As products sell and Pointy reads your barcodes at the register, over time we assign a stock status to your products based on the rate and frequency of scans.
The Pointy Page stock labels are: In stock, Unknown availability, and Not in stock. "See What's in Store" (SWIS) stock labels are: In stock, and Limited stock. If the product is out of stock, it isn't shown on SWIS.
Each product has its own individual scanning pattern which is used to determine stock status e.g. if a carton of milk is normally scanned every 20 minutes and then it isn’t scanned for 5 hours, we determine that it's out of stock.
How accurate is stock status?
- The longer the store is live, the more scans/sales we see and the more accurate stock status will be.
- Retailers using the Pointy app integration and supply inventory counts also help accuracy.
What does “unknown availability” or “limited stock” mean?
- If we are unsure based on the scanning pattern whether a product is in stock or not, it will be marked as unknown availability or limited stock.
What happens to products that are no longer in stock?
- On the Pointy Page: The product is marked as “not in stock” when we believe that it’s out of stock. After a longer time period, we move to a fourth stock status: "discontinued". This causes the product to be hidden from the Pointy Page completely.
- On SWIS: Out of stock products are not shown on SWIS. So if a product is marked as “not in stock” on the Pointy Page, it will not appear on SWIS.
Stock status is reliable for products that sell often, though products that don't scan often or have an infrequent scanning pattern may appear in the “unknown availability” bracket.