1. Assign products to BackOrder list

To allow selling products even when they run out of stock, you’ll need to first assign the products you want to the BackOrder products list. 

There are 3 ways for you to assign products to this list.

Important notes:

Once a product is assigned to the BackOrder products list, BackOrder will keep track of its inventory, instead of BigCommerce. That means the inventory tracking status on BigCommerce will be turned off during this time. See the notice here:

backorder Important note 1

Based on the default logic of BigCommerce, the assignment of BackOrder will be done on product level.

backorder Important note 2

Once a customer places a BackOrder for a product with qty = 1, the current stock on the Products page will be shown with a negative number qty = -1.

backorder Important note 3

Once you receive more supplies of products or simply just want to update the current inventory, you can update the new stock through one of these 4 ways:

Once you finish updating the inventory, you’ll see the products’ inventory synchronized seamlessly and in real-time to the BackOrder.

Products in the BackOrder list always keep their inventory data synchronized properly, however, to ensure this, you can also do the manual sync for inventory data here:

backorder Important note 4

1.1. Assign products one by one
Step 1: Go to the Products tab, you’ll see 2 sub-tabs All Products and Assigned Products
backorder Assign 1 by 1 - 1

Step 2: Go to the All products tab first, you’ll see the list of all products pulled from the BigCommerce catalog and other products’ details
backorder Assign 1 by 1 - 2

  1. Search bar and Filters: you can search for specific products and filter products in the list based on Visibility, Availability and Assigned status.
  2. Product, SKU, Visibility, Availability and Current stock: the original products’ details pulled from BigCommerce catalog.
  3. Assigned to BackOrder: status of a product whether it’s assigned to the BackOrder products list or not.
  4. Action: includes Assign and Unassign. You use Assign to assign a specific product to the BackOrder product list and Unassign to unassign it from the list.

Step 3: You click the Search bar and search for product you want > then click Assign label on the same row
backorder Assign 1 by 1 - 2
Step 4: A BackOrder Configuration pop-up will be displayed for you to input BackOrder product’s details > Input the information you want > Save
backorder Assign 1 by 1 - 4

  1. Current stock: the original current stock of products that you have
  2. BackOrder threshold: the maximum number of BackOrder products that customers can place on your website
  3. Salable qty: the maximum number of products that can be purchased from your website which is calculated automatically and equal to the total number of Current stock and BackOrder threshold.
  4. Incoming stock: the number of items that will be back in stock on a specific date
  5. Back-in-stock date: the specific date when the incoming stock is received and added to the current stock.

1.2. Assign products in bulk

Step 1: Go to the Products tab, you’ll see 2 sub-tabs All Products and Assigned Products

Step 2: Go to the All products tab, you’ll see the list of all products pulled from the BigCommerce catalog and other products’ details.

Step 3: Select multiple products by clicking the checkboxes > click Bulk Assign button to assign all/some products to BackOrder list in bulk

backorder Bulk assign 1

Step 4: You’ll be redirected to the Bulk Assign page > input product’s inventory and assign products per your want > Click Save

backorder Bulk assign 2

1.3. Import products

Before importing, make sure that the products must not be assigned to the BackOrder products list previously.

Step 1: Go to Assigned Products tab > Under Import dropdown, select Import to assign more products to BackOrder option

Import to assign 1

Step 2: You’ll be redirected to the page to choose your import file

Import to assign 2

Step 3:  Input inventory data for the products you want to assign in the CSV file as below

backorder Import to assign 2

NOTE:

Step 4: Back to the Import page, you just need to click Choose file > Select the file you’ve prepared > Click Upload file > Finish

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2. Edit products on BackOrder

When you receive more supplies of products or just simply want to adjust the products’ details, there are also 3 ways for you to edit a product’s inventory in the BackOrder:

2.1. Edit product one by one

Step 1: Go to Products tab > Assigned Products > You click the Search bar and search for the product you want to edit. 

Step 2: Under Action column, click Edit

backorder Edit 1 by 1 - 1

Step 3: A BackOrder Configuration pop-up will be displayed > you can edit the product’s information here > click Save.

backorder Edit 1 by 1 - 2

The new products’ data will be edited and displayed properly on the Assigned Products page.

backorder Edit 1 by 1 - 3

2.2. Edit products in bulk

Step 1: Go to the Assigned Products tab > select multiple products by clicking the checkboxes > Click Bulk Edit button to edit all/some products in mass 

backorder Bulk edit 1

Step 2: You’ll be redirected to the Bulk Edit page > edit the product’s inventory per your want > Click Save 

backorder Bulk edit 2

2.3. Import products

Step 1: Go to Assigned Products tab > Under Import dropdown, select Import to update assigned products option.

Import to edit 1

Step 2: You’ll be redirected to the page to choose your import file

Import to edit 2

Step 3: Input inventory data for the products you want to assign in the CSV file as below:

backorder Import to edit 2

NOTE:

Step 4: Back to the Import page, you just need to click Choose file > Select the file you’ve prepared > Click Upload file > Finish 

You can click the checkboxes to overwrite data before importing.

3. Setting

3.1. Theme Setting

Theme is a crucial part of setting up your BackOrder as it will affect the storefront setting later. To avoid any unexpected behavior or wrong message on your storefront, please select the correct theme that is currently used for your store in our theme collection. 

BackOrder Theme setting

NOTE:

3.2. Product Page Setting

As a store owner, you can customize the backorder description via storefront setting. Please note that all the description settings are optional and customizable. If you do not want to show a certain description on your storefront, simply delete the text inside that field. 

4.2.1. Inventory Description

Inventory Description includes:

backorder Inventory description

4.2.2. Shipping Description

Shipping Description will be displayed under the Add to Cart button when the product is out of stock and available for backorder. 

If you want to show back-in-stock date (if any) on Product Detail page, simply tick the box right below.

backorder Shipping description

4.2.3. Add To Cart Button

When the product is out of stock and available for backorder, you can customize the “Add to cart” button with the text and color of your choice.

backorder Add to cart button

3.3. Add To Cart Action

The BackOrder app has 2 messages that can be shown to your customers when they click add to cart with backorder items. 

backorder Add to cart action

3.4. Cart Page Message

The Cart Page message will be displayed on the Cart page to alert customers that the product is being backordered.

backorder Cart page message

3.5. BackOrder Message

The BackOrder message will be displayed on the note of the backorder along with the products being backordered.

backorder Cart page message

4. Unassign products from BackOrder list

Unassign products can be used when you need to assign new products to allow automatic backorder instead. Please note that once a product is unassigned, the app will no longer take over its inventory tracking and your customer can not buy more than what’s in stock.

4.1. Unassign one by one

To unassign a product from BackOrder: 

Step 1: Go to the Products page > Under the Assigned Products tab, search for the product you want to unassign. 

Step 2: Click on the Action box to unassign the product. 

BackOrder Unassign one by one 1

NOTE: 

                 (1) Track inventory of the product – let BigCommerce track inventory of the product.

                (2) Make the product not purchasable on the online store – disable the product on your online store. 

BackOrder Unassign one by one 2

4.2 Bulk unassign

To unassign multiple products at one time:

Step 1: Under the Assigned Products tab, select all the products that you want to take off BackOrder. 

Step 2: Click on Bulk Unassign action to remove those products from the app in one go.

BackOrder Bulk Unassign

NOTE: A pop-up message will show up when you click on the Unassign action as the app will no longer control the product inventory. Please note that this is an optional field. You are not required to:

(1) Track inventory of the product – let BigCommerce track inventory of the product.

(2) Make the product not purchasable on the online store – disable the product on your online store.

5. BackOrder Report

BackOrder report

With BackOrder report, you’re able to view all of the back-orders at the product level – meaning that if the order includes 2 backordered products, it will be displayed as 2 different records in the table, includes the following information: 

You can easily keep track of all backordered items by:

  1. Searching for product name/ product SKU 
  2. Filtering by order created date/ product category/ product brand.
BackOrder report

6. Frequently Asked Questions

6.1. Functionality

How does the app work?

To put it simply, BackOrder allows your store to continue selling products after the quantity reaches zero. To make a product purchasable when it is out of stock, you need to assign that product to BackOrder.

What happens when a product is assigned to BackOrder?

When a product is assigned to BackOrder, inventory tracking of that product will be disabled in BigCommerce. This’s for the purpose of making the product purchasable when it is out of stock.

If inventory tracking of assigned products is disabled in BigCommerce, how can I manage inventory of these products?

Depends on where you manage your product inventory. Please refer to Inventory Management section below.

What happens when I enable inventory tracking of a product in BigCommerce?

When a product is assigned to BackOrder, its inventory tracking is disabled.

After that, if you enable inventory tracking of that product on BigCommerce, the product will be unassigned from BackOrder (which means it will not purchasable when out of stock anymore).

How will my customer be aware that a product is being backordered?

You can customize your storefront to alert your customers that the product is being backordered. Storefront customization can be found under Setting tab.
1. You can customize the inventory description displayed on the Product Details page.
2. You can add a shipping description under Add to Cart button to let customer know that the product will be shipped later.
3. You can change the “Add to Cart” button with the text and color of your choice.
4. You can add a message to Cart page to alert customer about the delay in shipping as the product is backordered.

I don’t see the storefront customization for backordered products work properly. Anything wrong with it?

Your theme might not be supported yet. Please email us at support@gritglobal.io and we will figure this out.

6.2. Inventory Management

5.2.1. If you manage product inventory in BigCommerce:

How can I manage inventory for assigned products?

There’re multiple ways to manage inventory for assigned products:

1. Manage product inventory in BigCommerce:

You can update product inventory in BigCommerce using Import function. Those updates will be synchronized properly to BackOrder.

2. Manage product inventory in BackOrder:

When there’s an inventory update in BackOrder, will those updates be synchronized to BigCommerce?

No. Inventory will be synchronized from BigCommerce to BackOrder whenever there’s an update in BigCommerce, not vice versa.

5.2.2. If you manage product inventory in IMS/ ERP:

Our inventory is currently managed by IMS/ERP. How will BackOrder, BigCommerce, and our IMS /ERP system work with each other?

Your IMS/ERP is still the single source of truth when it comes to inventory management.

Any updates from your IMS/ERP to BigCommerce will also be synchronized properly to BackOrder. Below is how it works:

1. Inventory’s updated in IMS/ ERP
2. Those updates are synchronized to BigCommerce through the integration between your
IMS/ ERP and BigCommerce
3. BigCommerce fires a webhook for any inventory update
4. We capture those webhooks and update to BackOrder

What happens when I update inventory level of a product in our IMS/ERP?

As long as the update is synchronized to BigCommerce, it will also be synchronized to BackOrder.

When there’s an inventory update in BackOrder, will those updates be synchronized to our IMS/ ERP?

No. Inventory will be synchronized from IMS/ ERP to BackOrder, not vice versa.

When a product is assigned to BackOrder, inventory tracking will be disabled in BigCommerce. Is it possible to update inventory from IMS/ ERP to BigCommerce then? Where the data will be stored?

Data can still be updated from your IMS/ ERP to BigCommerce even when inventory tracking is disabled.

Although you cannot see it in the control panel, it’s stored in BigCommerce database and we get it through API calls.

6.3. Pricing

Is there a limit on the number of products that can be assigned to BackOrder?

The number of products that can be assigned to BackOrder is limited according to your subscription plan. We provide 4 plans so that you can choose the one most suitable for your business.

How will I be charged?

We offer a free plan forever with 1 assigned product. If you need to assign more products to keep selling when they are out of stock, please select a paid plan.

You will be charged a subscription fee corresponding to your selected plan for each billing cycle.

How do upgrades and downgrades affect my billing?

When you upgrade, you will be immediately charged a prorated amount for the partial billing cycle period that you are going to be using the new plan. Also, the number of assigned products will be expanded to you immediately.

When you downgrade, you will retain your old plan until the end of your billing cycle. At that point, you will be moved to the new plan.

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