You can set Cloud Commerce Pro to re-order goods from your suppliers automatically using the auto purchase order feature.
To do this you need to change a setting in your product page or change the settings in bulk by importing the data.
This guide will take you through the steps of setting auto purchase orders in bulk via a spreadsheet.
For a guide on setting auto purchase orders manually, click here.
1. Admin Centre
Click “Products” from the Admin Centre.
2. Product Range – Exports
Click “Exports” from the Product Range page.
3. Product Exports
When working with imports and exports, it is important to ensure you are using the most up to date information possible. Always make a fresh export when making changes.
Click “Export Products” to start compiling all of your products ready for export. The progress will be shown below with the latest export appearing at the bottom of the list. When the export is ready it will display as “Complete” in the status field.
Hover the mouse over “Actions” beside your export and click “Download Spreadsheet”. Open your spreadsheet to continue.
4. Spreadsheet
When importing data it is best to use a fresh spreadsheet to ensure the integrity of the data.
Open a new blank spreadsheet along side your exported one before copy and pasting the headers from one to the other.
Locate the products you want to edit, usually with CTRL+F and search on the SKU code if you know it or a keyword from the product name. Copy and paste them over to the new spreadsheet.
There are five columns we need to be aware of when editing auto purchase order details:
1. VAR_AutoPurchaseOrder - This selects the purchase order type. There are 6 options which can be selected using the numbers 0 to 5. You only need to follow steps 2 to 4 below when selecting order type 4.
0 = Off – No auto purchase order.
1 = Auto If No Stock – Create a purchase order when the product goes out of stock.
2 = Always – Create a purchase order each time the item is sold.
3 = Dropshipped – Automatically email your supplier with details of customer orders that you wish them to dispatch on your behalf. This option also requires an email template configuring. Speak to your project manager for further help on this option.
4 = At Stock Quantity – Configure the stock level when you want auto purchase orders to be created as well as how much of the product to order. This function is explained in more detail below.
5 = When Needed To Allocate – Create a purchase order when an item is out of stock, but has orders waiting.
2. VAR_PurchaseOrderAtStockQuantity - This is the stock level at which you want a purchase order creating. For example, if you want a purchase order to be generated when a product’s stock level reaches 5 or below, you would simply enter 5 in this column.
3. VAR_PurchaseOrderMaxStock - This determines the amount to be ordered once the lowest value is reached. For example, you could enter 20 in this column if you want the stock level of an item to go up to 20 after a purchase order is generated. If the “order at stock” level was set to 5 as above, the system would generate a purchase order for 15 of the product in order to bring the total back up to the desired 20.
4. VAR_PurchaseOrderStockType - The order stock type is set to 0 by default which represents “max”. This is the only option, so this column should be left untouched.
5. VAR_PurchaseOrderBoxQuantity - Here you can set the exact quantity that will be in each box from your supplier.
Once you have made all the changes needed, save the spreadsheet and give it an easily identifiable name ready to be imported back into Cloud Commerce Pro.
5. Product Range – Imports
Click “Imports” from the Product Range page.
6. Product Imports
1. Upload – Click “Upload Spreadsheet” and navigate to the new spreadsheet you just saved and click “Open”.
2. Use – Find your spreadsheet in the list of available items (they are ordered alphabetically) and check the box labelled “Use”.
7. Importing
Scroll down the page until you find Step 5: Variation Import Results, to and click ‘Import Variations’ to run the import:
8. Viewing Results
You can check your imported auto purchase orders at any time by searching for the product in the usual manner and selecting a particular variation. The auto purchase order information can be found at the bottom right of the page.