Setting up product pre-order in OpenCart using IMCanSaleZeroProduct

Online stores differ from offline ones, but not in everything. For example, the need to hold back part of the stock to maintain a temporary reserve, or, on the contrary, to provide potential customers with the opportunity to pre-order a product that is not currently in stock but can be quickly obtained. This is also characteristic of online stores.

In OpenCart, there are only two approaches that apply to all products at once: either you cannot sell more than what is available, or you can sell in unlimited quantities. If we consider individual product settings for pre-orders, you can also disable stock deduction, but in this case, you cannot guarantee that the product will not be ordered in large quantities, leading to stock shortages. Plus, you will have to manually adjust the stock quantity.

There are also various manual ways to manage this. However, the easiest way to hold stock and track pre-orders is with the IMCanSaleZeroProduct module. Let’s consider a simple example. Suppose you have an electronics store, and you need to hold back some specific laptops. Additionally, you can always quickly get some monitors from your supplier, so there is no need to keep them in stock.

Let's see how both of these tasks can be quickly solved using IMCanSaleZeroProduct. First, note that for IMCanSaleZeroProduct to work, pre-orders must be disabled in the store settings (otherwise, the module would be unnecessary if you can sell products without limits).

Task 1. Holding back some laptops

1. Open the product list and click the edit button for the desired laptop.

2. In the product card, open the "Data" tab, enable the limit, and enter the required negative stock quantity (you can also set dates and add a personal comment if desired).

That’s all the necessary actions. Now, 10 out of 20 laptops cannot be sold.

Task 2. Enabling pre-orders for monitors

1. Similarly, open the product list and click the edit button for the desired monitor.

2. In the product card, open the "Data" tab, enable the limit, and enter the required positive stock quantity (you can also set dates and add a personal comment if desired).

That’s all the necessary actions. Now you can sell 10 more monitors. As you can see, the IMCanSaleZeroProduct module allows you to quickly and flexibly set limits for each individual product.