Orders for a coffee you no longer have
The washed Kenyan has been popular. The last sack was roasted on Monday. On Wednesday four more orders come in for it, because the website still shows it in stock. Now someone has to email four customers, offer something else, and refund whoever does not want the swap.
At the other end, the next single origin has been in the warehouse for a week, but its page is not written, the photos are not done and nobody has set it live. For a while, the shop has fewer coffees than the roastery.
The shop counts bags, the coffee runs out as green
Online shops count stock as finished products, but for a roaster the real limit is green coffee. You roast to order, so the shop either shows unlimited stock or a roasted bag count that is refilled by hand. Neither knows that the green lot behind a coffee is nearly finished.
- Web stock is set to unlimited because coffee is roasted to order.
- The green lot running out is not connected to the product page.
- Retiring a coffee depends on someone remembering to hide it.
- New coffee pages are prepared late because nobody is prompted.
- Subscriptions that feature a coffee also need to know it is ending.
What overselling costs
Each oversold order means an apology, a substitute or a refund, and it lands on the person answering the shop inbox. Customers who wanted a specific coffee are disappointed, and some do not come back. The gap before a new coffee launches is lost sales and a thinner shop. And subscription boxes planned around a coffee that runs out a week early need a last minute change.
Linking web stock to green lots
- Each web product is linked to the green lot or lots behind it, using the green stock ledger or your existing stock records.
- Using your roast loss for that coffee, the system works out how many bags of each size the remaining green can still produce, minus what is already committed to wholesale and subscriptions.
- That figure is pushed to Shopify or WooCommerce as the available stock, so the shop stops selling when the coffee really runs out.
- When a lot drops below a level you set, you get a warning, and the page can show a low stock or last chance message.
- New lots that have been contracted or delivered appear as drafts, prompting someone to write the page and add photos before the current coffee ends.
- When the old coffee sells out, the product switches to sold out or is replaced by the new coffee, on your rules rather than by hand.
| Moment | Now | With the link |
|---|---|---|
| Last sack roasted | Shop keeps selling | Available stock reaches zero |
| Lot running low | Nobody warned | Warning and last chance message |
| New lot arrives | Page written late | Draft page prompted |
| Coffee ends | Hidden by hand, eventually | Switched on your rules |
A shop that matches the roastery
What the website offers matches what the roastery can actually roast. Launches are planned instead of rushed, and the gap between coffees shrinks. Last chance messages turn a coffee ending into a reason to buy rather than a problem, and the inbox is not filled with apologies for oversold orders.
Is your shop out of step with your green stock?
- You have sold coffees online after the green ran out.
- Product stock is set to unlimited.
- Sold out coffees are hidden by hand when someone notices.
- New coffees sit in the warehouse before their page is ready.
- Subscription coffees have run out mid month.