ecommerce inventory management

eCommerce Inventory Management

Running an online store means keeping a lot of things organized at all times. But people are human and make mistakes, especially during busy sales periods. One slip-up when calculating inventory and you can soon find that you’ve sold more of an item than you actually have, which will lead to lost sales and angry customers. You need a way to keep track of inventory, and schedule reordering in time to prevent these problems. And even if you do keep perfect numbers, how do you deal with products that are out of stock? Can customers backorder them or is their only option to leave and shop from your competitor? Let our Inventory Control help you with all of your eCommerce inventory management needs.

While many eCommerce platforms leave you on your own when it comes to inventory, Shift4Shop comes with a full set of tools for managing all aspects of inventory control. Keep track of your exact stock numbers with automatic reductions when customers place orders. Set up Stock Alert emails to remind yourself to resupply products when inventory reaches a certain threshold. You also have complete control over what happens when an item does run out of stock — you can hide it completely, allow back orders, or let customers sign up on a waiting list to be informed when you re-stock. Shift4Shop’s Inventory Control features will greatly streamline your day-to-day business operations!

Top Features

  • Accurate tracking of stock levels for each product, with configurable Stock Alerts when inventory is low
  • Set out-of-stock products to show as “Out of Stock,” allow Back Orders, use Waiting Lists, or opt to hide the product
    completely until stock is replenished
  • Configure settings on a store-wide basis or change them per item, including individual item variants (through Advanced Options)

 

Inventory Control Feature in Action

 

Inventory Control Frequently Asked Questions

  • How do I start using these Inventory Control features?

Inventory Control is turned on by default in Shift4Shop stores, but you can check to be sure it’s active by going to Settings in your left-hand menu, followed by General and then by Store Settings. You’ll find Inventory Control towards the right side of the page. Make sure the box is checked and then click Save at the top right of the window.

  • Can I configure some of the out-of-stock items individually and still handle the rest globally?

Yes. To do this, set up your global options first, and choose the options that you want to apply to the majority of your products (e.g. Back Order, Waiting Lists, etc.). These are accessed through the General settings described above. Afterward, you can configure per-item settings through your Product List. In the per-item Inventory Control settings, “Default” will follow the global setting.

  • How do I use Stock Alerts and when does it send the alert email?

You can assign Stock Alerts per item through Inventory Options. The number you enter in the Stock Alert field is the threshold that your stock must fall below in order to trigger the alert. For example, if you want to be alerted when you have 10 of a product remaining, enter 11 in the Stock Alert field. If you only want to be alerted when you run completely out of stock, enter a 1 in the field and you’ll receive the Stock Alert when the number falls to zero.

 

Inventory Control Feature Testimonials

“I’ve been selling online for some time but I never made my own website before. I sold mostly on eBay. So when I started looking into online store builders I was already thinking I’d have to track everything manually again. I sell a lot of different items and some of them are very similar, so I’ve made mistakes before with my inventory. So you can understand how I felt when I discovered the inventory features in Shift4Shop! It keeps track of everything and you can connect it to eBay and it keeps track of that too. So I still sell there and I also have my own website now, with no inventory mistakes ever”