Stock Management in circuly
Background
Due to the unique nature of a subscription business, common terms such as variants and SKU have a different meaning and a different setup logic.
Therefore before we get started with the topic of stock management with circuly, let us first understand a few terms such as product, variants and SKU when they are used in a subscription-based ecommerce business.
1. Product - in any business (ecommerce or subscription) a product refers to a specific item that is available for sale. Each product has a unique name and description. A product is unique if it can have an influence on the number of units available for it.
Assuming that you offer iPhones on a subscription basis, the “iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black” is a unique product and is different from the “iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black”, therefore the two are treated as two different products.
In an ecommerce business the 128 GB and the 512 GB are treated as variants.
However a regular ecommerce business does not have anything to do with length of subscription contracts and therefore has a different setup logic.
In order to understand the next term, that is variants, let’s assume that you have a stock of 10 units for the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black and a stock of 20 units for the iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black.
2. Variants - Variants are different versions or options of a particular product. They represent variations of the same product that may differ in certain attributes and the difference affects the customers choice.
In a subscription business the most important attribute that affects a customers choice is the length of the subscription contract.
Therefore the variants of a product (in a subscription business) are defined based on the length of the subscription contract.
In the iPhone example, if a customer chooses the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black for a duration of 12 months, this choice will have no effect on the number of units available for the iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black but will have an effect on the number of units available for the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black.
So according to the example of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black available as a subscription, the various variants will be set up as:
Variant 1: 6 months (10 units)
Variant 2: 12 months (10 units)
Variant 3: 18 months (10 units)
Variant 4: 24 months (10 units)
And will change to the units mentioned below due to the sale of one of the variants.
Variant 1: 6 months (9 units)
Variant 2: 12 months (9 units)
Variant 3: 18 months (9 units)
Variant 4: 24 months (9 units)
3. SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): in a regular ecommerce business a SKU is a unique code assigned to each specific variant of a product. It is a combination of letters, numbers, or both, that helps identify and track items in inventory. SKUs help identity and categorise products based on various attributes such as colour, style, subscription duration or any other distinguishing characteristics.
In an ecommerce business each variant of a product will have its own unique SKU, enabling businesses to differentiate between similar products and maintain accurate inventory records.
However in a subscription business, the variants are defined on the basis of the length of the subscription contract.
Please note that while SKU help in categorisation of products, each product itself needs a unique serial number for accurate tracking.
So when a customer chooses the 6 months variant of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black, the number of units of the other variants (12, 18, 24 months) needs to be reduced by 1 as only 9 units are available of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black as result.
In Shopify, woocommerce and Shopware, product variants can have the same SKU. However in Saleor, product variants cannot have the same SKU and therefore need additional setup steps.
Understanding stock management with circuly
You’ve set up your products in your shop system, created variants, defined the SKU and you’re ready to receive your first order or perhaps new orders.
And you want to know how circuly interacts with your stock. Good question.
In a growing business, automating processes is key to scaling operations. circuly provides you both - a manual way and an automated way to handle stock.
Important to know is that stock management with circuly is dependent on the shop system you use as different shop systems have different setups that circuly needs to navigate through.
Shopify / Woocommerce / Shopware
In Shopify, woocommerce and Shopware variants of a given product can have and typically do have the same SKU. Therefore the stock is updated based on variants and is updated for all variants for a SKU.
Order placement
If you enable the “Check system stock” setting the circuly system will automatically check your existing stock before finalising the order.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Checkout > PRE CHECKOUT > Check system stock.
Scenarios: Product is available
If the product selected by the customer is available then the customer will be able to proceed with the payment and finalise the order.
A webhook event is triggered because an order event (order placement) took place and the circuly system will update the stock in your shop system and reduce for all the variants with the same SKU.
Scenario: product is not available
If the circuly system detects that there isn’t a unit available for the selected product variant, the customer will be prevented from finalising the order.
Order cancellation
If an order is cancelled, a webhook event is triggered. The webhook event updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant.
If you want the circuly system to automatically restock items after an order is cancelled, you can enable the Restock items after an order cancellation setting.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Orders > CANCELLATION > Restock items after an order cancellation.
Return
When you mark a product as returned in the circuly Operations Backend, there is a webhook event that updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant again.
To access the setting > Go to Settings >Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
However, if you would like to define whether the stock should be treated as a secondhand stock or new stock we recommend to progress the stock management in this case manually instead.
Swap
When processing a swap if the same product is replaced, the stock will be automatically updated since a new order will be created. If you exchange the product with another product make sure to select the product from the dropdown menu and the stock will be updated automatically.
Note: We recommend using a warehouse management system - especially for larger stock & order quantities. Warehouse management systems are usually directly connected to your shop system to track the stock more efficiently. If you use a warehouse management system, circuly will then just trigger the events and the stock update will be taken care of in the WMS. For questions please contact us via the service desk.
Saleor
In Saleor the SKUs cannot be the same for the different variants. The SKUs are not connected and therefore need to be harmonised with the help of automatic N8N flows.
Order placement
Since the SKUs are not the same an N8N flow will update the stock for all the durations and will harmonise the stock for all variants with an update event.
Order cancellation:
When an order is cancelled, a webhook event is triggered and sent to Saleor. The event updates the stock to +1. All the variants are updates based on an N8N flow.
If you want the circuly system to automatically restock items after an order is cancelled, you can enable the Restock items after an order cancellation setting.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Orders > CANCELLATION > Restock items after an order cancellation.
Return
When you mark a product as returned in the circuly Operations Backend, there is a webhook event that updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant again.
To access the setting > Go to Settings >Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
However, if you would like to define whether the stock should be treated as a secondhand stock or new stock we recommend to progress the stock management in this case manually instead.
Swap
When processing a swap if the same product is replaced, the stock will be automatically updated since a new order will be created. If you exchange the product with another product make sure to select the product from the dropdown menu and the stock will be updated automatically.
Note: We recommend using a warehouse management system - especially for larger stock & order quantities. Warehouse management systems are usually directly connected to your shop system to track the stock more efficiently. If you use a warehouse management system, circuly will then just trigger the events and the stock update will be taken care of in the WMS. For questions please contact us via the service desk.