Availability for customers and products

What availability is

Availability means which weekdays you are operational and able to serve your customers with deliveries. For example, if your business is open Monday to Saturday, these weekdays are considered as available, while Sunday is not. By having this defined, the webshop solution we provide prevents your customers from placing orders for delivery on Sundays.

You can define availability on several levels:

• Company operating days
• Specific dates as closed, as well as exempting customers you promised to serve
• Delivery plan defined for each customer
• Customer rules
• Article rules

Overview of B2B Sales tiers and included functions

The settings available is contingent on your licensed B2B Sales tier, as reflected in the table below.

1. Company Operating days

Operating days refers to the days of the week on which orders can be placed and processed. 

These settings establish the typical operational days when products and services are available to customers.

2. Closed Days

Closed days are specific dates when orders cannot be processed due to holidays, company-wide closures, or planned downtime. These dates can be added on a company level or assigned to specific customers. The chosen dates will make sure that standing orders are not created and that customers cannot create orders.

3. Customer Delivery Plan

The customer delivery plan allows you to control which days a customer is eligible to receive deliveries. This feature is especially useful for managing pre-agreed delivery schedules based on operational capacity or customer preferences.

For example:

• You can restrict a customer from placing orders on certain weekdays, such as Mondays or Fridays.
• You can allow a customer to choose from two delivery times on specific days (requires license on the module Route)

By using the customer delivery plan, you can align delivery schedules with your logistics while ensuring that each customer’s ordering and delivery expectations are clear and manageable. 

4. Customer Rules

Customer-specific rules allow for tailored availability settings to accommodate unique requirements or agreements. These rules define ordering rules applied to specific customers, ensuring

 that their particular needs are met without impacting other customers.

5. Article Rules

Article-specific rules manage availability for individual products or groups of products. These rules define general availability applied to specific articles, ensuring that product-specific requirements are respected.

6. Availability scenarios

Availability is determined by specific days configured through company, customer and article rules. By clearly defining and managing these rules, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction can be greatly improved.

Here are four examples to illustrate how the system prioritizes;

Scenario 1

Result: Customers can order croissant Wednesday and Thursday, and other articles on all days of the week.

Scenario 2

Result: The specific customer can order croissant for delivery on Wednesday, and other articles for delivery on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Scenario 3 Specific dates Christmas period

Result: The specific customer can order croissant for delivery Wednesday (24th of December), and other articles on Tuesday (23rd) and Wednesday (24th). Other customers can order croissant on Wednesday (24th of December), and other articles on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Scenario 4 Specific dates 1st of May

Result: The specific customer can order croissant for delivery Thursday (2nd of May), and other articles for delivery Tuesday (30th of April) and Thursday (2nd of May). Other customers can order croissant on Thursday (2nd of May), and other articles on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Further reading:

• Managing order deadlines
• Defining deviating order deadlines for specific dates