4 replies to this topic

[14steve14]

I was wondering what peoples opinions are on showing stock levels on the product page.  Does showing the stock level affect sales.

Until recently i showed the level of stock on every page.  For a trial i have now removed that portion of code and sales have increased on certian items.  On these items i can get next day free delivery as long as the order is over £30-00.  The customers only have to wait a day or two to receive their items, so the service is still quite quick.  The trouble now, is that i am receiving several emails a day asking what the stock levels are.

Whilst i assume that there is no define answer to the above question, i would like to hear others thoughts on the subject.

[MrPhil]

I would worry about competitors being able to automatically monitor your stock levels (by bots scraping your site) and figuring out your sales levels, business strategy, marketing campaigns, etc. Why make it easy for them? Is it really necessary to tell customers how many widgets you have in inventory? Note that even hiding inventory levels isn't foolproof -- you might get an increase in abandoned carts where competitors are seeing how many items they can stuff in a cart without triggering an "out of stock" warning. I have no idea what to do about that, beyond tracking abandoned carts and seeing if they come from a few IP addresses, which you could ban.

[Mort-lemur]

We never reveal our stock levels - like you we can get things quickly and do not hold all stock anyway.

[bruyndoncx]

we only show products in stock with text 'in stock'
we show actual stock level for
1) promotions (x items left at promo price) to creeate a sense of urgency
2) clearance items

in future we plan on adding an option for customers to see other out-of-stock items

[14steve14]

It would appear then that the general opinion is to hide the stock levels.  I will keep it as it is, and see what happens. Many thanks.