Find low-stock products in Shopify
Low stock is found by reading the Inventory page with the thinnest counts at the top, then working out how many days each one lasts. This tutorial finds the lowest Trail Crew Tee variants and ranks them by days left, so the reorder list writes itself.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Where to look | Products, then Inventory |
| Lowest variant | Large Blue, 4 units |
| Selling at | 2 units a day |
| Days left | 2 days |
| Next lowest | Small Blue, 9 units at 3 a day |
Download the record: low-stock-check.csv (228 bytes).
A low-stock check for the Main Street store: available count, daily sales rate, and days left for the five lowest Trail Crew Tee variants.
1Open the Inventory page
From your Shopify admin, go to Products, then Inventory. The Inventory page lists every tracked product and variant at the location you pick.
2Pick one location
From the location picker, select Main Street store. Stock is per location, so a variant that is thin at the shop may be fine at the Warehouse, and the two must not be mixed.
3Sort by Available, lowest first
Sort the list by the Available column so the smallest counts sit at the top. The top of the list is where the stockouts will happen first.
4Read the five lowest variants
Read the top five rows: Large Blue 4, Small Blue 9, Medium Red 11, Small Red 14, and Large Red 21. The two blue variants are the thinnest, and they go on the reorder list first.
5Work out days left for each
Divide the available count by the recent daily sales rate. Small Blue sells 3 a day, so 9 units last 3 days. Large Blue sells 2 a day, so 4 units last 2 days and need ordering first: days left, not the raw count alone, sets the order.
6Act on the shortest fuse first
Reorder Large Blue first, then Small Blue. A count alone does not set the order: a variant with fewer units but slower sales can safely wait behind a faster seller with more units.
The arithmetic
Days left is the available count divided by the daily sales rate:
| Variant | Available | Sold per day | Days left |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large Blue | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Small Blue | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| Medium Red | 11 | 2 | 5.5 |
| Small Red | 14 | 2 | 7 |
| Large Red | 21 | 3 | 7 |
Large Blue lasts 2 days, Small Blue lasts 3, Medium Red lasts 5.5, and the two red variants last 7 days each. The reorder order is Large Blue, then Small Blue, then the rest.
Held at the counter
Available is the number that matters for selling. On hand includes units that are committed to orders or held in unavailable states. A variant can show a healthy On hand count while its Available count is near zero, so sort and read Available.
A count without a sales rate misleads. Nine units is three days at 3 a day and nine days at 1 a day. Without the sales rate, the count alone cannot tell you whether to reorder today or next week.
Check both locations before you reorder. A variant that is thin at the Main Street store may have plenty at the Warehouse. A transfer between locations is faster and cheaper than a new order, so check the other location first.
Sources
- Inventory reports — Shopify's help pages: the Inventory sold daily by product report, which gives the average units sold per day by variant.
- Adjusting inventory quantities — Shopify's help pages: the Inventory page shows Available and On hand quantities per location.