After enabling and configuring the Back in Stock Notifications add-on, the processing of back-in-stock and price drop notification requests that shoppers can submit via the storefront becomes an important task for a store admin. Customer requests for back-in-stock and price drop notifications collected via the Back in Stock Notifications add-on can be found in the the store's Admin area. A store admin reviews the notification requests and either sends the notifications to the customers manually or configures a cron task on the server to send them automatically.
In this section:
Viewing Back in Stock Notification Requests
To view product notification requests in your X-Cart store Admin area:
X-Cart 5.5.x: Go to Communication -> Product Requests and make sure you are viewing the Back in Stock tab.
X-Cart 5.4.x and earlier: Go to Catalog -> Product Notification Subscriptions and make sure you are viewing the Back in stock subscriptions tab.
The notification requests are displayed as a list, and for each request on the list the following information is provided:
Product: The name of the out-of-stock product requested for replenishment. The name provides a link to the related product details page.
Customer: The email address of the customer subscribed for notification. If the customer has a registered account with your store, the email address provides a link to the respective customer profile page.
Qty: The quantity of the product being requested. The field is displayed if the option "Allow customer to specify the product quantity they want to buy" is enabled and the customer has specified the quantity they want to buy.
Date: The date of back-in-stock notification request submission.
State: The state of a back-in-stock notification request. Can have one of the following possible values:
Stand-by: The notification request has been submitted (This is the initial status for all notification requests).
Ready to send: The inventory has been checked to ensure that the request parameters are met, and a back-in-stock notification has been prepared.
Sent: A back-in-stock notification has been sent to the customer.
Back date: The date when the product stock level was replenished.
Sent date: The date when a back-in-stock notification for the product was sent to the customer.
At the top of the page there is a filter / search bar that can be used to narrow the list of back-in-stock notification requests based on a particular product name, a customer email, a date, or a state of the notification request.
Viewing Price Drop Requests
To view price drop requests in your X-Cart store Admin area:
X-Cart 5.5.x: Go to Communication -> Product Requests and make sure you are viewing the Price Drop tab.
X-Cart 5.4.x and earlier: Go to Catalog -> Product Notification Subscriptions and make sure you are viewing the Price drop subscriptions tab.
The notification requests are displayed as a list, and for each request on the list the following information is provided:
Product: The name of the product for which a price drop notification was requested. The name provides a link to the related product details page.
Customer: The email address of the customer subscribed for notification. If the customer has a registered account with your store, the email address provides a link to the respective customer profile page.
Price: The product price that the customer is prepared to pay. The field is displayed if the option "Allow customer to specify the price they want to pay" is enabled, and the customer has specified a price.
Date: The date of price drop notification request submission.
State: The state of price drop notification request. Can have one of the following possible values:
Stand-by: The notification request has been submitted (This is the initial status for all notification requests).
Ready to send: The inventory has been checked to ensure that the request parameters are met, and a price drop notification has been prepared.
Sent: A price drop notification has been sent to the customer.
Price drop date: The date when the product price dropped to the level expected by the customer.
Sent date: The date when the price drop notification for the product was sent to the customer.
At the top of the page there is a filter / search bar that can be used to narrow the list of price drop notification requests based on a particular product name, a customer email, a date, or a state of the notification request.
Sending Back in Stock Notifications
It is recommended to have a store configured to run scheduled tasks so that all back-in-stock notifications are sent automatically when the inventory level changes to meet the customer request parameters.
If automatic notification mailing is not set up, a store admin can check for product stock level updates and send the notifications manually. To do so:
Go the the list of back in stock notification requests in your store's Admin area and click the Check products button at the bottom of the screen.
That initiates a revision of all back-in-stock subscriptions with the Stand-by status to check whether the stock level of any requested product has changed recently. A store admin receives a notification if the revision is completed successfully. All back-in-stock subscriptions that meet the request parameters are assigned the "Ready to send" status.
Click the "Send notifications" button at the bottom of the screen.
That initiates the mailing of the notification and changes the state of the respective requests to Sent.
A store admin can delete any customer subscriptions for back-in-stock notifications that they no longer need. To delete a subscription, an admin needs to click on the Trash icon opposite the request that needs to be deleted.
Sending Price Drop Alerts
It is recommended to have a store configured to run scheduled tasks so that all price drop notifications are sent automatically when the product price changes to meet the customer request parameters.
If automatic notification mailing is not set up, a store admin can check for product price updates and send the notifications manually.
To do so:
Go to the list of price drop requests in your store's Admin area and click the Check products button at the bottom of the screen.
That initiates a revision of all price drop subscriptions with the Stand-by status to check whether the price of any product with an existing price drop subscription has changed recently. A store admin receives a notification if the revision is completed successfully. All price drop subscriptions that meet the request parameters are assigned the "Ready to send" status.
Click the "Send notifications" button at the bottom of the screen.
That initiates the mailing of the notification and changes the state of the respective requests to Sent.
A store admin can delete any customer subscriptions for price drop notifications that they no longer need. To delete a subscription, an admin needs to click on the Trash icon opposite the request that needs to be deleted.
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