Subj : Things that annoy you..
To   : Arelor
From : Ogg
Date : Tue May 02 2023 08:59:00

Hello Arelor!

** On Saturday 29.04.23 - 04:57, Arelor wrote to Michael Borthwick:

 A> I run an hybrid e-commerce / brick 'n' mortar business so I would like to
 A> comment on this.

 A> Even if you have tight inventory tracking coded in your
 A> system (so that your web application know how much stock do
 A> you have of every item), there still exists the possibility
 A> that the inventory has the wrong records.

[...]

Sounds to me that you have a good system.


 A> Finally, items that don't rotate much but have reliable providers backing
 A> them may also get a dummy inventory number.

As long as the dummy is a number and not a person, you'll be  
fine!   :D


 A> [...] If somebody orders stuff you can't serve in the
 A> advertised timeframe, you can always phone in and tell the
 A> customer: "Ok, we messed up with the inventory, so we have
 A> two options. You can let me send you a substitute item that
 A> does the same thing or you can wait three extra days and
 A> get what you ordered, plus we will give you back the
 A> delivery fee due to the delay." This way, I still get the
 A> sale, the customer is usually very happy anyway, but I
 A> would not have made the sale if the website advertised the
 A> item is out of stock.

3 days is not a long time to wait.  "out of stock" is not so  
great in your case.  The "dummy number" system seems to be a  
good approach.

As long as you can keep up with those out of stock situtations  
and not let them go beyond a 3-day promise, you'll be fine.

Many online places seem to implement the same system.  They  
indicate "in stock" or "available in [insert time frame]" ..but  
when you place the order there is a much longer delay.

I had a similar situation just yesterday. Someone called me  
yesterday (Monday) to find out if I could get a particular  
title by Thursday.  Fortunately, there is one distributor that  
ships and promises delivery within 24hrs. Their online system  
indicated that 9 copies were in stock.  That was at 12:30p.   
Inorder to get my shipment next day, the order had to be in by  
1p. But when I called, at bit after 1p cuz often there is a  
window around that cutoff) to place the order (they take the  
orders over the phone) ..they said they were out of the title  
anyway.

--- OpenXP 5.0.57
 * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

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