Overview: Inventory Scarcity Indicators

Owned by Jenni Buonanni
Last updated: Jul 12, 2023 by Sarah Holst
4 min read

This feature is supported for Aspenware Cloud customers only.

 

Inventory Scarcity Indicators enable resorts to display scarcity color-coding on the inline calendar based on a predefined threshold that is specific to a particular product. Therefore, thresholds can vary which is helpful for things like lessons which have a much smaller threshold than lift tickets.

Feature Overview

Research shows that creating a sense of urgency for inventoried products is a motivation for guests to purchase, and is proven to drive more revenue and boost conversions. Color coding low inventory dates offers the messaging that creates that sense of urgency.

One resort ran an A/B test on its lesson products for the 2023/24 season, splitting traffic 50/50, with 50% of the traffic seeing today’s calendar which only shows dates that are sold out, and 50% of traffic seeing a calendar that color-coded dates running low on inventory as yellow to drive urgency. In this test, the color-coded experience won with a 4.4% increase in lesson purchases compared to today, and $110k more in-test revenue.

NOTE: This feature requires additional configuration from Aspenware. Reach out to your Aspenware Service Agent to enable this feature if you are an Aspenware Cloud customer.

Displaying Urgency Indicators

To enable resorts to capitalize on the opportunity to offer scarcity messaging, the Inventory Scarcity Indicators feature is offered on the calendar appearing on the Inline calendar on the product detail page . This feature enables the following functionality:

  • Display the same low inventory color-coding that is available on the full dynamic pricing calendar today across both the large dynamic pricing calendar and the inline calendar displayed on the product detail page.

  • Offer low inventory color-coding that is available today across more product types, with the introduction of calendar templates that enables the assignment of specific thresholds to specific products.

  • If a selected date is below the store-wide inventory threshold, display the number left on that date on the PDP. This feature can be used to educate guests booking multiple quantities of spots left, for example, a person booking for a party of 4 will now know there are only 2 spots left before adding to cart and can call to get help or choose an alternate date.

  • Allow unique low inventory thresholds that determine the display of color coding for a specific product or group of products rather than a singular, store-wide threshold.

  • Display messaging above the calendar of specific products to explain to guests what to do if a date they are interested is sold out or nearing selling out.

Feature Quick Comparison - Aspenware Commerce vs. Cloud

The following table offers a quick glimpse into the differences between how inventory urgency features are realized currently in Commerce and contrast them with Aspenware Cloud.

Feature

Aspenware Commerce

Aspenware Cloud

Feature

Aspenware Commerce

Aspenware Cloud

Threshold to determine low inventory

Store-wide low inventory threshold that applies to all products that use the dyanmic pricing calendar and have inventory.

For non-Cloud implementations, the store determines a product is “low-inventory” if it drops below a store-wide inventory number. This store-wide inventory threshold is not always an accurate low inventory barometer across distinct product types, for example, a ticket may be considered low if a date only has 100 left, while a lesson may be considered low when it has less than 10 left.

Enables the same low inventory color-coding that is available today across more product types, with the introduction of calendar templates, which allows low inventory thresholds, which determine the number left at which to display color coding on dates. This is triggered by a unique threshold that only applies to a group of assigned products.

Display Low Inventory Dates on the Inline PDP Calendar

Not supported

The Inline Calendar on the PDP will display low inventory dates as color coded if the product is configured to display inventory urgency.

Display a Date Selection Description above Calendar

Not supported

Enables displaying a description that can appear above the Inline calendar of assigned products on the PDP. This can be used to explain to users what to do in the event the date they are interested is sold out or doesn’t have enough spots for their desired party size.

 

Considerations

  • Only the Large Pricing Calendar and the Inline Calendar on the PDP is able to display Inventory Scarcity Indicators, the standard Drop-Down calendar and Radio Button Dates are not able to display Inventory Scarcity yet.

  • In this first release, only the inline calendar is using the new Calendar Templates threshold. This means that if a product is set to use both the Large Pricing Calendar and the Inventory Scarcity Indicators on the Inline Calendar on the PDP, the color coding thresholds could be different, causing different days to be color coded across the screens. The Large Pricing Calendar will be updated to be able to read from the Calendar Templates threshold in a future release.

  • Displaying # left on the PDP is not set to be displayed based on the calendar template threshold yet.