Product monitoring is a function which makes it possible for end customers to get informed via email when a product is no longer in stock and when it will be restocked. The function requires that the store is configured so that products that have 0 in inventory balance are shown in the store.
In Merchant Center
In Merchant Center you can see information about product monitoring in two different places.
Products list
There are two columns about product monitoring: Active monitors and Total monitors. If you don't see these columns then you may need to cross them in by clicking on them in the colum options to the right in listview.
Active monitors - email addresses that are waiting to get mail about when a products is back in stock (independent of size level if it exists)
Total monitors - Total amount of email addresses that have ever been registered for monitoring on the product (independent of sizes on the product if they exist)
Costumer view
If an existing customer has active monitorings registered on their account then the information will be found in the box Monitors.
Automatic mail
When a products inventory balance is updated in Merchant Center and published in the store, a automatic mail will be sent out to the addresses that are Active monitors. If there are 20 monitors on one product and 10 pieces of the product comes in stock again, then mail is sent to the 20 people on the monitoring list. When mail is sent to them they are moved from active monitors to total monitors on the product.
- 1 email address can only exist 1 time in total monitors
- An email address that is monitoring doesn't need to be connected to a costumer in the system
- You can't see what size/type a monitoring applies to a product if it has it, it's only a total amount
- Total monitors never reset to zero
In the store
Example of functional use in store: On a product that doesn't include different sizes, a purchase button can be exchanged with a monitoring button on the product page which opens a form and the end customer can give their email address. If the product has different sizes and one of them is out of stock, then a monitoring link can be placed by the size choice on the product page.
Configuration
The function requires that the store is configured so that products that have 0 in inventory balance are shown in the store. How the function is used and looks is dependent on how the store is designed and built up.