Advanced Stock Options

[RCH132]

We have a site setup that has many different types of products on it. One issue we're running into is getting the products setup to be able to track stock correctly. Basically, some products have multiple options available to them, but not all options are physical products. Some are services while others are add-on products so their stock is separate from the main products'. As an example, we have a drone that comes in a couple of different colors. We need to be able to track each color's stock correctly. You can also add an upgraded camera to that drone. This is a separate product that has its own stock and is simply added to your order. It does not change the drone you get so this is more of a bundle type option. Lastly, we offer 4 warranty levels people can buy. These are obviously a service and not a physical product that needs to have stock tracked but needs to be on the order for future tracking. The problem we're having is that with these three different options, if you use the advanced options, we get a ton of product combinations, most are useless. Like the upgraded camera for each color. That is not the case, the camera is it's own product with its own stock while the colors of the drone are different products. Then add the 4 warranties on top of that and the number of advanced options is huge.

I tried creating a bundled version to see if that would work. I create a product page for each color of the drone as well as the upgraded camera and linked them to the main product page. Then we can use the individual product pages to track/manage stock. This seems to work except for the fact that the product page does not check the source product's stock when adding to the cart. So if they add an option who's parent product is out of stock, it allows it and does not show that combination as being out of stock.

How can we handle product combinations with non-physical options and stock?

[Shift4Shop-Henry]

Hi RCH132

It might help to know that the advanced options only come into play when the option types being used are dropdown, radio or drop image. All the other option types are left out of the advanced option section. So for the color selection you can use either of those three and they'll show up in Advanced Options. For the upgraded camera and warranty, you can then use one of the other option types.

For example, the "checkbox" type could probably be labeled "Add a camera" and used for the camera. Then for the warranty, the "One time Fee" option type could be used.

Unless I misunderstand your description, this would allow you to add stock numbers for the drone colors while keeping the other options out of the inventory tracking loop.

[RCH132]

Thanks for the reply. I was in the process of testing the One Time Fee for the warranty and at first glace, it is not changing the product price like other options do. I'll have to test this some more. One thing we're trying to do is keep the user interface consistent. I have all the pages setup with options that are clickable images that all look the same. Making some one type and other another would look bad and not fit in, I'll try to figure out a work around.

I really wish the bundling worked correctly. I tried creating pages for each color option and then linking them to a options on a parent product but the parent product does not pull stock so it allows someone to buy something that has a stock of 0. Has anyone tried this method?

[RCH132]

So I tried adding the Warranty as a One Time Fee. As I thought, it does not reflect the price change on the product but adds a separate product to the users cart. Kind of a problem for a couple reasons. For one, I now have 2 'products' in my cart that are linked to each other(behind the scenes, not that you can tell by looking at them) and can not remove either as they are linked and generate an error when you try to remove either. That's a problem. Second, the One Time Fee shows as its own item in the cart and it not linked to the product. We could have and have had people buy more than one product with different warranties on each. This really need to be linked to the product and not its own product. When I change the warranty back to a radio option, it all seems to work but again, in the advanced options they are multiplied so we can not track stock on the actual color models we have in stock. Is there any other way to add an option to a product and tell the system it is not a physical product but a service so it does not effect the stock management?

[Shift4Shop-Henry]

Hi again,

Perhaps instead of the One time Fee option type, the checkbox one will be more suitable for you?
It allows the price to change based on selected option, and (in my testing) it works for a bundled item as well. When I went into the advanced options, only the color combinations appeared when using checkbox for the other two options. Furthermore, the generated order included the bundled item and removed it (the bundled item) from inventory.

Here is a screenshot of my test configuration.

http://images.3dcartstores.com/optioncombo_01.png

And here's how it looks on the store front

http://images.3dcartstores.com/optioncombo_02.png

The main downside I see to using the checkbox option type however is the fact that multiple checks can be selected at once (hence my label on the warranty to only select one). But other than that, it looks like this would be to get the functionality you're looking for.

I hope this helps further!

[RCH132]

Thanks for the reply. I was actually just testing the same thing and found the same issues. It is closer to what we need. This would allow us to manage the stock in the advanced options for just the color options. and allows the addition of other addons. I may be able to create some code to only allow 1 of the check boxes to be selected at a time. The only real issue I see with using the bundle kit item option, linking an option to another product, is that the stock does not update on the main product page. I tried this with three sub-products, 2 have stock and one does not. it still allows you to select and order the product that is out of stock when it should not. The availability message when the out of stock sub-product is default shows out of stock, but does not change when you select a color that is in stock? Is there a way to link the availability show on the product page to the actual stock level for the sub-products?

thanks again,
Bob