Merchandise Inventory Management

[eluser]skunkbad[/eluser]
Still working on my ecommerce system, I'm at the point where I'd like to integrate some sort of basic check to make sure items can't be oversold. Perhaps a check of cart items and quantities just before the credit card gets sent for authorization, and if quantities are no longer available, the user would get redirected back to their cart with some sort of alert as to what has happened. I don't think it needs to be more strict than this, but wondering if this just sounds like a pain for the shopper, and if there is a better way to handle it.

Also, perhaps some items could be designated as oversellable / back-orderable ....

[eluser]CtheB[/eluser]
I think this is a pain for the customer, as well for the selling company.

If, during the ordering process, the item is sold out, you'll let the client know in the order email
that the item he or she bought is out of stock and give him some options:

- "We'll other the product again, this will take x extra days before delivering it to the client".
- If the product is not coming back no more, give the client the option to order a new version of the product.
- IF the product is not coming back no more, and the client wants no other version of the product, cancel the order and give back the money.

This is really a better solution, because you'll communicate on a personal level with the client.
The client feels he's being taken into account and that you think with him.

Not a stupid message on the website that the product you just want to order is not available anymore, while it was a few seconds ago.
People will not understand this and go to the concurrent instead.

If you want to hold the client you should get in touch with him and give him some opportunities.

[eluser]skunkbad[/eluser]
Well, I am thinking as a developer, and listening to feedback from clients. Refunding a credit card transaction actually costs the client money, so they are interested to keep refunds to a minimum. Also, if at checkout a customer selects priority overnight shipping, and their credit card is charged, and they don't check their email (the one that contains the notice that the product is not available), don't you think they will be steaming mad? I'm not saying you are wrong, but I'd like to hear how other people have handled this.

[eluser]CtheB[/eluser]
Yeah i just tell you how i handled this.

I think you could build in an option where it would be possible to do it.
It's not that hard to implement.

Do it like the following:

With every page refresh, look at the product id's from a client's shopping cart against the stock of the product inside the database.
If the stock is 0 and the product is marked as "pop up message if stock is zero and product is in shopping cart".

foreach(products as id)
{

select stock, message, title from products where id = $id

if(stock == 0 && message == 1)
{
message[id] = title;
}
}

the idea is simple and also fast. You only have to make it valid php and sql.
The hardest part is, how to bring the message to the customer.
Some nice jquery pop up box? Or just a redirect to another page. That's up to you.
You should implement them both and let the customer decide wich version he uses.