Shop and online store without selling the same thing twice
Opening an online store brings more orders, and more risk of promising something that already left over the counter. The key: one place for orders and availability.
Saturday at eleven, someone books the last size M e-bike online. At five past eleven, a customer rents it at the counter. If your two channels do not talk to each other, someone is getting bad news.
One inventory
The online store cannot keep its own stock. It has to read the same stock the counter uses, in real time, and take from it the same way. Anything else means reconciling by hand and getting it wrong.
One order list
Orders coming in from the web should show up in the same list as counter orders, with the same status and the same person in charge. That way whoever prepares the handover does not have to watch two screens.
Lead-time rules
- Minimum notice: how many hours ahead a booking can be made, so you have time to prepare.
- Maximum horizon: how many months ahead bookings are accepted.
- Opening hours: so the website does not offer a Sunday pickup when you are closed.