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Re: Bookstore inventory - physical location and online location

Bookstore inventory - physical location and online location

quay-books
New Member
12 0 0

Hello,

When I sell books online via the Shopify system, my inventory of books is automatically reduced every time I sell a book.

Let's suppose, I have 20 copies of War and Peace. when a copy of War and Peace is sold online the inventory reduces to 19.

 

However, when a customer visits the physical location of my bookstore and buys a copy of War and Peace, I have to manually go to my Shopify online store and reduce the number of copies of War and Peace.

 

At the moment, I scan the barcodes of all the books I sell at my physical location and save them to an excel sheet. Then in the evening I go into my Shopify system and reduce the number of books one by one.

 

I think it should be possible to link my scanner to my laptop and reduce the inventory in real-time  as each sale is made.

My Shopify subscription is the basic one. It does not allow me to do this.

 Can anyone give advice as my inventory is not remaining accurate due to the cumbersome method which I am using?

Thanks,

Pat at Quay Books.

 

 

 

 

Replies 3 (3)

Leo_SuperCo
Excursionist
17 1 2

Hi Pat, 

Managing inventory is tricky at times, especially if you are doing it manually, as it consumes your time too much. I think you can do Shopify POS instead for your physical store to help you manage your inventory as well as your sales. This should answer your question about Shopify POS. Link to their Hardware store is also there to help you decide which one will be more efficient. 

Hope this helps!

 

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Hilary
Shopify Staff (Retired)
551 79 136

Hi, @quay-books

Thanks for the explanation of how you've been managing your inventory between your online store, and in person. @Leo_SuperCo has a great suggestion, have you ever looked into using Shopify POS? Thought I would expand a little more on it for you. 

Shopify POS syncs with Shopify to track your orders and inventory across your retail locations, online store, and other active sales channels. Download our Shopify POS app onto your iOS or Android device and process the orders directly from there. Since the orders are being processed through your Shopify store, inventory changes are automatic, just like when a sale is made through your online store. You can also view and manage your store's orders from the app.

Shopify POS lite is included in all Shopify plans, including the Basic plan. You can check out the features available here. There is also a video tour of the app on our YouTube Help Center, and a great POS FAQ page on our Help Center. 

Just so you know, you may want to purchase a card reader, otherwise you'll need to manually enter card numbers through the app. There is also other more specialized hardware available such as receipt printers, and barcode scanners. You can also use your devices camera to scan 1D and 2D barcodes, more about that here

What system are you currently processing your in-store transactions? Using Shopify POS would also mean using the payment gateway you have on your online store, are you currently using Shopify Payments?

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Jerry021
Visitor
1 0 0

I have also same issue please give solution for that.