Lack of stock control

[pluto]

I cannot believe I have wasted a weekend on this programme when it doesn't even provide a basic shop facility such as STOCK LEVELS.

I have phoned customer support and have just been told that basically when I am down to one in stock I have to sit and watch my site so that after that one is gone I have to remove the item from the site so no one else can buy it.............yeah right that's gonna happen.

I will now be taking my business to someone who can provide such a basic function as this without having to purchase a £300+ add on.

Pluto

[grantglendinnin]

Very well - not many ecommerce platforms do - all have their own sacrifices and this is one of Actinic's. Each to their own as they say.

[Darren B]

Bad weekend then ???

Actinic does not state is does real time stock control and is common knowledge.

[leehack]

Entry level software with a rolls royce engine - bonne chance, au revoir.

[TraceyHand]

I cannot believe I have wasted a weekend on this programme when it doesn't even provide a basic shop facility such as STOCK LEVELS.



perhaps you should have researched the 'specs' of the software more, prior to starting to use it then?

Actinic (Express/Catalog or otherwise) makes no claim to real-time stock control and there is plenty of information on this forum (which you obviously managed to find!) as to why that is.

[grantglendinnin]

On another note - we were quoted 10-12k for an all-singing, all-dancing system which included live stock control. In the end, we took the approach of offering the item online, if we do run out of stock, we contact the customer immediately informing them it is out of stock until X date and would they like to wait or be given a full refund. Can't be fairer than that without the need to splash out £9100-11000 more to get stock control built into the ecommerce platform.

[fergusw]

Entry level software with a rolls royce engine - bonne chance, au revoir.

or as I prefer:
Champagne taste buds on a Ginger Beer wallet

[leehack]

or as I prefer:
Champagne taste buds on a Ginger Beer wallet
LOL, I like that one.

[pluto]

Hello Defenders of the Realm

Far from having champagne taste on a ginerbeer wallet I am not asking nor expecting a full blown stock control system but just a very very basic level countdown so that I don't inconvenience my customers by selling them something I don't have in stock.

Maybe I should look more closely for things that are omitted from a features list but I was under the impression that a basic stock levels was a basic necessity of an ecommerce site (common knowledge).

Pluto

[guccij]

Which other ecommerce software did you research? Which ones offered stock control? How much did they cost in comparison to Actinic Express ? ;)

I suppose you could always count how many things you have in stock and, er, take one away each time you sell one. If you ever do.

[leehack]

Good afternoon attacker of the realm

Most people think that stock control is a very common requirement, the actual truth is that very few people use it. Main reason being that having a retail outlet with unified stock levels with a website on a few thousand products, is not very easy to do.

If you have one of a product left in stock and receive an order for it, as long as you download the order and then upload the site (to upload stock levels) and have stock monitoring on, it will get taken out of stock for you. You can run your own batch process to do this for you or you can buy some software from an external company to do this for you (not sure it's £300 though, very expensive if it is).

The auto upload and download feature should be standard in actinic nowadays without question though, the fact that someone has this already for sale is no excuse for such an omission.

[pluto]

Which other ecommerce software did you research? Which ones offered stock control? How much did they cost in comparison to Actinic Express ? ;)

I suppose you could always count how many things you have in stock and, er, take one away each time you sell one. If you ever do.

Errrrrrrrrr off the top of head:

1. STRATO
2. EKMPOWERSHOP

Both under £20

[pluto]

Good afternoon attacker of the realm

Most people think that stock control is a very common requirement, the actual truth is that very few people use it. Main reason being that having a retail outlet with unified stock levels with a website on a few thousand products, is not very easy to do.

If you have one of a product left in stock and receive an order for it, as long as you download the order and then upload the site (to upload stock levels) and have stock monitoring on, it will get taken out of stock for you. You can run your own batch process to do this for you or you can buy some software from an external company to do this for you (not sure it's £300 though, very expensive if it is).

The auto upload and download feature should be standard in actinic nowadays without question though, the fact that someone has this already for sale is no excuse for such an omission.

Thanks for the reply I was beginning to think I was being very unreasonable.

I am mostly frustrated because after a lot of research I chose Actinic because I liked the look of it (still do) but it has let me down on a very basic feature.

Pluto

[leehack]

Most people trade great SEO for decent stock control, but like anything, you need to find a package to suit your needs. The wallet needs to be the last part you look at in that equation for the best solution IMO.

[guccij]

1. STRATO
2. EKMPOWERSHOP

Both under £20

So there must have been compelling reasons why you chose the clearly (in your view) sub-standard Actinic Express. What were they?

[pluto]

So there must have been compelling reasons why you chose the clearly (in your view) sub-standard Actinic Express. What were they?

As already stated in my previous post, I like the look of actinic and I believe it has a good reputation. My only gripe at this point is that it is missing a major detail on an online SHOP.

Nice to see that (in your view) you need to jump to Actinic's defense which leads me to believe that it does have a good reputation.

Pluto

[grantglendinnin]

Honestly if I hadn't made a compromise with stock control and using Actinic and the only other option was either of your examples, I would of given up. Unless your strategy includes spending all of your money on advertising, I wouldn't touch either of them. No way Jose. You'd be at a greater SEO advantage if you used the most popular Open Source cart out-of-box, even then, that's saying something:rolleyes: I'm yet to find an ecommerce platform which offers better SEO than Actinic.

[Darren B]

Errrrrrrrrr off the top of head:

1. STRATO
2. EKMPOWERSHOP

Both under £20

hmmm not two packages i would go for, but eveyone to there own. Personally relying on a hosted service your tied into is never a good deal no matter how cheap you make it including express.

There are lots of hacks here and i am sure there is one that changes the max order qty to the stock on hand.

Mole end automated download upload plugin means you dont have to be around either.

but i still think from you comments that money is obviously the deciding factor in your decision. You say its not then moan that £300 is a lot :confused:

[TraceyHand]

I'm yet to find an ecommerce platform which offers better SEO than Actinic.


and this is the point, IMO

EVERY ecommerce website NEEDS good SEO
Not every ecommerce website needs stock control (and trust me, I am one of stock control's biggest advocates here, as everyone else knows!)

That said, I'm not sure how Actinic Express SEO compares with Catalog/Business. Whether it's comparable or not.

[TraceyHand]

can I just also add, I had assumed that Express DID have stock control seeing as it's working from an online database anyway.
The offline database has always been Actinic's "excuse" for no realtime stock control.
What is the reason for Express not having it then? Or is it purely a case of 'less development, less cost'?

[grantglendinnin]

Following on from Darren's comment, a certain Random River (http://www.randomriver.net/) have integrated this idea on one of their designs.

It shows the Stock Quantity on the product page directly below the 'add to cart' button, therefore the customer can't have too many complaints if they order an out-of-stock item as they should have read it.

[pluto]

Thanks for all the comments as many were constructive and have encourage me to have a rethink.


Maybe I shouldn't give up on Actinic just yet.


Pluto

[RuralWeb]

Im confused here - are we talking about Express or catalog/business?

Stock control I agree is a limiting factor in Actinics suitability for everyone but stock levels can be shown on the site and email alerts sent to the shop owner when stock is running low, regular site downloads will also maintain stock levels BUT if you are selling one off items then Actinic is NOT the software for you. I know several sites owners that have moved from Actinic because of these reasons, however they are now paying for that because they need to use Adwords to get traffic to the site.

So IMO its swings and roundabouts and you are doing the right thing in testing all the software out there as its all to easy to find out too late and then its even harder to change. If you are still considering actinic then beware that moving between Catalog/Business and Express is not easy so make sure you get the one most suited.

Also be aware that many of the other solutions are suffering from hacker attacks at the moment and thats far worse than missing stock control;)

[consciouspnm]

This site seems to have managed real time stock control in catalog:

http://www.itcsales.co.uk/acatalog/20__TFT_Displays.html

probably through the use of a scheduled upload/download.

[RuralWeb]

probably through the use of a scheduled upload/download
Yes - you can schedule updates using molend software which will also update the online stock levels

[grantglendinnin]

As Malcolm said, it'll be a hard days (and days, and days, and days) work in your shoes if hackers attack the online database. The Actinic/Mole-End combination seems a good idea, though we've adapted to not using a stock control system so don't want to mess with the system now:)

[RuralWeb]

I almost forgot - with this Rubbish (Actinic Catalog/Business) that you BUY rather than rent, you own the licence for the software which means that you can move your shop about from host to host. Now this may sound like no big deal but imagine you spend the next year building your website spending many hours on it. The credit crunch bites and your online provider goes bust - the result is that you will loose the lot or spend the following year trying to import your shop into a new system.

With Actinic however the site is always on your desktop and should your host go bust or put up thier prices etc you can simply move host and be selling again in hours.

[pluto]

Thanks for the reply Mal.

When using the word "rubbish" I was only referring to the Express Version as I have no knowledge of the catalogue or business options. I do see your point with regards hackers and I have taken your comments and a lot of other comments on board and as I have already stated, I may have been a bit hasty in my judgement.



Pluto

[RuralWeb]

I was only referring to the Express Version
OK - Im with you now. personally I have very little knowledge of Express TBH and have never recommended it although I have moved several sites from it to Catalog which is NOT easy.

Can I suggest that you download the 30 day trial of Actinics main product and try that as it will certainly give you more options and allow better stock options. Dont get bogged down with design just use the default store to check it does what you want. Actinic will give you some free hosting so you can get the site live and see it working.

[george]

The best you can get with Actinic re stock control is to have Catalog and the extra software from Mole End that regularly uploads and downloads your site, not being 100% perfect of course, but better than wakening up to the same single item ordered four times with payments for each order.

I can associate with the frustration that the lack of this key function is causing you.

Sadly, I have no idea if there are improvements being planned in this area but thats a story for another day.

[RuralWeb]

I have no idea if there are improvements being planned in this area
There are;)

[george]

There are;)

Cheers for the reply Mal, your answer is a good example of how Actinic can retain customers (ie someone looking for accurate stock control) from looking elsewhere, even if its just a `we plan to do this in the future` type statement, thus ticking another customers (abeit potential customers) box.

[grantglendinnin]

Cheers for the reply Mal, your answer is a good example of how Actinic can retain customers (ie someone looking for accurate stock control) from looking elsewhere, even if its just a `we plan to do this in the future` type statement, thus ticking another customers (abeit potential customers) box.

I plan to become a zillionaire. Doesn't mean it's going to happen:p

[rmorrow]

A solution is in progress.....
See this post:
http://community.actinic.com/showpost.php?p=265446&postcount=17

[pluto]

A solution is in progress.....
See this post:
http://community.actinic.com/showpost.php?p=265446&postcount=17


Thanks for the reply rmorrow,

I haven't jumped ship quite yet, still playing at the moment. Can you tell me if the plug-in will work with Actinic Express?

Thanks

Pluto

[grantglendinnin]

Thanks for the reply rmorrow,

I haven't jumped ship quite yet, still playing at the moment. Can you tell me if the plug-in will work with Actinic Express?

Thanks

Pluto
Actinic Express and Actinic Catalog are two completely different pieces of software - the plugin will no doubt work with one but not the other, presumably it is aimed for Catalog. It would probably require a complete re-write to be compatible with both.

[rmorrow]

I'm afraid I have no experience of Actinic Express and, yes, the plug in has been written for Catalog. It uses modifed perl scripts, whereas Express uses php and I'm guessing from earlier posts in this thread that it doesn't provide any means of entering stock data so, until that appears in the features list, I guess there's no solution. Interestingly, if it does become a feature of Express then you will automatically have online stock control, which is the very thing Catalog users have been crying out for all these years!!

p.s. sorry for hijacking an Express thread!

[Ratty]

I think auto stock control is not that important as there are very few businesses that will never take an order over the phone (or in the shop), and thus the computer count will be inaccurate.

[Dman]

Reading though these posts I realise why Actinic presents me with so many problems... it seems to be a listening problem. And I'm amused at how people rush in to defend its weaknesses rather than say - 'yes maybe that should be looked at'.

Live stock control is not some fanciful accessory - it should be a core feature.

LISTEN.... people (customers!) are telling you they need it. Really, guys this is not the first post I have read where someone says they needed a feature and found it missing, then immediately people have scotched their concerns with comments of how only the most bizarre shop could require this or that...

It drives me nuts and I feel that this is ultimately an attitude that could kill Actinic. I run two shops and I have built shops for others so I have found as have others that poor stock control creates problems.

YOU might not have a problem if:

You work from home and sit on your PC every day.
You never need to have time off or weekends.
You have few orders.
You have a few very forgiving customers.
You don't have employees who might damage the shop making changes.
You have few product lines.
You don't deal in perishable goods.
You don't have to wait for weekly deliveries (or less frequent).
You don't have customers cancel a valuable order because one item is unavailable.
You need peoples money so much that you will let them think they are buying something you do not have on your premises.

There are businesses where this issue IS important, and poo pooing someone who feels very disappointed that a shop system with years of develpoment (which have been partly funded with Cover subscriptions!) hasn't incorporated a feature many real businesses would need.

Systems like M@gent0 (yes the system here prefers to delete the proper spelling) offer many of the features I need and are flexible enough at their core to allow people to develop great feature and functions. I can get in there and make changes, and what is beyond the scope of my skills I can afford to have someone else look at... 'Oh shock & horror', pay for someone to fix a FREE system..? Yes, I would, as my Cover subscriptions didn't fix them in Actinic over the last few years.

My priorities are:
Staying in business
Running my business
Growing my business

I have no idea what Actinics priorities are, or if they will support any of mine in coming years.

Of course, you're all free to poo poo my post too :-)
If you want to keep us you'll have to *listen* guys... and that doesn't mean me paying £10 for coffee at your event!

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Real Time Stock Control has been confirmed to be included in the next version (v10).

It is feature that many people looking for ecommerce will be expecting to find in any decent modern package and has been lacking in Actinic.

For many it is not a feature that they can do without or do not want, for others it is just a 'nice to have' feature but to some retailers it will be very important if not crucial. Each shop is different and will have different requirements and priorities.


I agree that it is important that Actinic listen to its customers and need to be carefull they don't fall too far behind the competition regarding features, as a 'nice to have' feature today can soon become the latest 'must have' feature that everyone expects.


EDIT: Just realised this is in the Actinic Express forum which I know very little about, and do not know what is planned regarding stock control for the next version of Express.