First Paid First Served changes how your shop reserves inventory for shoppers. When enabled, CommentSold will not hold inventory for the first shopper to cart an item. Instead, the first customer to pay for the item will receive it.
For example, Shopper A and Shopper B both comment to cart the same pair of denim shorts in a size large during a live sale. With First Paid First Served enabled, both receive a notice on their checkout page that the item isn't reserved. Shopper B doesn't want to miss out, so they check out. In this case, Shopper B receives the pair of shorts.
There are two exceptions to First Paid First Served:
- If a customer chooses to pay with PayPal or Sezzle, CommentSold will temporarily hold the item(s) to allow the shopper to complete the payment process. If the customer does not complete the process, then CommentSold will release the hold.
- If a member of your team manually adds an item to a customer's cart, then CommentSold will hold the item for the set Cart Expiration time.
How First Paid First Served Benefits Your Shop
- Improve inventory availability for those shoppers who are ready to purchase an item.
- Prevent inventory hoarding during live sales.
- Manage individual shoppers who repeatedly hoard inventory by applying this setting to them alone.
Enable First Paid First Served for All Shoppers
You can enable First Paid First Served system-wide meaning this feature will apply to all registered shoppers who cart items.
- Select Setup in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Select Shop in the menu at the top of the page.
- In the Selling Preferences section on the right side of the page, locate Enable First Paid First Served.
- Select the toggle to appear as Enabled.
- If desired, enable the Disable Cart Timers setting.
- If enabled, shoppers will not see a cart expiration countdown on the webstore and mobile app.
- Additionally, products will remain in their shopping cart until removed by either your team or the shopper.
Enable First Paid First Served for Specific Shoppers
If you have specific shoppers who have a tendency to cart and horde inventory without completing the checkout process, then you may choose to enable First Paid First Served for that specific shopper.
The shopper would still be able to cart items, however, CommentSold would not reserve those products for that customer. They would need to check out to ensure they receive the products, but inventory isn't guaranteed if the product sells out before then.
- Select Customers in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Locate the shopper record and select the three dots to the left of their name, then select Customer Details.
- Locate and select the Enable Forced First Paid First Serve Mode toggle so it appears as Enabled.
- Confirm your action by selecting Enabled on the confirmation pop-up.
If you wish to filter your customer records to show those shoppers with Forced First Paid First Served enabled, select the Filter button at the top of the customer listing, then select the Forced First Paid First Serve Enabled checkbox.
What Your Shoppers Experience
If you enable First Paid First Served, then shoppers will see a message in their cart warning them that items are not held until checkout is completed.
If the product is in stock when they attempt to check out, they'll see the normal Thank you for your order! banner.
If the product is no longer in stock when they attempt to check out, they will see a message informing them that the item has been added to their waitlist.
Learn More
- Train Your Customers How to Comment Purchase. Learn how to train your shoppers to comment purchase during live sales and on Facebook. This is a great opportunity to also teach them how inventory holds work!
- Enable Waitlist Preauthorization. Learn how to enable waitlist preauthorization for your shoppers.
- How a Shopper Can Preauthorize Waitlist Items. Learn how shoppers can preauthorize waitlist items to automatically process once you restock the item(s).