The problems
- Shopify inventory reports are passive — you find out about stockouts after the fact.
- Multi-location rules are easy to misconfigure.
- Continue-selling settings hide real availability from customers.
- Third-party fulfillment systems overwrite Shopify quantities on unpredictable schedules.
Approaches
Location-based routing
Assign products to the locations that actually stock them. Avoids orders being routed to a warehouse with zero units.
Safety stock thresholds
Reserve a buffer for retail or high-value channels.
Proactive alerts
Notify purchasing when velocity indicates a stockout in N days rather than waiting for zero.
Best practices
- Reconcile Shopify quantities with your source system weekly.
- Set alerts on top 10% of SKUs at a tighter threshold.
- Audit continue-selling flags monthly.
Checklist
- 1Map every product to the correct location(s)
- 2Set thresholds per SKU class (A/B/C)
- 3Enable alerts for bestsellers
- 4Document reconciliation cadence
FAQ
Only for made-to-order or long-lead SKUs where you can fulfill within a customer's expected window.