Inventory Tracking

Overview

Real-time inventory tracking prevents overselling by reserving stock when customers add items to their cart and decrementing it on order fulfillment. Every major e-commerce platform has this built in. Platform-native inventory tracking is almost always the right starting point — only build custom inventory logic if you have requirements that platforms cannot meet (complex multi-warehouse routing, custom reservation windows, or external WMS integration).

When to Use This Skill

• When overselling is occurring and orders are being placed for out-of-stock items
• When implementing multi-warehouse inventory with per-location stock levels
• When building backorder or pre-order functionality for out-of-stock products
• When a flash sale or product launch will create high-concurrency checkout attempts for limited-stock items

Core Instructions

Step 1: Determine platform and enable inventory tracking

Platform	Built-in Inventory	Recommended Extension
Shopify	Native per-variant inventory tracking with location support	Stocky (free, by Shopify) for purchase orders and demand forecasting
WooCommerce	Native stock management with backorder support	ATUM Inventory Management for advanced multi-warehouse and supplier POs
BigCommerce	Native per-SKU inventory tracking with low-stock alerts	Multi-Location Inventory app for warehouse routing
Custom / Headless	Build atomic reservation with optimistic locking	Required for custom platforms without native inventory management

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Step 2: Platform-specific setup

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Shopify

Shopify tracks inventory per variant, per location, natively.

Enable inventory tracking:

1. Go to Admin → Products → [Product] → [Variant]
2. Under Inventory, check Track quantity
3. Enter your quantity per location
4. For "Continue selling when out of stock" — only check this if you allow backorders for this product

Set up locations:

1. Go to Settings → Locations
2. Add each warehouse, store, or fulfillment center as a location
3. When editing a product variant, set the quantity at each location independently

Backorders:

• Enable per variant: check Continue selling when out of stock on the variant
• Or use a backorder app like Pre-Order Now or Back In Stock for more control (notify customers when available, collect pre-orders, etc.)

Oversell prevention during high traffic:

Shopify's checkout system holds inventory during the checkout process to prevent two customers from purchasing the last item simultaneously. For flash sales, use Shopify Scripts (Plus) or the Inventory Planner app to set purchase limits.

Inventory sync with physical locations:

• Install Stocky (free, by Shopify) for purchase orders and receiving
• Stocky automatically updates Shopify inventory when you receive a PO
• Use the Shopify POS app to sync inventory between your online store and physical retail locations

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WooCommerce

WooCommerce has built-in stock management.

Enable inventory tracking:

1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory
2. Check Enable stock management
3. Set Hold stock (minutes) — this is the inventory reservation window during checkout (default: 60 minutes)

Per-product settings:

1. Go to WooCommerce → Products → [Product] → Inventory tab
2. Enable Manage stock?
3. Enter Stock quantity
4. Set Backorders: "Do not allow" / "Allow, but notify customer" / "Allow"
5. Set a Low stock threshold for this product

Advanced inventory management with ATUM:

1. Install ATUM Inventory Management for WooCommerce (free core, paid advanced features)
2. ATUM provides a central inventory dashboard showing stock levels across all products
3. Add purchase orders through ATUM → Purchase Orders → Add PO
4. Receiving a PO in ATUM automatically increments WooCommerce stock
5. For multi-warehouse: ATUM's Multi-Inventory add-on ($) assigns stock per location and routes fulfillment

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BigCommerce

BigCommerce tracks inventory per SKU natively.

Enable inventory tracking:

1. Go to Products → [Product] → Inventory tab
2. Set Inventory tracking to "By product" or "By option" (for variants)
3. Enter the current stock level
4. Set a Low stock level for alerts

Multi-location inventory:

• Install the Multi-Location Inventory app from the BigCommerce App Marketplace
• Assign stock quantities per location
• Set fulfillment routing rules (ship from closest, ship from cheapest, etc.)

Backorders:

• BigCommerce handles this natively — set Allow backorders on products you want to continue selling when out of stock
• The product page shows "Ships in X days" when on backorder

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Custom / Headless

For custom platforms, implement atomic inventory reservation using optimistic concurrency control to prevent overselling under high load:

// lib/inventory.ts
const MAX_RETRIES = 3;

// Reserve inventory atomically — handles concurrent requests safely
export async function reserveInventory({
  variantId, locationId, quantity, referenceId
}: { variantId: string; locationId: string; quantity: number; referenceId: string }) {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < MAX_RETRIES; attempt++) {
    const level = await db.inventoryLevels.findUnique({
      where: { variantId_locationId: { variantId, locationId } },
    });

    if (!level) throw new Error(`Inventory not found: ${variantId}`);

    const available = level.onHand - level.reserved;
    if (available < quantity && !level.backorderAllowed) {
      throw new Error(`Insufficient stock: ${available} available, ${quantity} requested`);
    }

    // Optimistic update — only succeeds if version hasn't changed (no concurrent modifications)
    const updated = await db.inventoryLevels.updateMany({
      where: { variantId_locationId: { variantId, locationId }, version: level.version },
      data: { reserved: level.reserved + quantity, version: level.version + 1 },
    });

    if (updated.count === 0) {
      // Another process modified inventory concurrently; retry
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 50 * (attempt + 1)));
      continue;
    }

    // Log the transaction for audit trail
    await db.inventoryTransactions.create({
      data: { variantId, locationId, type: 'reserve', quantity: -quantity, referenceId },
    });

    return { success: true, remaining: available - quantity };
  }
  throw new Error(`Failed to reserve inventory after ${MAX_RETRIES} retries`);
}

// Release reservation when cart expires or order is cancelled
export async function releaseReservation({
  variantId, locationId, quantity, referenceId
}: { variantId: string; locationId: string; quantity: number; referenceId: string }) {
  // Idempotency check — don't release twice
  const existing = await db.inventoryTransactions.findFirst({
    where: { type: 'release', referenceId, variantId },
  });
  if (existing) return;

  await db.$transaction([
    db.inventoryLevels.update({
      where: { variantId_locationId: { variantId, locationId } },
      data: { reserved: { decrement: quantity } },
    }),
    db.inventoryTransactions.create({
      data: { variantId, locationId, type: 'release', quantity: +quantity, referenceId },
    }),
  ]);
}

// Expire stale cart reservations — run every 5-10 minutes via cron
export async function expireStaleCartReservations() {
  const TTL_MINUTES = 30;
  const cutoff = new Date(Date.now() - TTL_MINUTES * 60 * 1000);

  const staleCarts = await db.carts.findMany({
    where: { status: 'active', updatedAt: { lt: cutoff }, reservedAt: { not: null } },
    include: { items: true },
  });

  for (const cart of staleCarts) {
    for (const item of cart.items) {
      await releaseReservation({ variantId: item.variantId, locationId: item.locationId, quantity: item.quantity, referenceId: cart.id });
    }
  }
}

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Step 3: Configure backorder behavior

Backorders allow customers to purchase even when stock is at zero, with a clear expectation of a delayed delivery.

When to allow backorders:

• Products with reliable supplier lead times (7–14 days)
• Made-to-order products
• Pre-order campaigns for upcoming products

When to block backorders:

• Products with unreliable supply
• Third-party fulfilled items where you don't control restock

Communication best practices:

• Show "Ships in 7–10 days" on the product page when stock is 0 and backorders are enabled
• Include expected ship date in the order confirmation email
• Notify customers proactively if the expected date changes

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Step 4: Set up inventory alerts

Pair inventory tracking with low-stock alerts — see the @low-stock-alerts skill for full setup. Quick summary:

• Shopify: Go to Admin → Products — Shopify shows a low stock indicator; use Stocky for email alerts
• WooCommerce: Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory → Low stock threshold — WooCommerce emails the store admin when stock crosses this threshold
• BigCommerce: Go to Products → [Product] → Inventory → Low stock level — BigCommerce sends email notifications automatically

Best Practices

• Enable inventory tracking on every SKU — products without tracking can be oversold silently; only disable tracking for digital products or items with unlimited supply
• Set a reservation window for in-progress checkouts — WooCommerce's "Hold stock" setting (default 60 min) prevents inventory from being held indefinitely by abandoned carts
• Test your oversell protection — during a flash sale setup, manually verify that the last unit cannot be purchased twice by simulating two simultaneous checkouts
• Log every inventory change — platforms log this natively; for custom builds, an immutable inventory_transactions table is essential for diagnosing discrepancies
• Use the platform's built-in multi-location inventory before buying a third-party app — Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce all handle multiple locations natively

Common Pitfalls

Problem	Solution
Overselling during flash sales on Shopify	Shopify's checkout holds inventory during the checkout flow; for very high-concurrency launches, set purchase limits using Shopify Scripts (Plus) or use a waitlist app
WooCommerce inventory not decremented after order	Check that stock management is enabled on the product AND globally in WooCommerce settings; both must be on
Inventory released immediately when order is cancelled before fulfillment	This is correct behavior for physical goods — released inventory becomes available for other customers; only delay release for backordered items
Negative inventory after manual adjustment	Add validation in WooCommerce (ATUM) or set a DB check constraint on custom builds; reserved >= 0 and on_hand >= 0
Shopify location not receiving inventory updates from POS	Ensure POS is connected to the correct Shopify location in Settings → Locations → POS channel

Related Skills

• @multi-warehouse
• @low-stock-alerts
• @variant-matrix