Inventory Synchronization

The Order Manager allows merchants to synchronize inventory with multiple shopping carts.

Inventory synchronization allows you to make a change to the inventory quantity on hand (QOH) of an item (i.e., via adjustments, sales, receiving inventory, or importing orders) and then communicate those changes directly to your shopping cart(s) within 20 seconds. For example, if the Order Manager and your website both show 100 pieces in stock for a given item, and you receive an additional 100 pieces, the Order Manager will notify your shopping cart to add 100 pieces to the QOH value for the given product. Similarly, when you import orders from one shopping cart, the Order Manager will communicate the inventory changes to all other carts that are set up for tracking inventory.

Inventory synchronization should not be confused with the Send QOH To Web Store or Get QOH from Web Store buttons found on the Shopping Cart Functions form. Those buttons only push or pull the current QOH numbers to refresh either the website or the Order Manager. Those buttons should only be used occasionally to refresh numbers; they should not be used for real-time inventory management.

Carts that Support Inventory Synchronization

Please see the Shopping Cart Matrix to find out which shopping carts support Inventory Synchronization, (referred to as "Real Time Inventory").

Set Up Inventory Synchronization

Go to the Main Menu> Maintenance Menu> Maintenance tab>Set System Parameters button.
Select the Program parameter group.
Highlight the SynchQOH and set the parameter value to True. Click Save.
Click Close.
Click on the Main Menu> Quick Clicks> Create/Edit Shopping Cart button.
On the Shopping Carts screen, click Edit Cart. (If you have more than one cart, select a cart from the Current Carts List, then click Edit Cart.)
If your shopping cart supports inventory synchronization, the Synchronize Inventory check box will be visible in the upper right corner of the form.
Click in the Synchronize Inventory check box.
Enter the required cart ID, password, URL, etc. for your shopping cart in the designated field. (For more information, go to the Specific Shopping Carts section of the Knowledge Base and find the "Real Time Inventory Tracking" document in the section for your specific shopping cart.)
Click Save and then Close to exit the Shopping Carts dialog box.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES:

Failure to follow the instructions listed below can cause severe inventory management problems:

The Order Manager begins transmitting inventory changes immediately after a shopping cart is set up to synchronize inventory, so if you want to synchronize multiple sites, make sure the items that appear on multiple sites all have the same QOH.
Make sure that all outstanding orders have been imported.
If your cart retains inventory in the shopping basket (e.g. Miva), make sure all baskets are emptied PRIOR TO turning on this feature.

Inventory Synchronization and the Stack Controller

Adjustments or updates to your inventory quantities are recorded by the program and stored in a "Web Stack" before the "Stack Controller" sends all of the information waiting in the Web Stack to your website. For example, think of the adjustments to inventory quantities as pieces of data represented by cars waiting at a traffic light. The cars are allowed to proceed after the traffic light turns green. The Web Stack and the Stack Controller work the same way. For more information, see Stack Controller.

If traffic at that particular intersection is usually light, one lane is probably enough. If traffic is heavy, you may want to build additional lanes, i.e. turn lanes, to help traffic flow more smoothly and prevent back-ups. Similarly, if you use the Order Manager on more than one computer, you may want to set up a shared Stack Controller to facilitate faster communications between the Order Manager and your shopping carts. For help setting up a shared Stack Controller, see Setting Up a Shared Post Stack Controller.

Inventory Adjustments on the Website

Once you have set up inventory synchronization in the Order Manager, you should not make inventory adjustments on your website because these adjustments are not returned to the Order Manager unless you click the Get QOH from Web Store button on the Shopping Cart Functions dialog box. If you download the QOH from one website, click the Send QOH to Web Store button to send the latest QOH amounts to your other shopping carts; the Order Manager does not do this automatically.

Troubleshooting

If you sense that inventory adjustments are not being made on your Website, check the Web Stack for error messages. Look in the Attempts column of the first record in the Web Stack for the number of times the Stack Controller attempted to transmit the data. The reason the record could not be sent is listed in the Last Response. For further assistance, contact the Technical Support Department at Stone Edge Technologies, Inc. at support@stoneedge.com or (215) 641-1837, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday EST.