Selling products when out of stock
A product is considered out of stock in Shopify when the inventory level is at zero or below.
When you sell out of a quantity of an item, by default Shopify won't let customers purchase that item until you adjust the inventory levels to add more stock. You can change the default to let customers buy out-of-stock items from the Inventory section of a product.
If you have a product at a location that fulfills online orders with an inventory level of zero or below, and a location with available inventory that doesn't fulfill online orders, then the product still displays as out of stock to customers on your online store. You will need to add stock to your location that fulfills online orders to allow customers to purchase that product.
You might want to let customers buy out of stock items for any of the following reasons:
- You have products available for preorder.
- You have stock coming soon and you want to continue selling before it arrives.
- You want to sell first and then order supplies later.
- You aren't tracking the actual inventory quantity in Shopify.