[Leader]

As I said in this post (http://forum.abestweb.com/showpost.php?p=506737&postcount=7) I'm putting up a poll to decide what to do with the out-of-stocks (OOSes). At this time of the year, the fall bulb season is winding down so there are going to be quite a few OOSes until it comes time to open the option of pre-ordering for *next* fall's bulbs.

I've been asked by a couple of people to leave those OOSes (the ones that I'm going to restock) in the feed, in order to maintain SE listings. But, I remember seeing posts on here in other threads (regarding different programs) that had people saying they'd prefer that out-of-stocks be deleted from feeds, to keep the output "fresh" looking.

So the poll questions are simple:
Keep 'Em In,
or
Dump 'Em?

[webmarm]

I voted Keep 'Em, but really mean "Turn over to Pre-order, dump the ones you're deep sixing for good".

[MichaelColey]

As long as you mark which ones are out of stock, there's no reason not to keep them in the feed. If someone wants just the in-stock items, they can use the flag.

Definitely delete the ones that one be coming back.

[Woz]

I have long been a proponent of an additional STATUS field in datafeeds where situations like this could be handled easily using standard and proprietary codes. For example,

IS = In Stock
OOS = currently Out Of Stock but still in catelogue
DEL = item deleted from catelogue, listing will be deleted from next datafeed

in this case, perhaps
SPRING = currently out of stock, still in catelogue, stock available again Next Spring
FALL = same but available again Next Fall.

This would enable affiliates to keep appropriate pages for engine listings whilst keeping potential customers informed as to expected availability.

Or am I being too complicated ???

[Leader]

This would enable affiliates to keep appropriate pages for engine listings whilst keeping potential customers informed as to expected availability.

Or am I being too complicated ???It may work for some, but I'm already using all my SAS custom fields.

There *is,* however, a different field for instock/out of stock status. So I can use that for the basic designation.

dump the ones you're deep sixing for goodI sure will...

[Mr. Sal]

Keep Out-of-Stocks in the Feed, or Dump 'Em?
Just use common sense!

We all know that the search engines may take a long time to index any new pages, so if you have an Out-of-Stock (petunias) or any other regular http://abestweb.com/smilies/bulb.gif's by January 2006, but you know that in a few months later you will have them back again, :shhh: just keep them on the datafeed for now, and let us just get those pages in the search engines somehow.

Sal.

[webworker]

I don't use feeds, but voted to keep them so your affiliates who do can keep their pages intact (with amended information) and maintain (or improve) search engine rankings and be ready when the goods are again in season without problem or delay.

[webmarm]

Woz's idea would have been good...

In stock/OOS status would still help. I'd need to change some copy that says "available now" to something like "available to order".

How far in advance can bulb orders be placed?

[Leader]

How far in advance can bulb orders be placed?
I'll probably do the changeover just after (USA) Thanksgiving, in order to have the option open by December, in the hopes that somebody'll think that's a good gift. Before anyone gets their holiday hopes up too high, though, I'll make a "fair disclosure notice": not too many people seem to buy outdoor bulbs for gifts [there isn't a big winter buying spike, judging from what I've seen with other bulb places...something about frozen ground seems to be a deterrant...], but I wouldn't want to turn away any orders, so I'll make sure they're *able* to.

As for actual ship times--After April, spring-planteds will be shipped as orders come in, and Sept. for the fall planted ones.

Closer to next fall's season, I'll refine the Fall-planted bulb offerings to more closely reflect the interest I've seen.

Woz's idea would have been good...True, but the problem is, I couldn't do it without deleting the categorization, which currently occupies those "custom" feed fields :( And most people seem to like to bury their detail pages under layers and layers and layers of cat.

[Woz]

Leader > There *is,* however, a different field for instock/out of stock status.

Is that field an open one or restricted to certain choices? If open that may solve the problem by using the different codes.

[Leader]

Is that field an open one or restricted to certain choices? If open that may solve the problem by using the different codes.

I knew there was a restriction here, but I had to look it up again to be sure just what. For choices, there's: instock, backorder, cancelled, and soldout.

I suppose "backorder" would come closest to the mark for those things that'll be available again later.

Thinking about it some more, I don't want to put "cancelled," or anything that means it, in the feed in such plain English. Customers seeing discontinued things (and knowing that they're discontinued--ie, they were duds) is anticonversionary; plus I don't want so much "backroom" info out in the open. So the total disappearance of an item from the feed will have to speak for itself, there.

As for the SPRING or FALL designation, I'll have to examine the current feed structure and see what I can do with that. There may be a way to get it into the current categorization (no guarantees though). But for now, it's getting pretty late in the m*rning, so that'll wait until a more reasonable hour...

[webmarm]

Oh, yowzers. Without some sort of way of categorizing them fall/spring I'd have to say ditch the OOS stuff. I was planning on having a totally different landing page for spring planting.

It gives me a good excuse to do a photo essay and plant my own bulb garden. ;)

I do use a lot of the fields in your datafeed (can't recall which ones off hand since I got lazy and didn't rename the fields so they are things like field1, field2...), so I am not complaining about the amount of information. Maybe the field that is all Garden (field11) could be Fall Garden and Spring Garden... not sure that would work. Just my 2 pesos.