Inventory Control, How does it work?

I will not name names, but there seems to be a universal issue when it comes to esk8 vendors and stock status. I do e-commerce for a living and I am constantly finding online stores that practice zero inventory control.

What is inventory control? Lets use shopify as an example:

In shopify, you can tell the site you want to list X for sale

then

Shopify asks you how many you have, lets say you have 10

then

Someone buys 8 of X

then

Your inventory is now 2 and the item is still listed as "in stock"

then

Someone else buys 2

then

Inventory level is now zero.

then

You as the vendor have three options:
1: List it as “out of stock”
2: List it as “on backorder”
3: Leave it as “in stock” and keep selling.

Too many vendors are going with option 3. I understand why you do it, you want to make sales. Well, it is annoying and leads to mistrust.

“Maybe I won’t buy “X” because it’s probably not actually in stock.” is something I’ve heard from others in this community.

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About time someone mentioned this.

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I feel like on backorder is the best middle ground because if I see that as a customer I would still highly consider buying it just because I know “more are coming”

Similarly if I really want the product and it’s listed as out of stock, but with a restock date, I’d consider waiting.

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Fully agree with this.

My general view is that vendors should only sell things they have ready to ship. There a few exceptions but generally, if you don’t have it in hand then don’t put it in stock on your website.

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Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for the write up! This is the exact reason I’ve stopped ordering from TB. Did that to me once, held an entire order for over a month because one item was oos.

I’d say battery packs or full boards about the only ones, but I think most people understand that type of thing is generally custom made. Personally I won’t accept a pack sale I don’t have the cells in hand to fulfill.

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Do people do this? :flushed:

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I used to when I knew I’d always be able to get cells. I just kept a constant order schedule. These days, not possible.

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Oh yeah, before the Panasonic

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Agreed on all counts.

Both on the stock status points, and on the fact that I have 500 P42a cells left and like 300 P28a.

Selling stuff I don’t have breeds anxiety, and I’m no longer about that life.

Funny though, a guy I’m building a board for got proper pissed today about this exact thing. He made some good points, but I stressed that the vendor of the trucks/mounts was trusted and worth the wait.

However it’s hard to argue. So I too am glad this was brought up, I don’t have the courage to articulate this myself.

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We probably spoke to the same dude lol he seemed really pissed but I told him the same thing you did about it being worth the wait

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Yeah it’s definetly the same person. I straight up went off on him because he said something that pissed me off

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I also know who you’re talking about, I saw the salt on social media, stupid for sure.

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