<h1>Sell Products in Bulk and Easily Keep Track of Your Total Inventory</h1>
<p>Variation Shared Inventory for WooCommerce allows store owners to collectively manage their product’s stock when selling the same product in various quantities. Sell your items in groups of any amount, and track those groups in the total inventory.</p>
<p>This innovation allows store owners to track their total inventory, even when items are sold in multiple bulk quantity variations, and easily integrate the bulk sale of products.</p>
<h3>Most important features</h3>
<p>Variation shared inventory has easy-to-use methods to allow you to manage inventory for sharing stock among variations. Using it will save you tons of time on managing individual stock values and provide a better shopping experience for your customers which can lead to higher sales. Here’s a list of features:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Variation quantity multiplier</strong> – Each variation has its own “<label for="wsvi_multiplier0">Inventory reduction per item sold</label>“</li>
<li><strong>Managed variation stock</strong> – Once the variation is sharing with other variations, its quantity is disabled for better control and to prevent human error</li>
<li><strong>Managed stock values</strong> – Automatically updates stock values for products & variations based on the total available stock</li>
<li><strong>Dedicated stock manager</strong> – Dedicated tab on product edit page for stock management</li>
<li><strong>Overselling prevention – </strong> Cart validation that prevents products from being sold if they exceed the total inventory</li>
<li><strong>Dedicated dashboard – </strong> Dedicated dashboard showing all variation groups and quickly manage stocks</li>
</ol>
<h3>Why Did We Develop This Plugin?</h3>
<p>As a store owner ourselves, we found it very difficult to track inventory when selling different quantities of products. We searched for existing solutions on the market but couldn’t find one that solved the issue in a simple and straightforward way, hence we have developed this plugin ourselves to solve this bulk quantity issue and we hope it can solve yours as well.</p>
<h3>How Do I Set It Up?</h3>
<p>Once this plugin is enabled, in the product data section of the product edit page, there will be a new tab called “Shared Variation Inventory” where you can enable the “Shared Variation Inventory” option for this product. Once you’ve enabled it, in the “Quantity Manager” section, you can group the variations that you want to share inventory for, enter the total stock of this group, and give the group a label. You can create as many groups as you need (e.g. Variations A & B are different quantities of Peach Candy and Variations C & D are different quantities Apple Candy).</p>
<p>The steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Enable the plugin</li>
<li>For all variations you’d like to share inventory for, fill in the “Inventory reduction per item sold” field and turn on the “Manage stock?” option</li>
<li>On the quantity manager section, select the variations you want to group, enter the total quantity and if you’d like a group name as well</li>
<li>You’re all set.</li>
</ol>
<p><img class="alignnone wp-image-18734001401592 size-medium" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2023-01-09-at-12.43.11-PM.png?w=620" alt="" width="620" height="317" /></p>
<h3>What Does This Plugin Do?</h3>
<p>This plugin allows you to share the total stock (e.g. 100 units) of a product internally among its variations (e.g. variation A sells by single units, variation B sells in groups of 10 units), and control the total product stock in a centralized section.</p>
<h3>For Example</h3>
<p>Say you have 100 bags of candy for sale, and you want to sell the candy as singles as well as in bulk amounts of 10, you can set it up so that variation A sells by 1 bag and variation B sells by 10 bags (1 box).</p>
<p><strong>Without our plugin:</strong></p>
<p>You would need to split your 100 units and manually allocate and manage stock for the two variations. The problem with this setup is that the variations might sell at different speeds resulting in one of the variations showing up as out of stock while there is still stock left.</p>
<p><strong>With our plugin:</strong></p>
<p>You can simply put down 100 as the total stock. On your storefront, the product page would show that there are 100 units available for variation A and 10 units available for variation B. Then, if 50 units of variation A are sold, your total product stock becomes 50, which updates the stock of variation A to 50 and the stock of variation B to 5.</p>
<p>Our Variation Shared Inventory for WooCommerce plugin also prevents your products from being oversold. In the above example where the total product stock is 100, your customer can’t checkout with 51 units of variation A and 5 units of variation B as it would total to more than 100 total units.</p>
<h3 class="p-rich_text_section">What You Can Do With It</h3>
<p>The Variation Shared Inventory for WooCommerce plugin automatically synchronizes the inventory for variations that share the same total stock, effectively managing your stock for you. When you manually change the total stock of a product, it will automatically update stock quantity of each variation in that group as well.</p>
<p>Here is a few example of what can you do with it:</p>
<ol>
<li>Selling products in bulk at a discount, e.g. 1 chocolate bar for $2, 10 chocolate bars for $15.</li>
<li>Selling white label products, e.g. 100 customizable t-shirts, set up as variations for solid white, solid black, or graphic t-shirt.</li>
<li>Selling weight based products, e.g. 10kg of premium coffee beans, set up with variations for 100g, 250g, 500g, etc.</li>
</ol>
<h3><img class="aligncenter" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1-1.png" alt="" width="800" height="auto" /></h3>
<h3>Solutions for Selling Products In Bulk</h3>
<p>If you want to sell products in different quantities (e.g. in single or in bulk), there are a few ways of doing it:</p>
<ol>
<li>Setup one variation per quantity you want to sell<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: It is easier for customer to browse as well as for you to manage.<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: N/A<br />
<strong>Conclusion</strong>: We recommend this solution.</li>
<li>Setup one product per quantity<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: On the product list page (e.g. shop page or category landing page), the customer can see all available options right away.<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: Most customers are interested in your product first and pricing/quantity options after.<br />
<strong>Conclusion</strong>: We do not recommend this option (unless you have unique business requirements).</li>
</ol>
<h3>Different Approaches to Bulk Selling and Why We Chose the Method We Did</h3>
<p>There are a few different approaches for sharing stock among products or variations:</p>
<ol>
<li>A centralized stock page for all sharing products & variations<br />
There are plugins that provide a dedicated page for all the products & variations that are sharing stock, but the problem is that, it is overly complicated. When a store manager would like to make changes to a product, they would normally go to product edit page to make their changes. By adding another dashboard that they have to use to make changes, the process becomes very inefficient and inconvenient.</li>
<li>Using a common product attribute to share stock between products<br />
This solution sounds good at first, but when you have a large catalog (e.g. 100+ products), attributes often need to be reused, which this method does not support.</li>
<li>Using a variable product to manage shared stock<br />
This is our solution, and we believe that compared to the other shared stock solutions out there, it is the easiest solution to setup & manage by far.</li>
</ol>
<h3>It Works Well With</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://woocommerce.com/products/product-batch-expiration-tracking-for-woocommerce/">Product Batch & Expiration Tracking for WooCommerce</a>Variation Shared Inventory for WooCommerce is an inventory management system that allows a group of variations to share a single quantity.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Requirements</h3>
<p>Minimum PHP version: 7.0</p>
<h3 class="p-rich_text_section">Get started</h3>
<ul class="p-rich_text_list p-rich_text_list__bullet" data-stringify-type="unordered-list" data-indent="0">
<li>Purchase this extension</li>
<li>Download, install, and activate the extension, in your WooCommerce store</li>
<li>Review our <a href="https://woocommerce.com/document/variation-shared-inventory-for-woocommerce/">documentation</a> for any additional information</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>

Variation Shared Inventory

<p>Variation Shared Inventory for WooCommerce is an inventory management system that allows a group of variations to share a single quantity.</p>

<p><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Header-Twilio-SMS-Notifications-updated.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7222269" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Header-Twilio-SMS-Notifications-updated.png?w=620" alt="Send SMS order updates to customers and admins" width="620" height="215" /></a></p>
<h2>Keep Your Customers Happy With Automated SMS Order Notifications</h2>
<p>Send SMS updates to customers when their order status is updated and receive an SMS message when a customer places a new order.</p>
<h3>Why offer SMS Order Updates?</h3>
<p>Simple – it’s the best way to give customers information about their order. According to Frost & Sullivan, SMS messages have a 95% open rate and most are read within 5 seconds. This is three times better than email and can be far more personalized. For example, you could customize the “Completed” status SMS message to include a coupon code for 10% off the next order. Get creative and watch your sales soar!</p>
<figure id="attachment_151538" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151538" style="width: 550px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-sms-iphones.jpg"><img class="size-medium aligncenter wp-image-151538" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-sms-iphones.jpg?w=550" alt="WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notifications Example" width="550" height="515" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151538" class="wp-caption-text">Your WooCommerce store could be sending these SMS messages in 5 minutes or less…</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Powered by Twilio</h3>
<p>This extension is designed to work with <a href="http://www.twilio.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twilio</a>, the premier cloud communications service, with support for over 40 countries. You’ll need to <a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up</a> for a free Twilio account if you don’t already have one. Outbound SMS messages start at just 1 cent in the US.</p>
<h3>Keep Your Customers in the Loop</h3>
<p>Text messages get read more than any other form of communication. Ensure that customers receive information they want by offering text message order updates. Customers can opt-in to SMS updates by checking a box during checkout. Once they opt-in, they’ll receive an SMS message when their order status changes.</p>
<figure id="attachment_151539" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151539" style="width: 550px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-sms-optin.png"><img class="size-medium aligncenter wp-image-151539" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-sms-optin.png?w=550" alt="WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notification Opt-In" width="550" height="271" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151539" class="wp-caption-text">Add an SMS opt-in checkbox to your checkout</figcaption></figure>
<p>You can even send messages for your <strong>custom order statuses</strong> created with <a href="https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-order-status-manager/">Order Status Manager</a>! For example, let customers know when an order has been updated to your custom “shipped” status, and you can even customize the text used for your custom statuses.</p>
<h3>Powerful Customization</h3>
<p>You can change which order status changes will send updates to customers and customize SMS messages to include store name, order ID, order amount, order status, and other order data along with your custom text.</p>
<p>You also have the option to automatically shorten URLs within messages using Google’s URL shortener.</p>
<figure id="attachment_152704" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-152704" style="width: 432px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-notification-settings.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-158617" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-notification-settings.png?w=432" alt="WooCommerce Twilio Customer Notification Settings" width="432" height="550" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-152704" class="wp-caption-text">Add that personal touch with customized SMS messages</figcaption></figure>
<p>You can easily test what customers will see when they receive a message from you right from your Twilio settings page.</p>
<figure id="attachment_152706" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-152706" style="width: 550px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-test-sms-settings.png"><img class="size-medium aligncenter wp-image-152706" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-test-sms-settings.png?w=550" alt="WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notifications Test Message" width="550" height="228" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-152706" class="wp-caption-text">Send test SMS messages directly from the settings page</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Get Insight into Every Order</h3>
<p>Send SMS updates to your customers directly from the Edit Order screen. A handy character count is shown so you don’t go over the 160 character limit for SMS messages. Customers don’t need to have opted-in to SMS updates for you to send them an SMS.</p>
<figure id="attachment_152707" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-152707" style="width: 292px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-send-sms-from-order.png"><img class="size-full aligncenter wp-image-152707" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-send-sms-from-order.png" alt="WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notification Send Message" width="292" height="207" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-152707" class="wp-caption-text">Sending your customers SMS updates can’t get much easier than this</figcaption></figure>
<p>See the status of every SMS sent to a customer by viewing the Order Notes for their order. See the message that was sent and the status. Any errors will appear here to help with troubleshooting.</p>
<figure id="attachment_152708" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-152708" style="width: 290px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-order-notes-sms.png"><img class="size-full aligncenter wp-image-152708" src="https://woocommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/woocommerce-twilio-order-notes-sms.png" alt="WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notification Admin Order Note" width="290" height="218" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-152708" class="wp-caption-text">View every SMS message that was sent to a customer</figcaption></figure>
<div class="woo-sc-box normal  info ">To find if Twilio works in your country and to get additional pricing information please visit the <a href="http://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing">Twilio SMS Pricing page</a>.</div>
<h3>How to Get Started</h3>
<ol>
<li>Buy this extension 🙂</li>
<li>Download and install into your WooCommerce store</li>
<li>Login to your Twilio account (<a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up</a> for Twilio if you don’t already have an account) and grab your Account SID & Auth Code</li>
<li>Add your Twilio info to the extension settings page</li>
<li>That’s it! Sit back and enjoy automatic SMS updates!</li>
</ol>
<p>Read the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/document/twilio-sms-notifications/">full documentation</a> to learn how to customize SMS messages, change order status triggers, setup new order notifications, and more!</p>
<p><em>Need any more reason to buy? When you purchase a SkyVerge-developed extension, you’re getting the highest quality extensions for your WooCommerce store. Gain peace of mind by knowing that when you purchase our products, your store’s performance is as important to us as it is to you.</em></p>

Twilio SMS Notifications

<p>Send SMS updates to customers when their order status is updated and receive an SMS message when a customer places a new order.</p>

Variation Shared Inventory vs Twilio SMS Notifications