How can I Control my Store's Inventory?

There are several ways of controlling inventory within your console. One way is to configure settings on a storewide basis. The other is to change inventory settings on a per item basis. This guide will give you a step-by-step process for managing your inventory, as well as options for customizing inventory management for your online store. It will also show you how to import/export product information.

General Storewide Settings
The first step in our process is to enable the store's Inventory Control settings which will track your product inventory and determine the various actions that occur when an item's stock reaches 0. This setting is usually turned on by default, but in case you need to revisit the setting, we'll describe it here.

Log into your Online Store Manager go to:

1. Go to Settings > General > Store Settings.

2. Once there, click on the General tab. Find "Inventory Control" towards the right.

3. Check the Enable Inventory Control checkbox.

4. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes.

The store will now be set to keep track of the store's inventory stock.

Below the enable checkbox, you will have the following radio buttons which will allow you to control what happens to a product when its stock reaches zero.

Choose 1 of the following options:

• Hide Items
  When the item stock reaches zero, items will be hidden from the storefront and will not be able to be seen at all by the shopper.

• Show as "Out of Stock"
  When the item stock reaches zero, items can be seen on the storefront, but they will be visibly marked as being out of stock. Furthermore, the add to cart buttons will be removed from the listing page display to prevent anyone from ordering the item

• Allow Back Order
  When the item stock reaches zero, items can be seen on the storefront but they will be visibly marked as being on "Back Order." Add to cart buttons are preserved and the items can be ordered, allowing you to ship the item(s) to the shopper when stock is replenished.

• Use Waiting List
  When the item stock reaches zero, items can be seen on the storefront but they will be visibly marked as being "Out of Stock." However, rather than an "Add to Cart" button, the listing will have a "Put me on the Waiting List" button that allows the shopper to sign up to be notified when the item is re-stocked. Click here for more information on using this feature.

Additional Information
With the exception of "Hide Items," these settings in the Store Settings section will act as global settings for the entire store. Please note however, that they can also be set on the individual product level as well.

Hiding items can also be done on the individual product level, however it is more of a manual checkbox option rather than automatic when the item reaches zero.

Per Item Settings
You will use per item settings if you want to make inventory management changes to specific items rather than to all products in general.

Change Inventory Control

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Locate the product that you'd like to make changes to* and click on its ID, Name, or look to the far right of it and click on its Action > Edit button.

3. Once you're in the product's Information tab, scroll down to the "Inventory Options*" section.
4. Look at this section's "Inventory Control" drop-down menu and set your option here.

Your settings in the Inventory Control drop-down are similar to the global settings discussed earlier, except that they will affect only the specific product that you are working with at the moment. To recap, the settings are:

• Default
  When the item stock reaches zero, the item will follow whatever the global setting (in store settings) is set to. For example, if the global setting is to hide out of stock items, setting the product to default will follow this rule.

• Out of Stock
  When the item stock reaches zero, the item can be seen on the storefront, but will be visibly marked as being out of stock. Furthermore, the add to cart button will be removed from the listing page display to prevent anyone from ordering the item.

• Back Order
  When the item stock reaches zero, the item can be seen on the storefront but it will be visibly marked as being on "Back Order." Add to cart button is preserved and the item can be ordered, allowing you to ship the item(s) to the shopper when stock is replenished.

• Use Waiting List
  When the item stock reaches zero, the item can be seen on the storefront but it will be marked as "Out of Stock." However, rather than an "Add to Cart" button, the listing will have a "Put me on the Waiting List" button that allows the shopper to sign up to be notified when the item is re-stocked. Click here for more information on using this feature.

Stock Alert
The stock alert function will send you an email when an item gets low in stock.

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Locate the product that you'd like to make changes to* and click on its ID, Name, or look to the far right of it and click on its Action > Edit button

3. Once you're in the product's Information tab, scroll down to the "Inventory Options*" section.
4. Look at this section's "Stock Alert" field which is found to the right of the "New Stock" field.

5. Enter the number that you would like to trigger the stock alert email.
6. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes.

The stock alert feature will automatically send you an email notification when the product falls below the number entered into the Stock Alert field. In other words, if you write a "2" into this field and save your settings, the store will email you a notification when the item's inventory falls to 1.

Update the Stock Number
There are two ways to update the stock number. You can do this by going into the item itself and changing the stock number. You can also see a list of all your products at once and change multiple stock numbers simultaneously.

To change by item:

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Locate the product that you'd like to make changes to* and click on its ID, Name, or look to the far right of it and click on its Action > Edit button.

3. Once you're in the product's Information tab, scroll down to the "Inventory Options*" section.

Within the Inventory Options section, look for the "Current Stock" label. This will show the item's current inventory.

Additional Information
There are a couple of notes to be aware of as to how the Current Stock is displayed.

• Number
  The actual number itself will be a link that will take you to the item's Product Stock Update Report.
  This report will show you the item's stock history including orders for the item as well as updated made to the product.

• (+n On Hold)
  Sometimes, the current stock will be displayed with a number, followed by (+n On Hold) where "n" is another number. This intends to reflect how much of your inventory is available for purchase.
  
  For example, you may have 4 units of the item on hand but 3 of them have been ordered and those orders still need to be processed.
  
  In this case, the store will display current stock as "1 (+3 On Hold)" to show you that - although you physically have 4 items in your warehouse - 3 of those items are tied to unshipped orders. Once those orders are shipped, the current stock will remove the (+n On Hold) label.

To continue with updating the current stock:

4. Look towards the immediate right of the "Current Stock" section and you will see a field labeled "New Stock."
5. Use this field to update* the Current Stock number.

To update multiple stock numbers at the same time:
You also have the ability to update stock for multiple products at once.

1. Go to Products > Inventory.

This page will provide you with a list of all of your products (up to 150 at a time). Each product will be listed with its ID, Name, QTY field and a "Hide" checkbox.

4. To update multiple item stock at once, enter the updated amount in each product's "Qty" field. If you'd like to hide items en masse, click the Hide checkbox for each item that you'd like to take off display.
5. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes.

Manage Stock Numbers for Products with Multiple Options
You also have the ability to track inventory for individual item options if needed. For instance, let's say you have a sweater that comes in multiple sizes and colors.

As far as the store is concerned, you may have 25 units of the product available. But the store doesn't know how many of the items are red/small or blue/large. It only knows that you have 25 units of the product on hand.

This is where Advanced Options come into play. With it enabled, you can manage the stock numbers of each variant of sweater for that product so that the store then knows exactly how many units are red/small or blue/large, etc.

For more complete information on using Advanced Options, please click here and here. For the purposes of this article, we'll discuss how to set your advanced option stock numbers.

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Locate the product that you'd like to make changes to* and click on its ID, Name, or look to the far right of it and click on its Action > Edit button.

3. Once you're in the product's Information tab, look towards the top of the page and click on the product's Options tab.
4. While viewing the product's options, look towards the top right of the page and click on the Actions button.
5. Select Advanced Options.
6. Check the Enable checkbox next to each product. Note: Even if you do not sell a particular option combination, you must still enable it and enter '0' for the stock number so customers cannot purchase it.
7. Type in the Code, GTIN, Stock number, Weight, and Cost of each product.
8. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes.

The store will now track inventory for the item as normal, but it will now take into account the individual option quantities when tracking.

Import/Export Product Inventory Information
Export:

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Look to the top right of the page and click on the Export/Import button.

3. On the left side of the page, click on the +Icon next to Inventory.

4. Click on Export Data.

5. Once the export is completed, click on the Download button.

This will create a CSV file of your current products and inventory. The file itself will contain the following column headers:

• ID
  This field is required. It is the unique product id (SKU or Part Number) of the product.

• Name
  This is the name of the product.

• Stock
  This is the stock (Quantity On Hand) of the product.

You can edit this file and import it back to your store to update product inventory as needed.

Import:

1. Go to Products > Product List.

2. Look to the top right of the page and click on the Export/Import button.

3. On the right side of the page, click on the +Icon next to Inventory.

4. Browse to your edited file.

5. Click on Import Data.

This will take the edited file and upload its data to your store, thereby updating your store's inventory for the products.