fulfilment can be… Ok so it doesn’t quite fit the song and I’m probably showing my age a little with a Salt-N-Pepa reference (plus the details I’m about to get into aren’t specific to B2B, it just rhymed).

Despite my (awful) jokes, today’s blog post is about a crucial part of the eCommerce game:

Stock.

Without it, you have a pretty rough time ahead of you. With it, you can still have a rough time if your eCommerce presence doesn’t reflect reality.

With that in mind, I thought I would shine the spotlight on a few of the features we have to make this part of online transacting easier for your customers.

Product Availability Widget

This lets your users see at a glance what your stock levels are like in an easy to understand format. Out of the box, this will give you an “In stock/Out of stock” indicator against each product. You can pop this on the Product List page, or the Product Detail page. Like this:

We have done variations on this for specific customers with more of a traffic light approach, i.e. “In stock”, “Low stock”, “Out of stock”, so feel free to have a chat to me if you’ve got a specific concept in mind that the standard widget doesn’t cater for.

You can choose to display additional info such as the exact quantity available if your customers prefer a bit more detail. Or you can get a bit funky with and do two versions of the widget. Create one with just the indicator for non-authenticated users, and one with the quantity for authenticated users. That way you know only customers can see your exact stock levels, but a potential customer who may not have an account yet still has enough useful information.

Notify Me When in Stock

Unfortunately, there will be times when a particular product is out of stock. Since this can prevent conversion, making a return to the buying process as easy as possible is key to keeping that stock moving and those customers happy.

The “Notify Me” widget allows a user to receive an automated email letting them know when a product is back in stock. Because it’s system generated and opt-in, there’s no overhead for you. This messaging not only serves its purpose, but also acts as a soft reminder that your company is there and able to service the user’s needs.

This one can live on either the Product Detail page (see below screen shot), or in the cart.

I have some other fun features around the Product Detail page I’d like to give a bit of time to but I might save them for next time…

Happy Wednesday, Visionaries. Don't forget, if you have any questions, I'm here... still rocking out to Salt N Pepa