Set up inventory tracking

Accurate inventory on your Shopify store helps customers when they are trying to place an order. Before you can view or adjust inventory levels for a product, you need to set up inventory tracking for the product. When you track inventory for a product in Shopify, you can view the history of inventory for that product for up to the most recent 90 days.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

2. Click the name of the product that you want to track.

3. If the product has variants, then click the variant that you want to track.

4. In the Inventory section, check Track quantity.

5. If you want to allow customers to purchase the item when it's out of stock, then check Continue selling when out of stock.

6. In the Quantity section, enter the quantity information for each location.

7. Click Save.

iPhone

1. From the Shopify app, go to Products > All products.

2. Tap the product that you want to track.

3. If the product has variants, then tap the variant that you want to edit. You'll have to set inventory tracking for each variant individually.

4. Tap Inventory.

5. On the inventory screen, enable Track quantity.

6. If you want to allow customers to purchase the item when it's out of stock, then enable Allow purchase when out of stock.

7. Tap Quantity, and then enter the number of units that you have for the product or variant.

8. Tap Done.

9. Tap Save.

10. Tap the name of the product to return to its details screen.

Android

1. From the Shopify app, go to Products > All products.

2. Tap the product that you want to track.

3. If the product has variants, then tap the variant that you want to edit. You'll have to set inventory tracking for each variant individually.

4. Tap Inventory.

5. On the Inventory screen, enable Track quantity.

6. If you want to allow customers to purchase the item when it's out of stock, then enable Allow purchase when out of stock.

7. In Quantity, enter the number of units that you have for the product or variant, then tap ✓.

8. Tap ✓.

9. Tap the back arrow to return to the product details screen.

Caution

If you're using Shopify POS, you can continue selling products when inventory reaches zero and below. This is because the Shopify POS app assumes you have the inventory on hand if you are selling in person.

If you're adding or editing a variant for the online store and you select Continue selling when out of stock, then you can continue selling products when your inventory reaches zero and below. However, if you deselect this option because you don't want to sell a product that has sold out, then customers can't buy the product.

If a product's inventory quantity is tracked using inventory apps, then its quantities will be allocated only to that app location. You can change the locations products are assigned to.