Manual outlet puts a product on sale in one click. It opens on your dead and slow stock, with the reason each product is there. A discount you set on Manual outlet stays until you remove it, and Auto outlet leaves that product alone.
You will learn #
- Which products the page suggests, and why
- How to discount one product, or many at once
- How to take a discount off, including a sale price you set yourself
- How to change the one-click discount buttons
- How to keep a product away from Auto outlet
Before you begin #
- Run an analysis first. The suggested list comes from the health colors of your last analysis. If your store has had too few orders in the last year to tell a slow product from a quiet month, the colors are on hold and the suggested list is empty, but you can still discount any product from Whole catalog.
- Know what Manual outlet can’t discount. A variable product has a sale price on each variation, so set its discount on the variations in WooCommerce. A product that’s in a price test, isn’t published, or has no regular price is left alone too.
- Your WordPress role has to let you edit products. If your role can open Tendlio but can’t edit products, a note above the table says so, and the discount buttons won’t work for you.
- If you sell in the EU, show the 30-day lowest price. In the EU, a sale has to show the lowest price the product had in the 30 days before the discount started. WooCommerce doesn’t show that price on its own, so add a plugin that does. Tendlio’s product rows on your store use your store’s own price display, so they show it too.
Open Manual outlet #
- In your WordPress admin, open Tendlio → Inventory.
- Click Manual outlet. It’s next to Auto outlet.
The page opens on Dead or slow when there’s something to suggest, and on Whole catalog when there isn’t. When some products aren’t selling at all, Your next step, at the top, counts them, and Show the dead ones narrows the list to them.
Choose which products to look at #
The buttons over the table pick what the table shows:
- Dead or slow shows every product the page suggests, in one list: products with a Slow or Dead health color that are in stock and have a price.
- Clear / dead shows the products where a discount is the right call: products that haven’t sold in over a year, have been listed long enough to judge, and earn you little (a thin margin on their real cost, or class C). The group also holds seasonal products that are missing their own season, or sold nothing in their last one.
- Revive / slow shows products that are slow but worth trying something else first: they sold recently, have been quiet for less than a year, earn a good margin on their real cost, haven’t been listed long enough to judge, are seasonal, or are forecast to sell soon. A class A or B product that hasn’t sold in over a year lands in this group too while it has no real cost, because Tendlio can’t tell whether it earns little. A better spot in your shop or a campaign is worth trying before a discount.
- Unsold last season shows up while a season is running. It lists the seasonal products in that season that sold nothing in their last season and nothing so far in this one, with what each sold in its last season and in the season before. Discount them while shoppers are buying, or they wait in storage for another year.
- Tied up lists the products with cash tied up in them, biggest amounts first. The Tied up column says why each one counts, such as No sale in 12 months, Some variations are not selling, More than one season of stock, or how many months of stock you hold. It’s the same money as your Dead Stock score and the To do card about it.
- Whole catalog shows every product, for when you want to put something specific on sale.
To see why a product is in its group, hover over its discount buttons.
A + after a count means there are more such products than the list holds. The list then holds the ones with the most cash tied up, and a note above the table says so. As you clear some, the next ones take their place.
Under the buttons you have the same table as on Products & insights, with search, the Category, Brand, Supplier, Stock and Margin filters, and sorting. Auto outlet’s category rules don’t narrow Manual outlet’s list, so use the Category filter to narrow it yourself. A product you’ve excluded from Auto outlet isn’t among the suggestions, but it’s still under Whole catalog, where you can discount it by hand.
Discount one product #
- Find the product. The Discount column at the end of its row has your one-click buttons, for example -10%, -25% and -40%.
- Click a button. The sale price goes on the product in your shop straight away, and the row shows Now 25% off, with Undo next to it.
The product keeps that discount until you remove it. Auto outlet leaves a product you’ve discounted on Manual outlet alone, so it doesn’t make your discount bigger. Tendlio also adds your outlet tag to the product, the same tag Auto outlet uses.
A few things you might see on a row:
- The button for the discount that’s running now is grayed out.
- You can click a smaller discount than the one running now. Hover the button first: it tells you the price will go up.
- If a discount would bring the sale price to zero at the number of decimals your store uses, Tendlio doesn’t apply it, and suggests a smaller one.
Discount many products at once #
- Tick the box next to each product’s buttons, or tick Select all on this page.
- In Discount, above the table, type the percent. It starts at 20.
- Click Apply to ticked.
A bar shows the progress, and each product gets its own result. A product with a sale price you set yourself, for example, is left alone, and its row says why.
Remove any discount from ticked takes off whatever discount each ticked product has, at any percent, including a sale price you set yourself. The percent box is only for Apply to ticked.
Take a discount off #
- Undo, next to Now N% off, takes the discount off, whether you set it on Manual outlet or Auto outlet did. The product goes back to the price it had before the discount, and Tendlio removes the outlet tag if it added it. Auto outlet then won’t discount the product again for 60 days, but you can still discount it on Manual outlet at any time.
- Remove appears on a product with a sale price you set yourself, next to Your sale: and the price. Manual outlet never puts a discount over your sale price. Remove clears your sale price from the product in WooCommerce, and the row then offers Put back with your old price. Put back restores that price with the start and end dates it had, as long as nothing else has priced the product in the meantime.
Removing your own sale price puts the product back within Auto outlet’s reach. Your sale price was what kept Auto outlet away from it, unless you’ve let Auto outlet take over products already on sale.
Change your one-click buttons #
The buttons come from One-click discount buttons, above the group buttons.
- Type up to five percentages, one per box. Empty a box to drop that button.
- Click Save buttons.
If you empty every box, the default buttons come back: 10%, 25% and 40%.
Keep a product away from Auto outlet #
Manual outlet only discounts a product when you click. Auto outlet discounts products on its own, and there are three ways to keep a product out of it:
- Click Don’t auto-discount on the product’s row in Auto outlet’s plan.
- Check Exclude from Outlet Auto on the product’s edit screen in WooCommerce.
- Keep the product’s whole category out, under Excluded categories on Auto outlet’s Protection & exclusions tab.
None of these stops you from discounting the product on Manual outlet. A product you excluded by itself, in one of the first two ways, isn’t among the suggestions, but you’ll find it under Whole catalog. A product in an excluded category is still suggested, because Auto outlet’s category rules don’t reach Manual outlet. The article How to set up Auto outlet to clear your dead stock explains all of Auto outlet’s rules.
Why Manual outlet works this way #
A discount you set stays at your percent #
Your discount is a decision about that product, so Auto outlet doesn’t make it bigger. If it did, a product you put at 10% to try out a price could end up at your deepest step without you touching it.
Manual outlet never writes over your sale price #
A sale price you set yourself can have dates and a price you chose on purpose. Manual outlet takes it off only when you click Remove, and Tendlio keeps a copy, so Put back can restore it exactly.
Slow products that still sell land in Revive #
A discount gives away part of your margin on every sale that follows it. A product that still sells, or might sell soon, may pick up with a better spot in your shop or a campaign, which cost you no margin, so those products land in Revive / slow first.
Auto outlet’s category rules don’t reach Manual outlet #
Auto outlet’s category rules tell the automatic steps where they may work. On Manual outlet you decide product by product, and a list narrowed by those rules would hide products you might want to discount.
Additional resources #
- How to set up Auto outlet to clear your dead stock: the discounts that run on their own, and the protection rules.
- How to use the Products table: the search, filters and columns Manual outlet shares with it.
- How to use the Tendlio fields on a product: the Exclude from Outlet Auto box.
- Product health colors (Fast / Steady / Slow / Dead)
- Are your discounts paying off? (Discount report)
- Dead stock: markdown, bundle, outlet, or stop buying?
Frequently asked questions #
Will Auto outlet change a discount I set by hand? #
No. It leaves a product you discounted on Manual outlet at your percent until you take the discount off.
Can I discount a variable product here? #
No. A variable product has a sale price on each variation, so set it on the variations in WooCommerce.
What happens to my own sale price if I click Remove? #
Tendlio clears it from the product and keeps a copy. Put back restores the price and its dates, as long as nothing else has priced the product in the meantime.