Setting up fulfillable inventory
Fulfillable inventory lets you to choose how your shipping settings affect which inventory is available to your customers based on their market and shipping location. Fulfillable inventory affects which products and variants are displayed in stock or out of stock on your product pages. Fulfillable inventory is displayed on your storefront and in your checkout.
For example, you can make your inventory available for purchase only from locations that ship to the customer's shipping zone. This prevents you from overselling across markets and outside of shipping zones.
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Choosing the fulfillable inventory setting for your business
You can choose between two fulfillable inventory settings from your Shipping and delivery page. Review the following table to learn more about these settings:
| Setting | Description | Compatibility |
|---|---|---|
| Sell from all locations to all shipping zones | Customers in any shipping zone can purchase stocked products from any of your locations. This option allows overselling across markets and shipping zones and is designed to capture all possible sales. | Best suited for small businesses using one market or with simple shipping requirements. Also suitable for multi-market businesses that want to ship from any location to all shipping zones. |
| Sell only within configured shipping zones | Customers can only purchase products that are in stock in locations that ship to their shipping zone. This option prevents overselling across shipping zones. | This setting is best suited for businesses with the following criteria:
|
Example: Sell from all locations to all shipping zones
Sally’s Soaps business has two locations where they track inventory, one in the United States and another in Canada. They stock the same items in both locations. Typically, they prefer not to ship items internationally, but will ship on occasion to capture sales.
There are two of Sally’s signature Coconut Bar Soap in stock in the United States location, but there are zero in stock in the Canada location. For a customer in Canada, the soap is displayed as in stock and they can purchase the two remaining soaps. The order is routed to the Canadian location where the inventory drops to -2 after the purchase. In this example, Sally’s Soaps is prioritizing making every single sale over strictly following their shipping zone configurations.
Example: Sell only within configured shipping zones
Sally’s Soaps business has two locations where they track inventory, one in the United States and another in Canada. They stock the same item in both locations, but never want to ship items internationally between countries.
There are two of Sally’s signature Coconut Bar Soap in stock in the United States location, but there are zero in stock in the Canada location. The remaining two soaps can be purchased only by customers located in the United States. For customers in Canada, the soap is displayed as out of stock on the product page and they can't purchase it. In this example, Sally’s Soaps is prioritizing following their shipping zone configurations instead of making every single sale.
Configure your fulfillable inventory
You can configure fulfillable inventory settings in your Shopify admin.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
In the Shipping section, click fulfillable inventory link.
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Choose how to determine product inventory availability across your shipping locations:
- To make product inventory available for purchase from any location to any shipping zone, select Sell from all locations to all shipping zones.
- To make product inventory available for purchase from locations that ship to their shipping zone, select Sell only within configured shipping zones.
Click Save.