limit items available per day (fresh produce long lead time)

[mrspiggybakes]

Hi there,

I've been exploring the delivery options but not sure its giving me what I need. I would like to be able to set up in advance eg 5 of each product available on each delivery day over the coming month.

Demand seems to be high so when I go live I don't want a hundred orders overnight, but 5 booked in for wed, 5 booked in for fri, and so on so I know exactly how much stock I need and how long to factor in for delivering. 

I started off putting item in the service so it could be timed.. but now in the menu type thing! They're gingerbread houses by the way, if that helps..

Thank you

[Sam_400º]

Hey @mrspiggybakes, I'll give you the bad news first and say outright that this isn't something POS or site can do. 

It's quite a specific user case, although the way you describe it shows that it could be useful to a lot of different trades! 

It's a difficult one, as you can't even really use stock levels as people will be ordering for different days at different times. 

The only way I can think of handling this right now is a very manual one! Where by you adjust (turn on and off) the delivery day for that week when all the slots are filled up, so when you have your 5 orders for Wednesday you uncheck it so the next available slots will be on Friday. 

[mrspiggybakes]

People would order 1 item now and pick their delivery day between now and christmas - could the delivery day be the product?

Where do I set the delivery days otherwise? thanks

[Sam_400º · Accepted solution]

Are you doing local delivery or using postal 'shipping'? 

I guess that could be a way to do it, so have:

Item - Gingerbread House
Variation - Delivery Day [would need to be the variation, not a modifier so you can add stock control]
Modifiers - any extra options you offer. 

Or, as you say you could just have the delivery date as it's own item - but this wouldn't stop 5 orders each containing several products.

[mrspiggybakes]

oh ok thank you.. I thought maybe if the category was for each delivery day there would be a way of limiting stock items within that 🤔. Thanks again for the reply.

[Sam_400º]

Unfortunately you can’t stick control by category.

Another way of doing could be to have a text box modifier with a ‘requested delivery date’ & maybe even a ‘2nd choice delivery date’. 

if you’ve got the info on your site about when you deliver along with any fully booked dates as they fill up then people can utilise that. 

something I’ve noticed during the covid year is that customers have become far more adaptable than we’d have ever expected. They seem to understand that we’re all working within limitations that in the end it works out best for them. 

At the end of it all, you’re hand crafting bespoke items - no customer is going to mind an extra email or two with the amazing producer for a delivery date!