Stock status on multiple item display page?

[Tonearm]

Has anyone experimented with including or not including a message like "In Stock" or "Out of Stock" on a multiple item display page? I haven't done any A/B tests, but I've been switching back and forth for the last few days without anything too conclusive.

I'd like to include the information unless it ends up hurting sales.

[sun818]

I would definitely include it. I also like to include a time stamp (last update) to indicate page freshness. You might also include a status of "almost gone" so buyers have a reason to make the purchase immediately. The number of "in stock" items should outweight the of "out of stock" items. Who wants to filter through a bunch of "out of stock" pages?

[antirack]

Including this info will also help cutting down overhead with emails of customers who were not clearly informed about the shipping status.

[beautykat]

We have added a "Tell Me When Its Available" form link to those "Out of Stock" products. The return potential of the customer is not great but at least we did not lose the customer. If they are willing to leave an email contact, they must be some interest on their part.

Though we are not exactly sure about adding quantity. Anyone has some take on this?

[sun818]

Quantity is tricky. How many do you have on-hand and how many is available for you to purchase just in time? (Just in time is purchasing the product after customer places the order). If you only state the quantity you on hand, that might turn away buyers that want a bigger quantity than what you have on the web site.

Other web stores, will specifically state how items are in different warehouses and what their shipping time is (same day, within 24 hours, within 48 hours, etc).

[Tonearm]

beautykat-

Do many people use that feature?

[sun818]

Along the same lines, how many use and how many convert to sale. A buyer might sign up for in stock notification, but if they have already purchased elsewhere, it not a great selling tool.

It can also be a way for your competitors to keep a tab on you.

[beautykat]

I will put the conversion at about 10%. Response rate is dependent on which "Out of Stock" product it is. One thing we have not tried, is sending a promotional code together with the availability email.

We have also found out that response rate is higher for products that are not available elsewhere, which obviously makes a lot of sense. Customers would be shopping elsewhere for a product that they cannot find at our website.

How will this information be useful for our competitor? Care to shed some thoughts on this.

[jwurunner]

Hi all!
Very interesting topic. We have spent many hours debating this where I work.

Here is our problem. We carry around 10,000 items of which 2,500 we stock and the rest are "drop shipped". Of the drop shipped items usually 75% are in stock but the rest are special order.

We haven't figured out how to properly display the status of the dropship items being that the inventory quantity can vary daily. Any ideas?

Thanks

[beautykat]

jwurunner,

Happy New Year! Whether to show the quantity or not are dependent on 2 variables, the product and your customers. Does it bring value to your customers?

Here's how we see it. If the product is fast moving, showing the quantity helps to push sales and customers will be somewhat "forced" to make a timely decision.

If the product is slow moving, ie... not popular or too much competition, showing the quantity may not be a good idea. You do not want your customers or competitors to know that you have a lot of slow moving products.

If the product is out of stock, we leave an option for customers to leave us a contact and we will notify them when the stock is available. The reason for this are, to get in contact with customers, assess demand and increase conversion when the stock is available. This can also be termed as "Permission Marketing".

Hope this helps.... we are still in the process of fine tuning our methodology.

BeautyKat

[Tonearm]

Kat,

Do many people use the stock notification feature?

- Grant

[andy_boyd]

Very interesting subject,

Does anyone have any firm evidence that showing stock status for the item improves the conversion rate? We don't currently show it, but I am thinking seriously about adding it. My reasoning being as follows:

1. If they see it is in stock, that's one less hurdle to jump.
2. If it is out of stock, at least they know what to expect *before* ordering. I believe it would also build up trust and credibility.

I think that not showing stock status is more damaging than showing no stock info at all. What are your experiences?

[jsinger]

I think stock status can hurt sales on some products. We're frequently out of stock but we can usually get inventory within a few days. For our products, most customers don't mind waiting.

We merely state that we generally ship immediately or within a few days. We also ask 'rush' customers to phone for stock/delivery status; and few do.

Heck, when you look in a mail order catalog you can't determine stock status.

[sun818]

> We're frequently out of stock but we can
> usually get inventory within a few days.

You see with some web stores, they have a "backordered" status with expected date of delivery. I don't have a backend system this sophisticated. But if I were able to keep track of inbound inventory, I would definitely publish the information on the web store.

[beautykat]

Tonearm - we have found out that customers uses the notification system more often for products that is not available elsewhere. Shopper obviously went to a different website when the product is unavailable.

If we have a rough estimation on arrival of product. I think that this system will complement with another that shows "when the product will be available".

[andy_boyd]

jsinger,

We're in a similar position ... a lot of our products are ordered on demand, and arrive with us inside a couple of days. Our sources are reliable, so maybe it would be ok to go ahead and put an estimated ship date on the site?

I'm just curious if anyone has evidence to suggest that doing so will increase the conversion rate.