Insufficient Stock message not showing up in cart

irishracing31:

I understand you are trying to be the voice of my customers. I appreciate the input.
Let me give you an example of my business products.
For one of the racing classes (1/8 scale buggy) there are probably 30 different tread patterns for tires.
The 30 different patterns come in at least 4 different rubber compounds.
That equates to 120 different tires people could buy.
Their choice depends on the type to dirt the track they are racing at is made up of.
I can't afford to stock 120 different tires in quantities of each.
So I put up several of the most popular tires/compounds on my website and track which one gets viewed the most.
I understand I will lose the sale for stuff I don't have in stock.
But if they view the detail page, I get a tally in the Product Viewed report.
If, say 10 tire/compound products are viewed way more then the rest DING DING I know to stock them.
I understand what and WHY you are doing what you are doing.. However, your logic in this is still counter-intuitive. Your process assumes that because someone VIEWED a page that there is interest in purchasing the product they viewed.. and there may be some truth in this, but the fact that they viewed a product only to find out it's not in stock will not lead them BACK to your site when the product IS in stock.. Which means you are GAMBLING on there being another racer who IS interested and will buy this product once it is in stock..

I get it.. So let me put it to you like this.. As a drag racer, I know that when I need tires, that no one store is the only game in town.. So if a store doesn't have the Drag Radial tires I need/want for my next race, I WILL be off to the next store that does have them in stock. If I find that any store routinely does not have what I need in stock, then I will simply stop visiting that site.. My described behavior is not different than your site visitors..

What I am suggesting here is that your strategy is not a great long term plan at all.. Have you considered a different model?? A dropship model is what is more commonly used for your type of business.. In a dropship model, your customer orders the product from your site, and you then place the order direct with your vendor who you can then direct to ship the product directly to your customer.. You can even work with your vendor to "white-label" ship the product so that the customer doesn't get access to your suppliers direct..

irishracing31:

I have looked in the forums and all the suggestions don't work. My file trees never match what people use as examples. So please explain stuff in the most complete and simple terms.and you are really gonna have to provide some examples of what it is you say you HAVE tried 1st before anyone else lobs any suggestions at you..

@irishracing31
In addition to DivaVocals suggestion about drop shipping, another option that one of my clients uses is to enter the items as a 'Pre Order' product (which is just a little bit of text they insert at the beginning of the products description).

They also include this as a part of the description itself

PLEASE READ:** THIS PRODUCT IS A PRE-ORDER PRODUCT**
Pre-order products are items which we have available but are not in stock.

Delivery time is between 7 and 21 days. We try and make sure pre-order products are delivered to you asap.

If you combine pre-order products with our usual in-stock items in your order, then your order will not be sent out until we have all of the items in stock. We recommend if you want to order both in-stock and pre-order items, put through two separate orders if you want to receive the in-stock products quickly.

In some rare instances, the supplier may sell out of the item before we can order it. If this happens we will contact you and offer you a refund or you may exchange it for another item.

The store gets a LOT of orders for these 'Pre Order' products (probably just as many as the products they have in stock).

I reckon this could be the best option if drop shipping isn't available or possible. It doesn't piff the customers off by taking them to a page that simply says 'out of stock', and it is quite clear that many customers don't mind the wait, and since these Pre-Order products are easy to identify in the store then there's no nasty surprises, and you'll stand a better chance of making a sale this way than you would with a simple 'Sold Out' message and no estimated time for re-stocking.

Just another option.

Cheers
RodG

RodG:

@irishracing31
In addition to DivaVocals suggestion about drop shipping, another option that one of my clients uses is to enter the items as a 'Pre Order' product (which is just a little bit of text they insert at the beginning of the products description).

They also include this as a part of the description itself

PLEASE READ:** THIS PRODUCT IS A PRE-ORDER PRODUCT**
Pre-order products are items which we have available but are not in stock.

Delivery time is between 7 and 21 days. We try and make sure pre-order products are delivered to you asap.

If you combine pre-order products with our usual in-stock items in your order, then your order will not be sent out until we have all of the items in stock. We recommend if you want to order both in-stock and pre-order items, put through two separate orders if you want to receive the in-stock products quickly.

In some rare instances, the supplier may sell out of the item before we can order it. If this happens we will contact you and offer you a refund or you may exchange it for another item.

The store gets a LOT of orders for these 'Pre Order' products (probably just as many as the products they have in stock).

I reckon this could be the best option if drop shipping isn't available or possible. It doesn't piff the customers off by taking them to a page that simply says 'out of stock', and it is quite clear that many customers don't mind the wait, and since these Pre-Order products are easy to identify in the store then there's no nasty surprises, and you'll stand a better chance of making a sale this way than you would with a simple 'Sold Out' message and no estimated time for re-stocking.

Just another option.

Cheers
RodG
Great suggestion Rod.. Either model will work.. In fact the text you suggest could/should be used in the drop ship model as well.. The point here I think with either suggestion is that the OP needs to MAKE sales.. What you and I suggest will do JUST THAT.. Otherwise in his current process, he will constantly be the proverbial tail wagging the dog if he manages stock based on product views only.. IMHO this is a gamble that assumes if 10 people look, then 10 people will come back to buy.. What I think the OP will find is that 10 people will look, find that the product they want isn't available, and then 10 people will go buy someplace else.. They might even tell their fellow racers ('cause racers DO love to talk) not to bother with the store where what they want is not in stock..