How to support discontinued brands

[♥bruyndoncx]

 

We operate a regular store and a webshop.

 

I'm currently misusing the wolfenfeatured sets contribution that added featured fields to the manufacturers table to show/hide manufacturers from the list while still keeping the values in the database and have them listed on an 'all manufacturers' page.

 

I wonder if other people have same/similar issue and if there should be some kind of flag on the manufacturer to support discontinued brands while stock last ...

[burt]

Should it be done at the product level ? An extra status flag ?

 

In Stock

Out Of Stock

Discontinued

 

Have Discontinued items remain in their category structure until sold out, maybe with a banner or text "buy now, quick quick".

Also show them in a new "group" page: Discontinued Items...

 

The problem is how to cater for all shops, as like you some may want it done at the manufacturer level, others at the product level, others at the categry level and so on. Thinking out loud...

[♥altoid]

The scenario you outline Burt would work for my shop.  I was going to use the Bargain Basement add on for this purpose when I get around to it.  The idea was to draw attention to and let customers know that a particular item will soon be gone and get it while the getting's good at a special price.

 

Should it be done at the product level ? An extra status flag ?

In Stock
Out Of Stock
Discontinued

Have Discontinued items remain in their category structure until sold out, maybe with a banner or text "buy now, quick quick".
Also show them in a new "group" page: Discontinued Items...

The problem is how to cater for all shops, as like you some may want it done at the manufacturer level, others at the product level, others at the categry level and so on. Thinking out loud...

[burt]

@@altoid I had forgotten about that Bargain Basement mod! Yes, that's pretty much the system (that I outlined) in place and done (assuming that the "discontinued" stock can have a special price).

@@bruyndoncx try Day 17 of the 28DofC, it might (and I stress might) be workable...

[♥bruyndoncx]

@@altoid @@burt

Thanks for the feedback, but I have that already in place with similar code and availability fields on the product level.

 

My concern is that we have leftover stock that I want to keep on the site so it can be found by google and users search by model number +/ spare part etc

but that I don't want the brand listed under the standard manufacturers dropdown.

 

As I said, I have a system in place, that works, but I was thinking this would be a more generic problem for others too where a standard solution would be benificial

[MrPhil]

So you want to flag a brand (subset of a manufacturer) as discontinued, but keep selling it until the stock is gone? You want to be careful about how much fuss you make over a discontinuance... depending on what you're selling, your customers may be reluctant to buy something that may not be supported much longer, or isn't bleeding edge and kewl, or whatever. So long as your store doesn't accept backorders on these items, I would think it fine to sell as normal products until gone. If it's something that customers should know has a short lifetime (things with model year, computer components, etc.), that should be fair enough. If you feel you owe them a "heads up" that this item won't be around much longer, updating the description to "limited stock: when it's gone, it's gone!" and maybe tossing it in the Bargain Bin would do. Many online stores feature a clearance/discontinued products section. Be careful that you don't make a product harder to find and purchase, or you may find yourself sitting on an unsellable inventory! Just some thoughts...

[♥bruyndoncx]

@@MrPhil

thanks for all the feedback, but still not addressing the issue at hand.

 

it is about discontinued brands, but also about brands you don't want to promote as they are not stocked,

or very limited availability but what is available can be ordered and sometimes the whole range can be special ordered.

We want to draw attention to the modern brands where we have a complete range, and not the ones with just a few items left.

[burt]

Brand == Manufacturer ?

 

If so, what happens if a Brand has some modern products and some discontinued (last years model or whatever) ?

[♥bruyndoncx]

Brand == Manufacturer ?

Yes, that is how I have it defined.

But in real life, it is a single manufacturing company that can have several brands.

But it is the brand that the consumer knows, not the company behind it.

eg SEB group france has following brands: Tefal, Calor, Seb, Moulinex, Krups, Rowenta

Some irons are available under the Tefal label in the Netherlands as the Tefal brand is used for irons in the netherlands, while in belgium and france, Calor is used for the Irons.

Just to complicate matters a little more :D

 

But if you digg real deep, a brand can have multiple manufacturies (eg look in china)

Manufacturer is an old concept, nowadays, it is more complex - eg assembled in switserland, service in switserland, designed in germany, components from china/korea/czechia ...

 

If so, what happens if a Brand has some modern products and some discontinued (last years model or whatever) ?

Well, that is done like you described earlier on the product level, setting the availability and limiting the numbers that can be ordered to the stock on hand, while anything else can be ordered with qty limit.

I also show a basement/clearance page (variation on specials.php -> solden.php) where products are listed that are discontinued and discounted.

 

The other issue I have is when entering new products, I would like to filter the dropdown to manufacturers that are 'active', and not have the old ones listed for new data entry.

 

I wonder how the other ecommerce packages handle this and if we perhaps can learn a thing or two from them.

This is a non-issue when you start, but when you run your business for 10 or more years, this long n/a list starts to annoy you.

Now I could go ahead and tweak my system, but I feel this a generic issue that is better solved in the core.

[♥bruyndoncx]

Oh, forgot to mention - for the complete picture.

Braun is an amusing example. Braun Personal Care (Oral-b electric toothbrush, Braun shavers, epilators, hair trimmers) is still owned by Proctor and Gamble.

Braun household (mixers, coffeemakers, toasters, waterkettles etc) is owned by Delonghi (Italian brand company).