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      Reasons Why a Product is in-Stock on the Source Site and 'On Hold' or OOS ( Out-of-stock) on AutoDS

      Learn about the most common reasons affecting the availability of your products in your store

      There might be cases when a product will appear as in stock on the source site yet 'Out of Stock' (OOS) or 'On Hold' on your AutoDS account.

      In most cases, if you wait up until the next scan you will see the product will go back in stock (this is because you will always be watching the product last scanned price or status). The products are being monitored multiple times a day for stock and price changes as per the supplier.

      The reasons for the items not to be in stock or on hold will be displayed in this article:

      Tip 💡

      Having a stock and price monitoring tool is one of the most important things you can do to automate your business. Click here to read more about it. 


      'On Hold' Status

      When your product is 'On Hold' on AutoDS, it means that according to the info detected from the previous scan, the product is available on the source site, however, it is placed as 'on hold' and it is not available to your buyers, as it does not match the settings you've set on AutoDs.

      Your product will be 'On Hold' for the following reasons:

      1. Over Time Shipping

      2. Low Stock

      3. Default Quantity 0

      4. Not Selling As A Platform Seller 

      5. Expedited Shipping

      6. New ID

       

      1. 'Over Time Shipping' 
       
      At every scan the system will check the total number of days it takes the product to be delivered to the buyer. It will then cross-check it with the number of days you have inserted under - Maximum Shipping Days.

      This setting is meant to verify that the products you are selling comply with the shipment policy you have created on your selling platform for these products. If you are working with 1-3 days shipping and 3 handling days, this gives you 6 business days to make sure the buyer gets the order on time. You should  then set 6 days under 'Maximum Shipping Days'.

      If the number of maximum days is set too low, many products might be set as 'On Hold' in your account and will not be available to your buyers. Make sure to have enough shipping days set to each supplier you are adding. Check the supplier you work with and its shipping policy to know what should be the recommended one. 


       If you did not set the maximum shipping time for each supplier, a default Max Shipping Days will be used automatically.

      Here is how you check this setting: 

      Please note that each supplier might have exception to a rule. For example, on Amazon, even Prime items with 2-days shipping might have a notification like this:

      It means that days or sometimes months might pass until the product will even be shipped. In such cases, the product will be set as 'on hold' with the reason that the item's shipping time is longer than the one you have set. 

       

      2. Low Stock

      In some cases, and especially during the holiday season (Q4), a product on the source site might have only a few units left in stock. Under the store settings and the specific supplier, you have an option to set the minimum allowed quantity in stock. The number you choose will be the minimum allowed number to have and when the number of units on the source site drops below it - the system will place the item as 'On Hold' to protect you from selling an item that is out of stock.

      You can change these settings under: 

      Settings→ Store Settings → General→ Minimum product quantity

       

      3. Default Quantity 0

      When you see this notification, it means that for some reason you have set the variation's default quantity to 0.

      To check it and change click on the product's image:

      Then go to variants and click edit:

      Here you will see the default quantity you set. Change it to a minimum of 1 and save. The item will be back in stock. 

       

      4. Not Selling As A Platform Seller 

      A product will be set as 'On hold' when the seller that sells it is not part of a membership program on this site. For example, on Amazon if it is no longer Prime or if on Walmart it is no longer sold by Walmart as part of the Walmart + membership. This setting is meant to protect most users who choose to work with only membership products on various supported suppliers.

      To check whether a product is sold as part of a membership, do the following for Amazon Prime:

      Open a new incognito (ctrl+shift+N) window and paste the Amazon ASIN in the search field on Amazon. 

      Here is an example of a product that is no longer prime.

      It is sold and shipped by a 3rd party supplier. In case you wish to monitor this specific item, you need to check the:  Allow marketplace sellers under the settings of the item -this is only valid of these specific products. 

      Of course you should also check what is the shipping time for this item and allocate the right policy for it. 

      In case you wish to work with 3rd party suppliers as a general rule on Amazon for example, you can uncheck the box from the field called - Prime only on your store settings for Amazon:

      More on Amazon: In some cases, you will see that the product is no longer available on the Buy box.

      What is the Buy box?
      The Buy box is the product that appears first on the search results of the same ASIN. In case you are looking for the ASIN and the result you get is 'Available from other sellers'.

      This means that the product is no longer available in the buy box and is available from other suppliers under the supplier table. 

       

       

      5. Expedited Shipping

      This mostly applies to Amazon as a supplier. Expedited shipping is a paid fast shipping method for non-Prime items in which shipping days are calculated by it.
      The additional shipping price for the expedited shipping method is shown only on checkout. Our scans check the listings and do not take them to the cart to check for additional shipping costs. Therefore, it places the product as 'On Hold' as protection or else, you will lose money for faster shipping in order to fulfil and order for this product on time. 
      In most of the cases, these items have also a standard free shipping method, with longer delivery time, however, as mentioned before,  this delivery date is only displayed during checkout, and cannot be calculated correctly.
       

      6. New ID

      There are cases where the product Source ID was changed by the seller. In this case, the product will be set as 'On Hold' as there is a chance the product was replaced completely or changed. For example, a blue shirt became a pink one. You will get a recommendation for a new source ID (ASIN on Amazon) to replace the one that is no longer available. You will need to change the monitored product assuming it's the same item or replaces it altogether. The responsibility is on you to check this.

       

      If you see that the new Source ID is the same item (compare it with the info you have on your selling site) then you can just replace the monitored Buy ID in the edit window (don't forget to save):

      Out Of Stock (OOS) Status- Product is unavailable on the source site / supplier

      According to the info detected from the previous scan, the item is out of stock (=OOS) on the source site, and thus, the system had set it as OOS on your AutoDS account and your store as it is no longer available to purchase. 

      For example, on Amazon, when we look for the buy ID (source item) we will get this result:

      Or this one: 

      This means that the product is no longer available on source site and you are recommended to remove or replace it as you will not be able to fulfill orders for it.

       

      In some cases the products will be back in stock on a future date / Temporarily out of stock. It is up to you whether to keep the products and wait for them to be back in stock or remove them:

       

      Used product

      When the status of a product changes from 'new' to 'used' on source site the system will place the product as OOS. This is because your listings are being uploaded as 'new' condition on your selling channel - once an item is Certified Refurbished it is against eBay's policies so the system protects you by placing it as OOS. If you still wish to sell this item you will have to do the following - you go to eBay and change the condition to Certified Refurbished by revising the listings. Secondly, you will have to edit the item and change the quantity to more than 0 and disable stock monitoring - please note this listing will no longer be monitored for stock.

       

      Please note:

      1. 1. When you click on the link to the product directly from the products page in AutoDS the info you get comes directly from your connected account and in most cases you see an old display of the web page on your source site.  AutoDS monitoring is done through non-connected source accounts and from INCOGNITO mode web surfing, thus it is exposed to the most updated data of the products. 

      2. AutoDS monitors each supplier from a different proxy (IP Address) and a different zip code, thus, the information our scans detect will not necessarily be the same as the info you will see from your IP address and the zip code you are using. 

       

      Settings on the selling site affecting the OOS/On-Hold status of your products

      There might be cases where your products will be available on your AutoDs account, however, they will not be in stock on your selling site or the opposite - out of stock/on hold on AutoDs but not on your selling site.

      In most cases,  this happens due to settings on your selling site or due to manual changes done on the selling site. 

      Here are some of the most common reasons: 

      1. eBay only - Use the Multi-quantity listings option
      2. No other connected 3rd party apps 
      3. Manual changes done

       

      1. eBay: Use the Multi-quantity listings option

      This setting is crucial as without it eBay will not allow AutoDS to change the number of your listings to 0 - meaning, setting it as out of stock. Not having it checked will cause an opposite situation, the item will be OOS on AutoDS but will remain available to purchase on your eBay account. When you connect your account via API we will automatically check this for you, however, if you have added your account as non-API, it will not be checked. 

      To change it on your eBay account go to:

      Account Settings → Seller Dashboard → Preferences → Multi-quantity listings

      Make sure that the box is checked:

      Multi-quantity Listings

      2. No other connected 3rd party apps

      When you have other software with permission to change your products, it can create a mess with the pricing and status of your products as AutoDS might place your products as available while the other software changes it to out-of-stock and vice versa.

      Please make sure no other software has authorizations on your selling account.

      On eBay

      Account Settings → Sign in and security → Third-party app access

      Revoke  -> Revoke this authorisation → Apply

       

      On Shopify

      Go to your Apps page and remove any app your are not familiar with. 

       

      3. Manual changes done on the selling site

      When you're making manual changes directly on your selling site/ store, AutoDS will not be able to track them. Thus, an item might appear as OOS on AutoDS but will be available on your account due to the change you have made. Please make all necessary updates  to your products directly on AutoDS to prevent such situations. 

       

      If you have further questions about this topic, please do not hesitate to address us at the support chat - we will be more than happy to assist you.