When Your Website and Your Store Disagree

If your store has a VMX online shop, your website does not read your stock live. It keeps its own copy of your inventory and refreshes it every minute or two. Almost every "the website is wrong" question is about that copy being behind, not about someone typing the wrong number.

Ask VMXpert in plain language:

• "Our website is showing different stock than we have. Is something wrong?"
• "Why isn't PLU 4471 showing on our website?"
• "I put this on sale yesterday and the website still shows the old price."

VMXpert checks the sync and tells you which of a few things is happening, and whether you need to do anything. Usually you don't.

This applies only to stores with a VMX-built online shop. If your website was built elsewhere, it does not use this sync.

"Last updated" can look old and still be fine

The most confusing number is the time of the last update. It only moves when there is something to send. On a quiet afternoon, when nobody has changed an item or sold anything, that time can be hours old and your website is perfectly up to date.

So the useful question is not "how long since the last update" but "is anything waiting to go out". VMXpert answers that one. If nothing is waiting, your site is current, no matter what the timestamp says.

When changes really aren't reaching the site

If changes have been waiting a long time, the service that pushes them has stopped. This one is on our side, not yours. It isn't a setting on any screen, and there is nothing to switch back on.

Two things worth knowing:

• Nothing is lost. Nothing has to be re-entered.
• Once it is restarted it catches up on its own, usually within a minute or two.

VMXpert will tell you when this is the case, and can write the message to VMX for you. Contact help@vmxllc.com.

An item that won't show online

Ask VMXpert about the specific item and it will list every setting that decides whether the item appears, along with your stock by store. The usual reasons, in the order they actually happen:

• Stock is zero or below. The shop shows it as out of stock. It comes back on its own when you receive more in.
• Web Visible is turned off, or the item is marked in-store only.
• Selling is turned off for that item.
• You changed it a moment ago and it is still on its way out.

One thing catches people out. Some stores also hide items automatically when stock drops below a set number, and that rule is re-checked when stock moves, not when you edit the item. So if you switch an item back on and nothing happens, it may need a receiving or a count before it reappears.

Also note that the link to a hidden item's page doesn't show an error. It quietly lands on your general products page, so don't take that as proof the item is gone.

An item you deleted is still on the website

Removals are sent once. Occasionally one doesn't land, and the product stays on your site, sometimes with a stock number frozen at whatever it was.

You won't be able to fix this from the POS, because the item is already gone from your inventory. That is exactly why it stopped updating. Ask VMXpert and it will confirm what happened; clearing the leftover from the shop is something VMX does. Contact help@vmxllc.com.

What rides along with the sync

The same refresh carries your prices, item names and descriptions, departments, collections, item photos (a photo has to be marked to show on the web), and online pricing for customer classes. So "the sale price isn't showing online" is the same question as "the stock is wrong online" and starts in the same place.