Jeff Mack Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I just want to make a statement about the Walmart Stock tracker that a lot of you are asking for and spreading the word about. It really doesn't work. The information is not really there to use accurately and not even close to what the Target information provides. Talking with the head of the Walmart Affiliate/Tech group, I asked the question about getting live stock information and here are his quotes. "We do not support that ability yet." Then I asked if it was something that would happen soon... "This will take some time as it is a business decision whether to put the data out or not, not simply a technical matter." The information provided by the api is not really real time based on what I was told by the people that handle it, so anything offered by that other site is skeptical at best. At this time, I don't see myself investing time into building anything for this until I see that the actual ability to give decent information is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOrcKing Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Score another for Target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xeeeej Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 It has proved to be about 90% reliable/accurate for me. YMMV, but 90% > 0%, particularly when plotting out clearance runs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mack Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 It has proved to be about 90% reliable/accurate for me. YMMV, but 90% > 0%, particularly when plotting out clearance runs. Well its good that you had success with it, but the reason I looked into it was because members asked me if I was going to build one because it was not accurate at all. It sometimes says '2 or more available'. How can it say that if there is nothing telling you the quantity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xeeeej Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Well its good that you had success with it, but the reason I looked into it was because members asked me if I was going to build one because it was not accurate at all. It sometimes says '2 or more available'. How can it say that if there is nothing telling you the quantity? Just because it doesn't work for mscheaf, that doesn't mean it doesn't work at all! The Walmart phone app, www site, and mobile site all have inventory levels and will show In stock (2+), limited stock (<2), or out of stock. I do not believe these classifications are just pulled from thin air. The "other site" tracking api seems to mirror these, and has been mostly accurate for me. Again, YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
force392 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 It has proved to be about 90% reliable/accurate for me. YMMV, but 90% > 0%, particularly when plotting out clearance runs. 90% of the time, it works 0% of the time...LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mack Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Just because it doesn't work for mscheaf, that doesn't mean it doesn't work at all! The Walmart phone app, www site, and mobile site all have inventory levels and will show In stock (2+), limited stock (<2), or out of stock. I do not believe these classifications are just pulled from thin air. The "other site" tracking api seems to mirror these, and has been mostly accurate for me. Again, YMMV. I guess maybe its your site and you are plugging it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaisonline Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 good call jeff. i've had mixed results with my ios walmart app. the +2 in-stock info was so hit or miss that i stopped using it. maybe walmart has some internal integration (most likely batch, e.g. ETL) upload issue with some stores. the target app is far more reliable across all stores in my region unlike the walmart one. I just want to make a statement about the Walmart Stock tracker that a lot of you are asking for and spreading the word about. It really doesn't work. The information is not really there to use accurately and not even close to what the Target information provides. Talking with the head of the Walmart Affiliate/Tech group, I asked the question about getting live stock information and here are his quotes. "We do not support that ability yet." Then I asked if it was something that would happen soon... "This will take some time as it is a business decision whether to put the data out or not, not simply a technical matter." The information provided by the api is not really real time based on what I was told by the people that handle it, so anything offered by that other site is skeptical at best. At this time, I don't see myself investing time into building anything for this until I see that the actual ability to give decent information is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaisonline Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 90% of the time, it works 0% of the time...LOL nice take on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pseudoty Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I think one of the main problems a lot of us saw recently when ordering clearance sets using the mobile site only to have them cancelled. Sometimes you knew that set hasn't been at your walmart for months but were able to order it as in stock and other times you could be looking at it on the shelf but being told it was OOS by the walmart site. I think there are issues with walmart's inventory system that do not work well with an in stock inventory tracker. Walmart counts items in route from the warehouse as being in stock. If you ask an associate to scan a set on their gun it breaks it down to what is on the floor, can they find it, has it been stolen. Then what is in the back or on a trailer, once again can they find it or will they look. Also I believe they count items on order in their stock but not 100% sure on that one. I am not sure when something is stolen when they purge it from their system but I know from another product I used to resell it always showed in stock, 2 cases, even though they knew it was stolen by an employee and never made it to the floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscheaf Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Glad I am the site joke now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaisonline Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Glad I am the site joke now. No. You are 100% not. The mods are already working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mack Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 No more really needs to be said here for now if there are updates in the future about coming up with a solid way of doing this, I will update it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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