I am opening a retail (Brick and Morter) Store - Database Question

[milobloom]

I am opening a retail (Brick and Morter) Store

Now the only real experiance I have is online sales.

Would there be a way to handle inventory so that, If I sell item A
in my B&M store that I can have it also be updated in my online store.

I dont really know how to set this up. Perhaps a seprate program that can
upload the information to my zen on the fly with some kind of interface?

Any suggestions?

[Get Em Fast]

Are you talking about: Let's say that you have an inventory count 50 of Item A, and sell only 1, is there a way to have the store to lower your inventory to 49?
If so, then ZenCart already does that for you. It's built in. It updates the count on your store AND in your database.
If that wasn't your question, then please, just ignore this post.

[milobloom]

What I am thinking about is more like this

Total Inventory 50
Zencart Inventory.,,, Same 50

One sells from my Brick and Morter Store....
How does the zencart inventory go to 49.

Is there any interface that works with say a software product for
brick and morter purchases.

[Get Em Fast]

Oh, I see, Milo. By B&M, you're talking about a "Real" land based store, and not an online virtual store, right? To some people, B&M means ANY business that they build themselves, hence the confusion.
Let me see if I've got this right; you sell Item A (50) in a "real' store, at the cash register (down to 49), and ZenCart still shows your online customers (or, at least you) that you have 50. Now you're 1 short if an online customer buys all 50, because you don't have that 1. So, you want a cash register to deduct inventory from your ZenCart, when a purchase is made in the "real" store.

Right?

If you had a computerized cash register, I think you could do this by linking Databases, or something, but I just don't know. Sorry.

Maybe one of the DEV team will pick up on this thread, and be able to answer this VERY good question.

[milobloom]

Yea thats what I meant...

Ok well hope to hear something.

I dont know if I can use Quickbooks to manage inventory and then use that interface to upload and download back and forth. Where as I am sure that there would be a real cash register to interfasce with quickbooks.

The thing is. I dont know anything about either yet.

[filmfr3ak]

we're fixing to do this too...
The way I figure it is to just use a pc as the register,
and set up a customer as IN STORE
then ring them up logged in as INSTORE

so my inventory stays correct and so do my reports...
the only thing Im iffy on is how to set it so that the customer INSTORE (and ONLY that customer) can pay cash...

Did you get yours going or did you end up using QuickBooks?

[khopek]

I've had this problem for 2 years. The closest I got was for a friend to write me a program that would sync Microsoft POS to the Zen Cart Database. It wasn't real time, but all I had to do was open the Program and hit 'Sync.'

Then of course my computer crapped out and I have no idea how to get that program to work as my friend is the one that set it up in the first place

I just manually edit things on Zen Cart. Which sucks. I'll get orders for items that I don't even have anymore because I haven't been able to keep up with the editing.

[CoolCarPartsOnline]

I had a B&M store that I closed and had a POS software that will allow you to sync your database. I never used it since I had no online store. But I believed you would be able to sync your inventory. All you had to do is update your database everytime you sell something online or in the store or you could set it for a certain time.

But It can be done you should research some POS to find one that will work with Zen Cart Database.

[jaydee98273]

I'm not sure if anyone has found a solution to this, but it would be extremely helpful if such a thing were possible.

[Stuff4Toys]

Take a look at www.atrex.com POS/Inventory Management Software, they have a script that will sync your local and Zen Cart db on a regular basis.

JOhn ><>