Wholesaling, or buying in bulk, on BigCommerce offers many rooms for business development concerning the enormous order size. However, opportunity always comes with challenges. Sometimes a customer wants to buy more goods than available in the warehouse whereas you’ve already set a certain inventory threshold. There are 2 problems arisen:
- How can the customer proceed with the order on a BigCommerce store? Note that not every consumer is patient enough to ask for further information. They are more likely to switch to another store that has enough supply. And you risk losing such a great deal.
- How do you manage to get enough stock to send them?
The ideal scenario would be to deliver a part of the order that is available at once while informing them that the rest will arrive later in the future.
The second issue can be solved easily should you maintain a strong supplier network. But you have to find a solution to allow your customer to place a larger order than available.
What should a wholesaler do?
Unfortunately, there is no native function in BigCommerce allowing for backorder. Yet there is a tip among store owners to deal with it. Specifically, they would put a larger amount of inventory in the store backend than their actual product quantity. For example, if you have 1000 stocks, you might add another 100 units so that you have a total of 1100 pieces. When the stock level goes below 100, you know that backorder is needed.
However, this might confuse your staff while keeping track of the inventory level. It also adds up to more tasks since you will have to manually include a backorder note in the invoice.
This is frustrating. But you can get rid of it now with Backorder.
The BackOrder solution
BackOrder is an automation platform that enables customers to buy more goods than available in a few clicks.
Once the app is integrated into your store, visitors will see a wish list under every out-of-stock product. All they need to do is place an order on this list. You’ll have to inform them about the potential delivery date and any issues along the way. You can also make them pay in advance or capture payment until the shipment is completed.
To do this, go to the BigCommerce marketplace, download BackOrder and follow the instructions.
1. In the BackOrder dashboard, go to the Product menu.
2. Select Assign under Action
3. Fill in all the required information
Note that once a product is assigned to backorder, the app will take over the inventory tracking. That’s why this function switches off in your store backend. Turning it on will withdraw the item from the backorder. So you’d better leave it what it is.
Once the setup is done, you’re free from worrying about your customer’s demand. Your store is ready to provide more goods than available and you can spend time on more impactful business activities.
We’re running on Free Forever Plan. Check out Backorder right away.
