Can i have "Virtual Availability" in products? I mean that i do not want to exactly track the quantity of a product but assign to them some general availability statuses like
0 - Available (we have stock of this product) 1 - Available in 1-2 days (order from the local supplier) 3 - Available in 3-7 days (order from the local supplier. The local supplier will contact the mother company) 4 - Not available
In many eshops there is such a need because usually they avoid to stocks products.
As soon as there is an order with a specific product we contact the supplier immediately and we can fulfill the order in 1-3 days.
There is no similar functionality in nopCommerce for virtual availability. But you can use one of the following:
1. Delivery dates - you can create 4 delivery dates from admin -> configuration -> shipping -> delivery dates and assign one of them to your products.
2. Use a Specification Attribute where you can create a specification named "product availability" with 4 specification options and again assign one of them to your products.
I used a combination of delivery dates and a product attribute to achieve something similar. See this page for an example: http://www.ashdistribution.co.uk/duracell-plus-power-d-batteries-alkaline-pack-of-2 (this is showing right now but could change if the product comes back into stock). The availability is a read only product attribute and the lead time is the delivery date.
I think I chose to use a readonly product attribute because it's then visible in the basket so the customer will still see it even if they've added the product to the basket from a category page or some other page instead of the product details page.