Bundling and keeping track of inventory

[Josh123]

I see there's an option to create a bundle, ie let's say a gift basket that is made up of components in order to keep track of what's selling. So if you have 12 of an item and you make 12 baskets then it will subtract the item as the baskets sell. 

But what if you also sell that item individually? So let's say you have 24 of an item. 12 that's already been made into baskets and 12 you have individually. When a customer goes online, they'll only be able to buy as many baskets as total components, but if they wanted to buy 24 of that first time, what stops them from doing that? In other words, how do I stop a customer from individually buying something that's been made into a basket?

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@Josh123 ;

Ok lets say you have 15 Items and 12 Baskets...... So the most you could sell as a Bundle defaults to 12 Bundles.

Now lets say you also sell the Item individually and sell 5 of them alone.   Now the Bundles drop to 10 bundles being able to be sold.

The problem I run into is 1 made up 8 Bundles, Having 4 Baskets and 7 Items still to be sold individually.  Customer comes in and wants  10 items or 7 baskets and I either loose the sale or take apart the bundle.  I can not for example say I have 8 Baskets (Bundles) made up for Sale, which in return lowered the individual 'For Sale' quantity.

The other issue is if the Item you sell comes in variations or colors there is no way to track that.  Meaning I have baskets made and put Soap and Lotion in them, customers can not say they want Mango Lotion with the Black Soap unless I made this as a bundle already.