Product inventory

It is important to keep your inventory accurate and track the quantity of each product in your store. Accurate inventory allows you to avoid selling more products than you have and helps remind you to replenish your stock before you run out.

You can specify stock quantity for every product in your store, and your store will automatically reduce it when a product is bought. Once the quantity of a certain product reaches zero, this product will receive a “Sold Out” label and become unavailable for purchase. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a product quantity gets low, so you have time to restock.

Enabling stock tracking for products

When you add new products to your store, they have an unlimited quantity by default. To enable stock tracking for a product, specify how many units of this product you have in stock.

When customers place orders for a product (and the order payment status is either Awaiting Payment or Paid), the product’s stock is automatically reduced by the number of units ordered. Once that product’s stock reaches zero, it is labeled as “Out of stock” in your store admin and as “Out of stock”/“Sold Out” in your store and can’t be added to the cart. 

To set quantity in stock for a product and enable low-stock notification emails:

1. Go to Catalog > Products and open the product you want to edit.

2. Find the Stock Control block on the right.

   

3. Click “Manage.”

4. Enter the number of items you have in stock.

   

5. Specify the product quantity at which you want to receive low-stock notifications.

6. Save the changes.

You can also track the stock levels of a product by its options, like color and size. To track a product’s stock by size, color, etc., you will need to create variations for your available product options and specify the SKU and stock quantity for each variation. 

Low-stock notifications

Any low-stock notifications will be sent to the email address that you specified in the Store Intake form. 

When you receive a low-stock notice in your inbox, click the “Re-stock product'' button to quickly access that product’s editing page and update the stock quantity once it has been replenished.

To remove low-stock notifications for a product, go to that product’s page, select the stock control block, and set a zero value in the “Send me a note when the quantity in stock reaches” section. This way, the notification will be sent only when the product becomes out of stock in your store.

Updating product stock levels in bulk

You can always update the stock of individual products on their pages in Catalog > Products. If you want to update the stock of your products (or their variations) in bulk, you can quickly update the stock of products and/or their variations using the Bulk Product Editor tool.

Viewing your inventory

There are several options to view current stock of products and product variations in your store:

• Check the stock of a product on its page in Catalog > Products (in the Options > Variations tab, if the product has variations).

• Use the Bulk Product Editor to view multiple products and their stock all at once. Choose the products you need (or select all the items in your store) in Catalog > Products, enter the Bulk Product Editor and scroll the table down to see whether you need to refill the stock.

• You can also use the “Out of stock” filter on the Catalog > Products page to get the list of out-of-stock products. This filter displays all the products that are currently out of stock.

Note: A product with variations appears under the Out of stock filter only if all variations of this product are out of stock. If some variations of this product are still in stock, the product will not appear.

Understanding stock changes in your store

If you’re using stock control, the stock for products is changed according to the following rules:

• If a customer adds products to cart in your online store and checks out, then the stock is reduced by the number of products ordered. A customer cannot order a product if its quantity has already reached “0.”

• When an order for a product (or a product variation) is placed in your store, that order's payment status becomes either “Awaiting Payment” or “Paid.” If you later change the payment status for an order to “Cancelled” or “Refunded,” the quantity of the products from that order will be automatically returned to their stock. For example, if you have 8 units of a product in stock and then cancel an existing order for 2 units, you will have 10 units in stock.

• If you create an order on behalf of a customer, product stock is always reduced.

• If your manual order includes a product that is already out of stock, or its quantity in stock is lower than the quantity in the order, the product stock will become negative. For example, product quantity was equal to “1” and you manually placed an order for 3 units of it, as the result the product stock will be equal to “-2”.

• If you place an order for a product from an abandoned cart, its stock will be reduced.

• If the order features a product that has become out-of-stock in your store by the moment you place the order for an abandoned cart, or if the quantity in stock is lower than the quantity in the order, the stock will become negative. In this case, you will see a special “Oversold by” notice when placing an order.

• If you edit the product quantity for orders that already exist, the change won't affect the in-stock quantity for these items in your store. You will need to take care of the stock changes yourself (e.g., update the stock manually or provide additional items, if needed).