Ordergroove places, sends your orders to your eCommerce platform, on a regular basis. This guide goes through your order placement settings and how to handle complications like out-of-stock and discontinued products.
Basic Out of Stock Management (OOS)
A process for how Ordergroove manages orders for items that are out of stock (OOS). If an order contains both OOS item(s) and in-stock item(s), 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.
- Customers will receive email communications on days 1, 15, and 30.
- If the customer subscription has a frequency of fewer than 30 days, the order will be canceled before the next scheduled subscription order date.
The subscription associated with an order canceled in the OOS flow will not be subject to cancelation — only the individual order containing the OOS items.
According to the chosen frequency, the next order for an item canceled in the OOS flow will be placed on its next order cycle.
For more information, take a look at the Out of Stock FAQ.
Discontinued Continuity
Discontinued Continuity — or Discontinued Silent/ Non-Silent — is when a product is discontinued, but a similar product will replace it in your catalog.
For example, beauty brands often have to discontinue products when there are packaging or minor formula changes. This will not affect the product as a whole but will require a new product ID and SKU. Instead of canceling the subscription, the merchant is given the option to swap the two products for the affected customers and can choose whether to notify the customer of the update via email. If pricing changes in both scenarios, the customer's subscription will reflect the updated price passed within the Product Feed on the customer’s Subscription Manager, CSA Dashboard, transactional emails, and within the order XML.
- Discontinued silent moves the customer to a new SKU without notifying them. The updated images and pricing for the new SKU will display in the Subscription Manager and transactional emails.
- Discontinued non-silent will notify the customer of the subscription change via a transactional email (if configured). The email will immediately alert the customer of the change and any new product details.
Note: Before discontinuation action begins, the product being discontinued needs to be marked as OOS and should be marked as auto-ship ineligible. If you do not mark the product as OOS before discontinuation, the update will fail. You can manage this within Ordergroove and your product configuration file. To access this tool, use the navigation bar to visit Products > Configure. On this page, you can download your Ordergroove Product Catalog configurations.
Combination Savings
Combine orders by defining a sensitivity (e.g., five days) within which the next order closest in date will be merged with the current order before placement on the e-commerce platform. This feature helps reduce shipping costs and will merge orders at the time of the Order Reminder email.
A maximum of two orders will be combined, and only if using the same shipping address and payment record. The order with the later ship date will be merged with the order with the nearer ship date. Take a look in Ordergroove under Settings > Shipping.
Inventory Forecasting
Using the on-demand inventory report available within Ordergroove, you can review a projection of future orders based on subscribers’ first upcoming order dates. The specified date range can extend to 90 days to assist with inventory planning and revenue projection.
Order Placement Hours
Ordergroove places orders daily into your e-commerce platform for all subscription records due based on their set frequency. You can select every hour or define specific hours in the day they want orders placed. Be aware that all times are in CST.
Common Questions
We have a few FAQ articles for common questions, take a look at:
- Order Placement and Management FAQ for general questions
- Out of Stock FAQ for OOS-specific questions