Back in stock notification for variants

[AbleMods]

Does this feature work with variants, or only the main product?

[nadeem]

Does this feature work with variants, or only the main product?

Yes, it works with the variants as well.

[Katie]

This might help too -

http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProj ... entory.htm

[AbleMods]

Thanks Katie, I've forwarded your info. I'm sure it'll help.

Are there any plans to have a global way to turn on restock notifications? Right now I have to do it with a SQL command.

Many clients who want to activate this feature become dismayed when they learn that every single product in the catalog must be edited.

[Katie]

Sorry Joe, but we don't have any one setting that changes all the individual product settings. I would suggest Batch Edit or use the Data Exchange feature.

It's actually quite easy, even for large sites. Just export all the products with "Name" & "EnableRestockNotifications" fields. If desired, you can also include any of the inventory fields like "InventoryMode", "InStock", "AvailabilityDate", or "EnableRestockNotifications".

After you have your properly formatted CSV file, just do a mass update there from False to True. Then re-upload the CSV.

I suppose it's probably easier with an SQL query, but the data update feature is useful too.

Thanks
Katie

[compunerdy]

How is this supposed to work for variants if the variants disappear from the drop down when they are out of stock?

[Katie]

Did you see the link I posted above on Sept. 9th? This is the documentation for the new feature.

Once inventory and restock notifications are enabled, the customer will be able to be notified when the product has 0 for In Stock level and the option to allow back-orders is unchecked or disabled. When this condition is met, then the customer will see the notification message.

If it's not working for you, then you'll need to give us some details about how your variants are setup.

Thanks,
Katie

[compunerdy]

Track variants and enable notifications are set for this product.

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Luxeo ... -P523.aspx

Currently we have colors such as red out of stock. A customer cannot select red in the drop down though as the system hides it because it is out of stock so there is no way for them to select it and get the notify when back in stock message.

[nadeem]

Enable notifications option for variants will only appear if you have availability date specified for the out of stock item. Following three conditions should met in order to work enable notification for variants:

1 - inventory tracking is enabled for variants
2 - the product's enable restock notifications is true
3 - the variant is at 0 stock level AND the Availability Date has some value

[Katie]

There is an open bug report to make the "Availability Date" excluded from the restock notification requirement. We had a discrepancy in the variant display on the product pages. If you use the Product Display with option grid enabled, then it will appear. We felt that an issue report needed to be logged so the display of variants was consistent between all the product display pages.

[compunerdy]

Removing that requirement sounds like a good fix..

I tried switching to product display with options grid and that still does not give the back in stock notify option.

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Luxeo ... -P523.aspx

[nadeem]

You can only see the out of stock message against the item using option grid page. But notify option still doesn't show up on this page as well without the availability date specified.

As Katie stated, the availability date requirement need to be removed from the restock notification feature.

[compunerdy]

Ok, thanks.. If a patch can be done to fix this that would be great.

[compunerdy]

There is a problem with this for kits as well..

For kits to properly shows as in stock or out of stock you have it setup this way.. (at least it is the way I was told years ago and have always done)

Fake parent item with a large inventory level.. I usually put like 999999
-sub item a with inventory on
-sub item b with inventory on

When sub item b for instance goes to 0 stock the parent item shows as out of stock and the customer can activate the email when back in stock function. The issue is that it is assigned to the parent item and not the sub item. So the only way to trigger the restock notification is to change the stock level on the parent item and the sub item at the same time. If you just did the sub item there would be no email and if you just do the parent item it would not actually show as in stock since the sub item would still have a 0 inventory count.

The fix would be to assign the email to the sub item that is out of stock and when that is triggered send a link to the parent item. Of course the issue with that is a sub item can be linked to multiple parent items so that would need to be tracked as well.

[compunerdy]

This is strange.. by changing the stock of that sub item it triggered the back in stock notification for another parent item that it is also a kit of. So is the system already designed to trigger the parent item when a sub item comes back in stock and the only issue is that the system does not show that people have signed up to be notified for the sub item?