how do you handle a preorder/advance order?

[traypup]

I may just be delirious at this point, but I'm not clear on how to handle a preorder or an advance order...where we can take payment for a product that's not released yet and then ship the order weith the product release.

Thanks!

[wolfsz]

Hi there
to my knowledge there's nothing in ZC to handle this. What we do is that in the description we clearly say when the customer can expect to receive the product and the order is processed in the normal manner. We leave the status in Pending/Processing until we actually ship. Since we take a lot of forward orders for certain products at certain times during the year we then keep these orders in a spread sheet for scheduling etc. and when we actually ship we print an invoice form our accounts system since there can be a lag of 2-4 months. When printing the invoice we change the status in ZC to dispatched.

[traypup]

Thank you SO much, wolfsz. That helps out a lot and I think my client will be ok with this solution. I appreciate your input.

Hi there
to my knowledge there's nothing in ZC to handle this. What we do is that in the description we clearly say when the customer can expect to receive the product and the order is processed in the normal manner. We leave the status in Pending/Processing until we actually ship. Since we take a lot of forward orders for certain products at certain times during the year we then keep these orders in a spread sheet for scheduling etc. and when we actually ship we print an invoice form our accounts system since there can be a lag of 2-4 months. When printing the invoice we change the status in ZC to dispatched.

[Redcinamn]

I created a whole new category for this in the store I work on. Then everything is separate and easy to manage on all count ..the product comes in and then move into the regular category. I am assuming we are talking clothes?

Need an example let me know :)
~Renee

[ronwong]

Hi, some shopping carts out there, have stock status on products like IN STOCK, SHIP IN 7 DAYS, or ON ORDER.
This is useful as certain items, we dont hold stock and need to order from manufacturer when order is placed. So in a Just in Time way.

Currently I put SHIP IN 7 DAYS in the text descriptions. But the stock count still has a number, so its not perfect.