Stock & inventory — keep stock counts honest
Count stock or just switch In Stock on and off, pause a product or one size without losing its count, update fast in Stock mode, see what is running low, and keep the count true through cancellations and returns.
Watch0:386 min readUpdated 21 Oct 2026
In this guide
How stock works, in four lines
- You set a numberHow many you have today
- An order is placedThe count drops by itself
- It gets lowProducts page flags it for you
- It reaches zeroSold Out — the website refuses the order
The refusal is real, not a hidden button: our servers check availability again when the order is actually placed, so a customer with your page open from an hour ago still cannot buy the last one twice. Orders you create for a phone or counter sale skip the Sold out switch — you can record a sale of a product you paused — but they still take from the count, so an order for more pieces than the count holds is refused with “Only N left in stock”. Correct the count first if the shelf has more.
Setting stock on a product
Open the product
Products → tap the product name or photo to open the full form.
Turn on Track Inventory and type the number
In Stock on the card at the top of the form, switch on Track Inventory and type the Stock Count. Leave tracking off for anything you never run out of — services, made-to-order items. Untracked products show one In Stock switch instead: they stay on sale until you switch it off. (A digital download has no stock at all — a file never runs out.)
Products with sizes or colours: set it per option
When a product has variants, each size or colour carries its own count in Variants & packs (blank = not counted, 0 = none left). The product itself counts as available while any one of its options still has stock, and only the sold-out options grey out for the customer. Long lists of choices — phone models, print blanks — can carry a count per choice too, under Stock per choice.
Pausing a product or one size — without losing the count
Every product, size and pack has two separate things: the count (how many you have) and whether you are selling it. Switch a size to Paused (the Selling switch on its row), or mark a product Out of Stock, and customers see Sold out while the count stays exactly as it was — it stays paused however the count changes, until you switch it back on. Something that sold out on its own (the count reached 0) goes back on sale the moment you type a new count. Turning a product back on at 0 asks how many you now have: a whole number, or blank to stop counting.
Example · Kavya, a kurti shop in Jaipur
She has 6 size M kurtis but is holding them for a wedding order this week. She pauses size M — the website shows it sold out, the 6 stays on the count, and once the wedding order is settled she switches size M back on without retyping anything.
Start with your fast movers. Tracking forty products you sell once a year buys you nothing; tracking the ten that actually run out stops the phone call you dread — “sorry, that one is finished” after they have already paid.
Three speeds for updating stock
Nobody opens a full product form to change one number. There are three faster ways.
Which one do I want?
Products with sizes or colours show an ⚙ Options shortcut in Stock mode instead of a stepper, because their stock lives per option. Everything you change this way saves on its own — your live shop updates within seconds, with no publish step.
Knowing before you run out
Two things watch the shelf for you, and they answer different questions.
| Where | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Low stock — the tile at the top of the Products page, and a “products low on stock” line on your website’s Manage page | Anything counted down to 5 or fewer — for a product with sizes, any one size at 5 or fewer (its card says how many sizes are low or sold out). A simple line in the sand. |
| Running out — a chip on the Products focus rail | Anything that will run out within a week at the speed it is actually selling, with “~N days of stock left” on each card. This is the one to restock from. |
Your customers see a nudge too: at 5 or fewer, the product page, the cart and checkout show a small “Only 3 left” style note. If that does not suit what you sell, switch it off for one product in its Low-stock urgency tile, or for the whole shop in Settings → Appearance → What customers see → Hide low-stock urgency — site-wide.
What a customer sees when something sells out
By default a sold-out product stays on your shop with a Sold Out badge and a disabled buy button. That is deliberate: the page keeps working, so every WhatsApp message and bookmark that pointed at it still opens something instead of an error.
- On many store designs its page also offers a Notify Me box — the customer types an email and the request lands in your Form Inbox with the product’s name. That list is your restock order (nothing is sent to them automatically when it is back — write to them yourself).
- Want a tidier shop? Settings → Appearance → What customers see → turn off Show out-of-stock products in listings. They vanish from the shop, categories and search, and their pages keep working by direct link.
- There is a further advanced option that removes those pages from your website entirely. Old links then stop working, so use it only if you know you want that — see What customers see.
Cancellations, returns and the count
This is where counts usually go wrong, and the fix is almost always to use the right action rather than the status dropdown.
| What happened | Do this | What stock does |
|---|---|---|
| Order called off before it shipped | Cancel the order | Every item goes back on the shelf automatically |
| Customer sent something back | The return flow on the order | You choose per item whether it is fit to resell |
| Courier returned the parcel (RTO) | The RTO flow on the order | Same — you decide what goes back |
| You sold it at the counter | Create the order in your dashboard | Stock comes down like any other sale |
Automatic restocking on cancellation is on by default. If you would rather count by hand, turn off Auto-restock when order is cancelled in Settings → Advanced. Full detail on returns: Cancellations, returns & RTO.
Keeping the count honest
Do this
- Count your fast movers once a week in Stock mode — it takes five minutes
- Record counter and WhatsApp sales as orders so stock follows them
- Use the return flow for returns and Cancel only for orders that never went out
- Restock from the Running out chip, not from memory
- Leave tracking off for things you cannot run out of
Not this
- Marking a returned order “Cancelled” — it puts stock back that may be damaged
- Tracking stock on services or made-to-order items
- Fixing a wrong count without asking why it drifted
- Turning stock tracking off to “fix” an oversell — it removes the protection
- Leaving a product at zero for months instead of hiding it
Example · Farida, a saree shop in Hyderabad
Her count kept drifting by three or four pieces a week. The cause was not theft: two returns a week were being marked Cancelled from the status dropdown, which put damaged pieces straight back on the shelf. She switched her staff to the return flow, ticked “do not restock” on anything damaged, and the shelf and the screen have matched since.
Related
| You want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Add products, options and packs | Add & edit products |
| Handle returns and RTO properly | Cancellations, returns & RTO |
| Hide sold-out items from your shop | What customers see |
| Record supplier bills and refill stock | Purchases & vendor bills |
| Download a reorder list | Reports & exports |
Common questions
I do not want to track stock at all. Is that fine?
Completely. Leave tracking off and your products never go out of stock. Most service businesses and made-to-order sellers run this way for years.
A customer ordered something I had already sold in the shop. How?
Because the counter sale was never recorded, so the website still believed the piece existed. Record counter and WhatsApp sales as orders — it takes a minute and keeps the count true.
Can two customers buy the last piece at the same time?
No. The last unit is taken in a single step at the moment the order is placed, so exactly one of the two gets it and the other is told it has just gone.
Does stock cover sizes and colours separately?
Yes — each option has its own count. The product shows as available while any option has stock, and only the sold-out sizes grey out for the customer.
Where do I see every movement in and out?
The Stock Journal, under Books & Tax, records movements with their reason — purchases, returns, corrections and, when your CRM keeps one count with the website, every change made in the CRM. Your website's own sales are not written there (they live on Orders). It is the page to open when a count and a shelf disagree.
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