Share one stock pool across your channels instead of giving each channel its own stock. McKinsey’s omnichannel guidance says inventory should not be dedicated to one channel (McKinsey, 2021). The cost of getting it wrong is large: out-of-stocks cause 65.6% of the roughly US$1.7 trillion lost to inventory distortion each year (IHL Group, via Retail Insight Network, 2026). … Read More

A stock transfer moves inventory between your locations, and a good process has clear statuses: Shopify’s help page lists 5, from Draft and Ready to ship through In progress to Transferred, with Canceled as the exit (Shopify Help Center, 2026). A draft moves no stock, and arriving stock isn’t automatically sellable at the destination, so check both before you call a transfer done. … Read More

WooCommerce lets you manage stock for a variable product at product level, where all variations share one count, at variation level, where each tracks its own, or as a mix of the two (WooCommerce documentation, 2026). Choose variation level for sizes and colours that sell at different speeds, and check the hide-out-of-stock rules before you rely on them. … Read More

Stock isn’t one number. Shopify’s help page defines 5 inventory states: On hand, Available, Committed, Unavailable and Incoming, and On hand equals Committed plus Unavailable plus Available (Shopify Help Center, 2026). Only Available units can be sold, so tracking all five stops you promising stock that’s already spoken for, and keeps your online shop and your shelf telling the same story. … Read More

Two divisions show your stock risk. Sales velocity is units sold divided by days, so 84 units over 28 days is 3 a day. Days of inventory is units on hand divided by velocity, so 60 units at 3 a day is 20 days (Practical Ecommerce, 2026). Compare 7, 28 and 90-day windows, and judge the result against your reorder lead time. … Read More

Every stock change should say when, who and why. Shopify’s adjustment history records the date, the activity, who or what made the change and 5 quantity columns, with 7 reason choices from Correction to Theft or loss, and only the last 180 days are viewable (Shopify Help Center, 2026). You can copy the habit in any spreadsheet. … Read More

Plan holiday stock around what you can afford to lose, not around hope. In a 2025 US survey, 32% of small business owners worried about holiday inventory and more than half said tight budgets made discounting difficult or impossible (Retail Dive, 2025). Reorder fast sellers on lead times, set low stock alerts, and avoid tying up cash in slow items you can’t discount away. … Read More

A small shop should track three stock numbers: inventory turnover (cost of goods sold divided by average inventory), carrying costs, and opportunity cost. Inventory ties up 20% to 60% of business capital for most small retailers (Global Payments, 2025), so these numbers show whether your money is working or sitting on a shelf. Start with turnover, because you can work it out from figures you already have. … Read More

To avoid overselling in WooCommerce, turn on Manage stock, set a Low Stock Threshold so you get an email before an item sells out, and use Hold Stock (minutes) so unpaid carts don’t block real buyers (WooCommerce documentation, 2026). It matters because out-of-stocks cause 65.6% of the roughly US$1.7 trillion retailers lose to inventory distortion each year (IHL Group, via Retail Insight Network, 2026). … Read More

Stop overselling by keeping one central stock count that your website, Shopee and Lazada all read from and update. Stock-outs are costly: global inventory distortion runs about US$1.7 trillion a year, or 6.2% of retail sales (IHL Group, 2026), and nearly one in four small retailers only learn an item is out of stock when a customer tries to buy it (Global Payments, 2025). Replacing manual counts with shared, real-time stock sync protects sales and customer trust. … Read More