We used the standard inventory system that ships with ATG Consumer Commerce for the Pioneer Cycling store. Using the inventory system, the store can show users the following information on any particular item:
Availability status message
Availability status
Availability date
Stock level
Backorder stock level
Preorder stock level
The Pioneer Cycling site displays the inventory status of a product on the product page and on the shopping cart. For example, before a user adds a bike to his cart, we want to indicate to him if the item is out of stock. This way, he can make the educated decision to purchase the item on backorder or purchase an alternate product.
To implement working inventory in the Pioneer Cycling store, first we actually created inventory information in an inventory subsystem. Second, we set up access to this information via the various components supplied by ATG Consumer Commerce.