We are a medical supplies company and have over 1000 products for sale in stock. We also have another 1000 or so products ( it can be variants of the 1000 in stock or completely unique) which we order in and supply to the customer if a customer places an order on us. The latter scenario is usually for items that have low ongoing demand and will fulfil an unique customer need (i.e. the customer needs that specific item) and we source it to for them.
This is slightly different to pre-order for a new product launch as we do not intend to hold those products in stock in the foreseeable future (unless ongoing demand can justify holding in stock) . It is more akin to a make to order process where a customer first commits the requirement and then the product is made / sourced for the customer.
Hoping to hear from Shopify / Shopify users who have successful managed such a business process.
Hi @RoshR I am not sure if I get you right or not, but according to my understanding you need a Enquire now or may be some personalized custom button in place of direct add to cart or buy now button.
If I am correct then please let me know.
If you want to achieve this then you need to add the custom code so that all those product will show your customized button rather than the normal add to cart or buy now or pre booking button.
If you need I can assist you in adding the same, Please feel free to ask the same.
Hopefully it will help you. If yes then Please don’t forget hit Like and Mark it as solution!
Thanks for your response. That may not be quite what we are after.
When setting up a product it is possible to “track inventory” as a standard Shopify process - this is suitable for all items we hold in stock.
But we have another set of items that we do not hold in stock but would like to list on our online shop. The customer should see it on our store but be aware that this is something that will be ordered in on request and supplied to them based on the customer order. Ideally the order button for the customer should read something like “special order - delivery in x weeks” as opposed to the standard order button “add to cart”
There are Pre-order apps out there but I am hoping there is another solution as pre-orders are not exactly what this is about
Glad that I am able to understand you, so the set of products that you don’t hold has a predefined price rates or it also depends on some factors i.e. the prices are not fix?
Wondering why I am asking it: Because if this is the case then you can add the button on the product page that will lead them to contact us page or a form or on email so that they can enquire about the product i.e. the exact product price, Delivery estimates, estimated delivery dates. And you can provide all the details about that product to the customer.
Also in this case you can add a Whatsapp button as well, so that customer can easily reach to you with their enquire.
Don’t have quantity in stock basically on demand product
For this Shopify product admin has provided the option of track inventory please uncheck it, their is another option of selling out of stock inventory check it too.
Now you will able to sell both product with inventory and without inventory.
You would required to do custom code where you want to show days of delivery thing.
As far as the solution, I like the idea and I assume that Shopify can handle products both in inventory and not in inventory at the same time.
The customer should be made aware that a product being considered for purchase is an on demand product and therefore has a different standard for lead time. Can you elaborate a bit more on the custom code part? At what level is the code considering we would have several hundred products in this category?
Also, I was hoping that there is a standardized solution available considering that having products that are brought in on customer demand is pretty standard business process in many retail stores (e.g. furniture, gates etc.)
