I’d like to gather different opinions on the allow_backorders config setting, as it’s affecting certain tests. The setting is applied instance-wide and means that any and all items from any producer can be ordered even when they are out of stock.
Do any instances currently have it enabled? Should it be disabled by default on all instances?
@sstead @MyriamBoure You came across issues with this before?
I’m also curious on why this setting has been put at instance level and not at enterprise level.
I think it’s a Spree setting. It’s apparently enabled by default, which means nothing can ever be out of stock.
I think it would be a good idea to have it disabled by default as it has
tripped a few instances up in the past
Hum… this is a bit technical to me, @paco @Augustin do you know if it’s enabled or disabled on French instance ? I would say disabled as I think I tested the fact that you can’t order a product which is out of stock. I came accross some issues with stock management but I’m not sure it’s linked to that, it was more about variant prices that don’t update properly…
Backorders are disabled in Australia. I’m not sure why an instance would ever enable this.
If an enterprise wants to allow ‘back orders’ they would put a product to ‘on demand’. Yes, there is a slight difference (with back orders stock levels go into the negatives), but to me, having the entire instance unable to have stock ‘run out’ seems unhelpful.
I’m confused I think @sstead. So in Canada backorders is disabled. I’m an enterprise that sells strawberries every week - but its hard to predict what the harvest will be - and we ALWAYS can sell everything we manage to source. I can ‘guess’ at the amount - and then have to fiddle with orders if I’m short. Then I have to keep a hand written ‘list’ of the customers who need to be first to get berries the next week. I can’t put ‘on demand’ because they are a product in constant shortage. See my dilemna? Would back orders do this?
Hi @theresa the way backordres currently works, it wouldn’t solve this issue for you. Perhaps adjusting the way backordres behaves and having it toggled on/off on a shop by shop basis would be a future option. Here’s how it currently works - if the instance ‘allows backorders’, in all shops, if a product sells out (when set to On Hand) it remains in the shops, and the On Hand value goes into negatives as customers order beyond available stock. In your case it would be no different to if you set the strawberries to On Demand - everyone could order as much as they want, and you’d still need to manually remove them from some people’s orders and give them preference the following week. If ‘backorders’ was reconfigured to work as a flag saying ‘this customer has priority next time this item in in stock’ that might be helpful to you?
I should say this isn’t actually an existing case in Canada - but I can imagine it. I think it would be useful to configure backorders so that the hub manager is flagged as you suggest - but I wouldn’t say this is a priority. Gosh for us - our immediate priority is trying find some money so we can get the current version of the platform pushed through. That is a more immediate need. I hope the current resources we have will pay for that as well as contributing to some other feature development. PS - will I see you in Australia in December? You’ve been my ‘right hand’ through this - love to meet you.
Yeah, not a huge priority, but it’s good to hear your use case for future reference. Yes, I’ll be here in December, looking forward to meeting you too!