Merchant Solutions has a built-in inventory management system. It lets you set the stock level for any of your products, even products with options, such as apparel, which come in multiple colors and sizes. You can use the inventory management system regardless of whether you host your site in Store Editor or Web Hosting.

Once you set up inventory management, every time a product is ordered, its inventory level is reduced by the amount in the order. In this way, when you navigate to the Inventory page in Catalog Manager to check your current inventory levels, you can tell if you need to restock any items. The inventory management system can also:

• Send you an email alert when inventory for any item reaches a minimum threshold.
• Set the shopping cart to display the number of units available in inventory when a customer adds an item.
• Set the shopping cart to display a message when there are insufficient units available to fill the order. This also prevents the item from being ordered.

The inventory management system is not enabled by default. In order to get started, you must first turn on this option.

Turn on the Database Inventory feature

1. Sign in to your My Services page. 
2. Click the Store link.
   
3. Go to Configure Inventory.
   
4. Under Inventory Options next to Change Inventory Feature, select the Database Inventory radio button.
   
5. On the top-right or bottom-right, click the Modify Settings or Update button (The Modify Settings button only appears if your store currently has None selected). You'll then see the same page with extra options that are specific to the Database Inventory feature.
   
   
6. The inventory management system can send an email alert when any item quantity falls to an amount you specify. There are four email alert fields in the Alerts section:
   • Send Email Alert - With this pull-down menu set to Yes, the inventory management system can send email based on the settings in the other Alerts fields.
   • Alert Threshold - This is the inventory level that triggers an email alert. For example, if you have set the alert threshold to 10, the system generates a notification email when the inventory level for any of your products falls to 10. This email is sent at the time you specify in the Send field (described below).
   • Email To - This is the address to which the alert is sent.
   • Send - This lets you set the timing and frequency of inventory alerts. There are four radio button settings:
     • Daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST
     • Daily at 4 a.m. EST
     • Hourly
     • Immediately
   
7. Settings determines whether customers see an inventory message in their shopping carts, what type of message they see, and whether they're able to place an order for an item if its inventory level is 0.
   • Display Inventory Column - This pull-down menu presents three settings, which result in the three different shopping carts shown below.
     • No - The default setting prevents the shopping cart from displaying an additional column, In Stock. The In Stock column provides the customer with immediate information about item availability.
       
     • Yes with Quantity - This setting displays the In Stock column, so the customer can see the exact number of units available.
       
     • Yes with Availability - This setting displays the In Stock column, so the customer can see simply whether the item is available or not.
       
   • Quantity Can Exceed Availability - This pull-down menu has two settings:
     • No - The default setting. If an item has an inventory level of 0, when the customer adds it to the shopping cart, the following message is displayed:               Note: Requested quantity not available for some items at this time.
     • Yes - A customer is allowed to order an item that has an inventory level of 0.
   • Default Inventory Quantity - This pull-down menu has two settings that determine what happens in the shopping cart when a customer adds an item that doesn't contain Quantity data on the Inventory page:
     • Infinity - The default setting. The inventory management system treats the item as if it were in stock. The item can be ordered, even when the Quantity Can Exceed Availability field is set to No.
     • Zero - The inventory management system treats the item as if it were not in stock. The item cannot be ordered when the Quantity Can Exceed Availability field is set to No.
   • Add contact message if unavailable - This pull-down menu has two settings:
     • Yes - The default setting. When an item is not available, a message will be displayed to shoppers informing them that the item is unavailable and instructing them to contact you. (Message text: The (item) is not currently available. Please contact us for availability of this item.)
     • No - When an item is not available, a message will be displayed to shoppers informing them that the item is unavailable. When this option is selected, the message will not instruct shoppers to contact you. (Message text: The (item) is not currently available.)

     Note: In order for the inventory email alert and settings to function, you must set up your inventory data.

   
8. When finished, return to Store Manager and publish your Order Settings.
   

See Also:

• Using the real-time inventory feature