Google's Item Availability Requirements

[lbohen]

Aside from adding availability status to each of our 10K+ products, a much larger implication for us is whether to stock all 10K+ products. We rely on our distributors / publishers for direct shipping much of our orders. Having to actually stock at least one of our 10K+ products would be a large investment, much of which might be in our inventory for a long time.

I suspect Google’s “in stock” value expects that a product is actually in our stock, not our distributor’s / publisher’s stock.

Currently we are NOT integrated, nor is it likely to happen anytime soon, with our distributors / publishers real-time inventory. Most of the time we don't know something has gone out-of-publication until we try to order it for stock or a direct ship.

I am curious how other online merchants who offer 1000s of products are managing / plan to manage Google’s new values particularly “in stock” and “available to order.”