Turn14 Distribution can accept backorders on many of the items it distributes. This article explains how X-Cart’s Turn14 integration lets you offer those backorders to your customers directly on your storefront — with quantities managed automatically from the Turn14 feed and orders fulfilled through the standard Turn14 quote flow.
Overview
For many Turn14 items, orders can still go through even when Turn14’s warehouses are out of stock — either because Turn14 is receiving new units on a known ETA, or because Turn14 regularly stocks the item and will backorder it without a firm date. Both are legitimate ways for you to sell an item that isn’t sitting on a Turn14 shelf right now.
When the “Use Turn14 backorder” setting is enabled in your Turn 14 integration, X-Cart:
Reads the backorder signals Turn14 provides in its feed for each item
Automatically populates a dedicated Backorder warehouse under the Turn 14 supplier
Shows the “Available for backorder” label on the product page for eligible items
Confirms actual availability at checkout by requesting a live quote from Turn14
Your local Backorder warehouse (under “My store”) is unaffected for products that are not from Turn14. For Turn14 products, it steps aside while Turn14 backorder is enabled — see Interaction with the local Backorder warehouse.
Requirements
Before you enable Turn14 backorder, make sure:
Your store runs X-Cart 5.6.0.18 or higher
The Turn14 Distribution integration is installed and connected — see Connecting to Turn14 Distribution and initial setup
Turn14 product data has been imported at least once (backorder quantities are populated during regular imports)
If your store is on X-Cart 5.5.x, backorder from Turn14 is available as a legacy behavior and is not controlled by the settings described here.
Enabling backorder from Turn14
Backorder from Turn14 is controlled by two settings on the Turn 14 integration page.
To open the settings:
In your admin, go to Catalog → Catalog Import → Settings.
Select the Turn 14 tab.
Scroll to the Backorder section.
You’ll find two new controls there:
Use Turn14 backorder: A simple on/off toggle.
Off (Default) — nothing changes. Your local Backorder warehouse (under “My store”) continues to work as before for all products, including Turn14 items. The Backorder warehouse under Turn 14 is not created.
On — X-Cart creates a virtual Backorder warehouse under the Turn 14 supplier. On every regular Turn14 import, X-Cart populates the quantity of this warehouse for each Turn14 item that meets the backorder conditions (see the next section). Once the quantity is above zero, the customer sees the “Available for backorder” label on that product page.
Turning the toggle on doesn’t require any additional action from you — the Backorder warehouse and its quantities appear after the next Turn14 import.
Important: Your local Backorder warehouse under “My store” becomes read-only for Turn14 items when this toggle is on. It continues to work as usual for products that aren’t from Turn14. This ensures Turn14 items are managed through the Turn 14 supplier itself, not through a locally-edited warehouse.
Non-ETA backorder qty limit: A numeric field that becomes editable when Use Turn14 backorder is on.
Some items in the Turn14 catalog are regularly stocked by Turn14 but currently have no incoming shipment with a known ETA. Turn14 will still accept backorder orders for these items, but without promising a delivery date. The Non-ETA backorder qty limit setting is how you tell X-Cart whether — and how much — you want to make available for backorder on those items.
Enter 0 if you don’t want to offer backorder for items without a confirmed ETA. Only items where Turn14 has a guaranteed ETA will become available for backorder.
Enter a number greater than 0 (for example,
10or50) to allow backorder on these items with that quantity as the limit. The same number applies to every qualifying item — you don’t set it per product.
Choose a value that reflects how much risk you’re willing to take on items with an uncertain delivery date. A small number keeps things conservative; a larger number gives you broader coverage but relies more on Turn14’s ability to fulfill without a firm date.
The value takes effect on the next Turn14 import.
How backorder is activated for a Turn14 item
For each Turn14 product, X-Cart looks at signals in the Turn14 feed on every regular import and decides whether the item should appear as available for backorder — and if so, how many units to make available.
The rules apply only when Use Turn14 backorder is on. Here is what happens for each Turn14 product:
If Turn14 has units on the way with a known ETA (technically, a positive “Available to Promise” value on any of Turn14’s four warehouses), the Backorder warehouse quantity is set to the sum of those units. Your customers get a backorder that comes with a real ETA behind it — Turn14 already knows when the shipment is expected.
If Turn14 doesn’t have units with a known ETA, but marks the item as regularly stocked — and you’ve set Non-ETA backorder qty limit to a value greater than 0 — the Backorder warehouse quantity is set to your Non-ETA limit. The customer gets a backorder without a promised delivery date; Turn14 will restock and fulfill when they can.
If Turn14 doesn’t have units with a known ETA, the item is regularly stocked, but you’ve set Non-ETA backorder qty limit to 0 — the Backorder warehouse quantity is 0 and the item does not appear as available for backorder.
If Turn14 doesn’t stock this item regularly and has no incoming units — the item doesn’t qualify as backorder at all. This kind of item is handled by the separate “Direct from Manufacturer / Special Order” feature; see Additional stock states from Turn14.
When does the quantity get updated?
Backorder quantities are recalculated on every regular Turn14 import (typically hourly, according to your import schedule). Between imports, quantities can go out of date. The final, authoritative check happens when a customer reaches checkout — see How backorder orders are placed.
What happens if I turn “Use Turn14 backorder” off later?
On the next Turn14 import, the Backorder warehouse under Turn 14 is emptied and hidden from the admin. Your local Backorder warehouse (under “My store”) returns to normal editable behavior for Turn14 items.
How backorder appears in your admin
When Use Turn14 backorder is on, the product Inventory section (Catalog → Products → open a product → Pricing & Inventory tab) shows a new row under the Turn 14 supplier for each eligible product:
The row is labeled Backorder and appears alongside the four regular Turn 14 warehouses (Hatfield, Arlington, Whiteland, Reno).
The quantity is read-only and comes from the last Turn14 import. Hovering over the field shows a note: Managed by Turn14 — quantity is set automatically based on Turn14 feed data and the Non-ETA backorder setting. Updates with each scheduled import.
At the Turn 14 supplier level (the top row of the Turn 14 section), you’ll see a Backorder enabled badge next to the total quantity.
For products that are not from Turn14 or that don’t currently qualify for backorder, this row does not appear.
What your customers see on the storefront
For a Turn14 product with backorder available (that is, when the Backorder warehouse under Turn 14 has a quantity greater than 0), your customer sees:
The familiar Available for backorder label on the product page, in the same spot where the “In stock” label normally appears (when the item is out of stock at Turn14’s warehouses) or alongside it (when there is also in-stock inventory somewhere).
An active Add to Cart button — the customer can add the item and proceed to checkout as usual.
There is no separate approval step, no waiting screen, and no additional acknowledgment required. The customer’s experience is intentionally close to a normal in-stock purchase, with just a different label.
How backorder orders are placed
When the customer reaches checkout, X-Cart requests a live quote from Turn14 for the Turn14 items in the order. Turn14 responds with the real split — how many units it will ship from which of its warehouses, and how many will go on backorder.
The customer sees the actual availability and shipping options on the checkout page, based on Turn14’s response — not on the older, feed-based numbers shown on the product page.
Backorder shipments appear as separate shipments in the order details.
In the admin Orders section, each order shows its shipments as returned by Turn14, including backorder shipments where applicable.
Because the quote is live, small differences between what the product page showed and what checkout confirms are normal — the quote response is the authoritative source. In the rare case that Turn14 cannot fulfill an item (for example, a discontinued SKU or an issue with the shipping address), checkout displays a message asking the customer to remove the affected item and try again.
Interaction with the local Backorder warehouse
X-Cart already has a general-purpose Backorder warehouse (provided by the QSL/Backorder module), shown under the My store supplier in the product Inventory section. It continues to work exactly as before:
For products that aren’t from Turn14 — the local Backorder warehouse is editable and behaves as it always has.
For Turn14 products, while Use Turn14 backorder is on — the local Backorder row becomes read-only for those specific products. This prevents you from accidentally maintaining two backorder sources for the same Turn14 item. Turn14 items are handled through the Backorder warehouse under the Turn 14 supplier instead.
When you turn Use Turn14 backorder off — the local Backorder warehouse returns to editable behavior for Turn14 items as well.
Frequently asked questions
Q: I turned the setting on. Why don’t I see backorder quantities yet?
A: Backorder quantities are populated on the next scheduled Turn14 import, not immediately. You can wait for the next import cycle or trigger a manual import from the Turn 14 settings page.
Q: Why doesn’t the “Available for backorder” label show on all Turn14 products?
A: Only products for which Turn14 provides one of the backorder signals (a confirmed ETA on the incoming shipment, or a “regularly stocked” flag) qualify. Products that Turn14 doesn’t stock regularly and has no incoming units for are not eligible for backorder — they fall under a different feature. See Additional stock states from Turn14.
Q: Can a customer order more than the backorder quantity shown?
A: No. The customer’s cart is capped at the total available quantity — Turn14 in-stock plus the Backorder warehouse quantity. If they need more, they can wait for the next import (when Turn14 may have updated numbers) or contact you.
Q: Does the quantity shown to the customer always match what Turn14 confirms at checkout?
A: Not always. The product page shows the last known numbers from Turn14’s feed; between imports, Turn14 may have allocated some of those units to other stores. The quote at checkout is the definitive answer. If the numbers don’t match, the checkout adjusts accordingly and the customer sees the updated shipping information there.
Q: What if the customer’s order includes both Turn14 backorder items and items from other suppliers?
A: X-Cart’s order routing handles that as usual. Items from your local warehouses, Keystone, and other integrations are distributed according to your Order Routing rules, and the remainder for Turn14 items goes into a single quote request to Turn14. Turn14 returns its own split, and the resulting shipments (in-stock and backorder) appear in the order alongside shipments from your other suppliers.
Q: Do I need to configure anything on the Turn14 side?
A: No — the “Use Turn14 backorder” setting works with the standard Turn14 integration. There are no additional permissions or portal settings to change on the Turn14 side to enable this.
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