Commerce Server Blog

Knowing the condition of a SKU is compulsory during checkout process. The sku condition can be “In stock”, “out of stock”, “Pre-ordered”, “Back Ordered”, etc. The status calculation is based on commerce server global settings as well as settings on sku. In this post, we will learn how commerce server calculates inventory.

Commerce server inventory behavior is driven by site resources. To see inventory site resources – follow below steps.

• Open commerce server manager.
• Expand commerce server manager –> commerce sites –> [Your site] –> Site resources –> click on Inventory.

Two site resources setting will play key role in determining the sku condition

1. Ignore missing SKUs: This resource is used to specify whether a missing sku can be treated as in-stock or out-of-stock. If the value is set to –1(true) then the missing sku is treated as in-stock and if the value is set to 0 (false) then the missing sku is treated as “out-of-stock”.
2. Stock Handling: This resource is used to specify whether pre-order and back-order can be associated to a sku. If the value is set to –1(true) then the stock handling exist for SKUs(i.e., a sku can be pre-ordered or back-ordered) and if the value is set to 0 (false) then stock handling doesn’t exist for SKUs.

The below flow chart shows how commerce server calculates the inventory.

In the first condition, we will check whether a product catalog is mapped to an inventory catalog. If it is not then we will determine inventory status on site resource –“Ignore missing Skus”. If the product catalog is associated then we will check the inventory condition based on sku status. If the status is set to disabled then the inventory condition is “out of stock” and if the status is ignored then the inventory condition is “In stock”. If the sku status is “enabled” then commerce server calculates inventory based on site resource “stock handling”.