Inventory management
What is Inventory Management?
Inventory Management helps you control stock levels, prevent split shipments, and manage product availability for upselling - especially important if you have multiple warehouses.
Choosing Your Inventory Behavior
Order Editing offers three options for how inventory is allocated when customers add products during the editing window. Choose the option that best fits your warehouse setup and shipping preferences.
Option 1: Default Shopify Behavior
How it works: New items are added to the order from any nearby location. Order Editing does not attempt to re-route the added items to a better location.
What this means:
Shopify's standard inventory allocation applies
Products come from the closest available location to the customer
No special routing or optimization occurs
Orders may split across multiple locations
Best for:
Merchants using Shopify's default fulfillment
Single warehouse operations
When shipping costs aren't a primary concern
Simple setups without specific routing needs
Example: Customer in California orders a shirt from your LA warehouse. During editing, they add a hat. Shopify assigns the hat from whichever location is nearest to the customer, which might be LA (same location) or New York (different location, creating a split shipment).
Option 2: Allow Products from Any Location
How it works: Products will be fulfilled from locations with available stock. If the original location runs out, the product will come from another location with inventory. Inventory routing is disabled.
What this means:
Flexibility to fulfill from any warehouse with stock
Prevents "out of stock" errors if one location is depleted
Orders may split across multiple locations
No intelligent routing to minimize shipments
Best for:
Multiple warehouse operations
When product availability is more important than shipping consolidation
High-demand products that may run low at specific locations
Merchants who accept split shipments as normal
Example: Customer's original order ships from your Chicago warehouse. During editing, they add a product that's out of stock in Chicago but available in Miami. The product is added from Miami, creating a split shipment, but the edit succeeds.
Trade-off: Maximizes product availability but may increase shipping costs from multiple locations.
Option 3: Prevent Split Fulfillment Orders
How it works: Block any upsells that will split the order across multiple locations. If the product isn't available at the original location, the edit will be rejected. Inventory routing may occur.
What this means:
Customers can only add products available at the same warehouse as their original order
Prevents split shipments entirely
Orders always ship from a single location
Some products won't be available for upselling if not in stock at the fulfillment location
Best for:
Merchants who want to minimize shipping costs
Single-box shipping preference
When customer experience benefits from one delivery
Operations optimized for consolidated fulfillment
Example: Customer's order ships from your Dallas warehouse. During editing, they try to add a product only available in Seattle. The edit is rejected, and the customer sees a message that the product isn't available. They can only add products stocked in Dallas.
Trade-off: Reduces split shipments and shipping costs but limits upsell opportunities to products at the fulfillment location.
Important: This setting must be enabled for all available warehouses individually. Any other settings in this section also need to be configured for each warehouse location.
Minimum Inventory for Upselling
What Does This Do?
Sets a stock threshold below which products stop appearing as upsell options. This helps prevent out-of-stock items from being purchased and ensures smooth order fulfilment.
How to Set Up
In Inventory Management, locate Minimum Inventory for Upselling
Enter your minimum threshold (e.g., "5")
Click Save
Example: Set to 5 means that when a product drops below 5 units, Order Editing will not show it as an upsell option.
Recommended: 3-5 units for most merchants. However, if you sell out of stock items, then disable this feature.
Inventory Protection (Duplicate Item Limits)
What Does This Do?
Limits how many additional units of an item already in their cart a customer can add during editing. This prevents stock from being held up during the editing period while customers decide whether to complete payment.
How It Works
Set a multiplier that determines the maximum additional quantity. Once payment is completed, this protection resets.
Example:
Multiplier: 3
Cart contains: 1 Blue Shirt
Can add: 3 more Blue Shirts (4 total)
How to Set Up
In Inventory Management, locate Inventory Protection
Enter your multiplier (e.g., "3")
Click Save
Recommended: Multiplier of 3 for most merchants. This allows customers to make additional purchases, while not enough to hold up large quantities of stock.
Location Priority
What Does This Do?
When you have multiple stores or warehouses, Location Priority tells Order Editing which location to prioritize when a split shipment is necessary.
How to Set Up
In Inventory Management, locate Location Priority
Arrange locations in priority order (drag and drop or number them)
Click Save
Example: Main Warehouse → West Coast → East Coast
Automatic Inventory Movement
What Does This Do?
When enabled, Order Editing attempts to move inventory between your fulfillable warehouse locations for upsell items so all items in an order can ship together from a single location. The priority is chosen from the Location Priority setting above. This prevents split shipments from happening.
How to Enable
In Inventory Management, locate Automatic Inventory Movement
Toggle ON
Click Save
Note: This moves inventory allocation in Shopify. Physical inventory still needs manual movement in your warehouses.
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