1. Ordergroove Knowledge Center
  2. Managing Customers and Orders
  3. Order Placement

Out of Stock FAQ

Updated

In this article we'll go through common questions asked about Ordergroove's Out of Stock (OOS) flow.

For an overview of order placement, including the out of stock process, take a look at Order Placement and Management. We also have an Order Placement and Management FAQ for general order placement questions.

 

Questions

How does Ordergroove’s Out Of Stock flow work?

Take a look at Order Placement and Management.

Does Ordergroove provide product replacement recommendations when a product is out of stock?

Ordergroove does not make specific product recommendations in OOS emails.

Can customers opt out of the OOS flow if they buy the product somewhere else?

Customers will have to cancel orders in the OOS flow through the Subscription Manager on the merchant’s site, or by calling a Customer Service agent.

How should my system identify an incoming order from Ordergroove?

If you are using an API for order placement, and it is being used exclusively by Ordergroove, you can add an identifier to all orders that come in via that endpoint.

Shopify will append a flag to the order to identify it as an Ordergroove order. To learn more about order tags, take a look at our article here.

If a product comes back in stock and places during the OOS flow, when will the next order place?

The next order will use the frequency of the original order to schedule its placement date. It will not apply the frequency on the date the order was placed during the OOS flow.

For example, if product A with a 1 month frequency is OOS at time of original order placement on August 1st and comes back into stock on August 15th, Ordergroove will place an order on August 15th, and place the next order on September 1st. This is because Ordergroove generated the September 1st order placement date before the August 1st order went into the OOS flow.

What happens when an instant upsell item is OOS at time of order placement?

If the instant upsell item is a subscription, it will go into the OOS flow. But if the IU item is one-time, it will not go into the OOS flow and it will be removed from the order.

Note: Customers will not be notified via email when a one time instant upsell item is OOS.

How is the free shipping threshold affected if an item in my order is OOS?

If the order qualifies for free shipping and goes under the threshold due to item(s) being OOS, Ordergroove does not charge shipping on the first order OR if/when the OOS item comes back in stock. This logic will only apply to merchants who have configured flat rate shipping with thresholds in the Ordergroove app.

For example, if an order contains multiple items that totals over the $49 free shipping threshold and one product is OOS at time of placement, the customer will not get charged separate shipping if/when the OOS item comes back into stock.

If one item in an order is OOS, can Ordergroove hold the entire order from placing in a specific timeframe?

No. At this time, no modifications can be made to the OOS flow, which is explained in more detail here. Ordergroove will break the OOS item(s) out of the original order and attempt to place an order for the remaining items. For the OOS item(s), Ordergroove will attempt to place an order every day for 30 days. After 30 days, Ordergroove will cancel the order.

How does Shopify's inventory settings affect Ordergroove?

Each product in Shopify has inventory settings to track the quantity, and allow you to continue selling when something goes out of stock. 

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Ordergroove will respect these settings:

Track Quantity

As long as Available is greater than 0, Ordergroove will reduce the quantity of every new and recurring subscription item as it is sent for placement. All order sources are included: recurring orders sent from Ordergroove, a customer going through checkout, an upsell, or a custom headless experience.

Once the Available drops to 0, or is negative, Ordergroove considers the item out of stock, our Out of Stock Flow Kicks in, and the order will not be placed - unless you have Continue selling when out of stock checked off.

Note: If Track quantity is not checked on, Ordergroove treats the product as always in-stock.

Continue selling when out of stock

Ordergroove will continue to send orders for placement regardless of the amount listed under Available. We'll continue to reduce the inventory past 0, but for all other purposes, we ignore available and treat the item as permanently in stock.

Technical Details

  • Ordergroove uses Shopify's APIs for our integration, and this is an asynchronous process; meaning we will continue to place orders until we hear back from Shopify. The updates from Shopify are usually instant, or within seconds, but a few orders may slip before Shopify let's us know the product is no longer in stock. Note: the out of stock updates are not tied to your daily product feed that is sent each night.
  • The API that we use to bill your customers does not look into or take Stock Availability into account.
  • There is no way to specify which Inventory Sources, or fulfillment center, inventory is taken from. Shopify will pull from any source where inventory is available when Ordergroove orders are sent for placement. 

Can I reserve stock in Shopify for upcoming subscriptions?

Not at the moment, there's no way to reserve or set aside inventory in Shopify for subscription orders. Ordergroove needs inventory in Shopify to place a recurring order. We recommended sending all of the subscription orders for placement before the item goes OOS.