An online order for something that sold at ten
A customer orders online on Friday evening for Saturday collection: a free-range chicken, a dozen eggs, a sourdough loaf, some sausages and a bag of your own new potatoes. On Saturday morning a member of staff goes to pick it. The chickens sold out in the first hour. The sourdough is gone. The potatoes are there, but in a different size bag. Staff phone the customer, who is already on the way, and try to agree substitutes in a hurry.
The website said everything was in stock because someone updated it on Tuesday.
Why online and shop stock drift apart
Many farm shops added an online shop quickly, perhaps during a busy period, using Shopify, WooCommerce or a similar platform. It works well as a shop window, but its stock is separate from the till. Someone updates it when they remember. Meanwhile the till sells from the same shelves all day. And farm shop products are awkward: meat varies by weight, produce comes and goes with the harvest, baked goods arrive each morning.
- Online stock is updated by hand and falls behind the shop floor.
- Weighed products such as meat and cheese do not fit fixed stock counts.
- Daily products such as bread arrive fresh and sell out each day.
- Seasonal produce appears and disappears week to week.
- There is no agreed rule for substitutions.
What the drift costs
Every order that cannot be filled costs time and goodwill. Staff spend Saturday mornings on the phone instead of serving. Customers who find half their order missing do not order again. Some shops respond by keeping the online range small, which limits the one channel that reaches customers who cannot visit at busy times.
There is also the reverse problem: products in stock on the shelf but shown as sold out online, because someone forgot to update the other way.
The till and online stock link we build
- Products matched between your till and your online shop, with the till treated as the record of what is on the shelf.
- Stock levels sent from the till to the online shop regularly through their APIs, so shelf sales reduce online stock the same day.
- A buffer for each product you choose, so the last few units are kept for the shop floor or as a safety margin, for example the last two chickens.
- Weighed items sold online in set sizes, such as a 'whole chicken, approx 1.8kg', with the final price adjusted at picking if you allow it and the customer agreed.
- Daily and seasonal products set to open for ordering only when they are confirmed, such as bread for tomorrow once the bakery order is placed.
- A substitution preference chosen by the customer at checkout, and a picking list for staff that shows the order, the substitution rules and the collection time.
| Product type | How online stock is handled |
|---|---|
| Packaged goods | Stock count from the till, with buffer |
| Meat and cheese by weight | Sold in set sizes, final weight at picking |
| Bread and daily bakes | Open for orders once the bakery order is set |
| Seasonal produce | Available only while the field says so |
| Pre-order items | Separate stock, for example Christmas meat |
If your till and online shop already talk to each other, we check whether the connection is set up well before building anything. Sometimes it is a settings problem.
Collection day afterwards
Friday evening's orders are based on what is really in stock, with the buffer held back. On Saturday the picker works from a list sorted by collection time, weighs the chicken, updates the price if needed and applies the customer's substitution choice for anything missing. The customer receives a message that the order is ready, with any changes shown.
Staff stop phoning customers mid-pick. The online shop can carry a wider range, including meat and daily bakes, because stock is real. And sales by channel show how many customers use click and collect and what they buy.
Could your online shop be out of step?
- Online stock is updated by hand when someone remembers.
- Click and collect orders regularly include items that have sold out.
- Staff phone customers during picking to agree substitutes.
- Meat and other weighed items are hard to sell online.
- The online range is kept small because stock cannot be trusted.