Exclusive AMA: Optimizing your Inventory Management with Shopify Experts!

[Jacqui]

Join Us for an Exclusive AMA on Optimizing your Inventory Management with Shopify Experts!

Date: September 10th, 2024

Time: 10 AM EDT - 12 PM EDT  

Inventory management and meeting demand can be particularly challenging during BFCM. This AMA will provide you with the knowledge and tools to optimize your inventory, reduce stockouts, and ensure a smooth sales period using Shopify’s solutions. Post your questions below, and the Shopify Product and Marketing team will be here to answer them during the live session.

What to Expect

Real-Time Q&A: Have questions about optimizing inventory, preparing for BFCM, or using Shopify’s inventory management solutions? Ask them below!

Expert Advice: Get direct answers from Shopify's Product and Marketing teams.

Community Engagement: Connect with other Shopify merchants, share experiences, and learn best practices.

How to Participate: No pre-registration needed! Join the Shopify Community on September 10th between 10 AM and 12 PM EDT. Post your questions below, and our experts will respond directly.

Read our Rules of Engagement before participating

*Please note, there is no video component to this AMA. This is a text based AMA. Your questions will be answered LIVE via text during the time period listed above. 

[ExoticSodaco]

Hello.

My current issue is happening when I seperate my online retail inventory from a physical location on the same product.

I have it set to hide from the website when the inventory hits 0.

If the item is available at our physical location it will not remove it from site on the web.

How do I manage this?

[ericdude4]

Hi ExoticSodaco,

Perhaps your solution could be to sync the inventory data between your online retail and physical inventory location for the same product? Our app Synkro: Inventory sync app provides a "same store location syncing" feature which you can use to keep the inventory in sync for the same product between your online and physical inventory locations. To learn more, see the Synkro documentation here: https://synkro-app.com/documentation/sync-inventory-between-locations

Once set up, any inventory changes to your online location will be synced to your physical location under the same product. Then, when you sell the last item at your physical location, Synkro will sync this to the online location and your online store will hide that product since it has gone out of stock 🙂

Eric

[RCol]

Hi @ExoticSodaco ! If you never want to fulfill online orders from your physical store, then this is absolutely possible. You need to have two different locations to set this up: let's call them warehouse and retail store.

- In your location settings, make sure that your retail store location has "fulfill online orders from this location" unchecked.
- In your shipping and delivery settings > shipping profiles, double check that this retail store location has no shipping rates active.
- In your shipping and delivery settings, if you see a feature called "Fulfillable Inventory", make sure it's set to "sell only within configured shipping zones". If you don't see this feature, don't worry! You've already been opted in correctly.

By doing this, you're setting your online store up so that it only takes into account inventory from your warehouse, not your physical location. When the warehouse inventory hits 0, the product will be removed from your online store.

Hope that helps!

[jmorris644]

When I receive items that I have ordered from a supplier I need to add a landed cost to each item. I only see a way to add a cost at the PO level. Is there any way to get the cost appended at the individual item level?

[mariaacle]

Hello @jmorris644 thank you for your question! When you're creating a Purchase Order in Shopify you can add specific costs for the individual line items you are ordering, as seen in this screenshot below. Let me know if you were looking for a different capability.

[jmorris644]

A little different.

Lets use shipping cost as an example. When I order an item from my supplier, let's say that the supplier cost is $1.00. So I put in $1.00 as the item cost in the PO. Now, lets say that when the supplier ships the products to me they charge shipping. There is a way to enter shipping costs, but I need those costs divided among all of the items ordered. So if I ordered 10 items and shipping was $10, I would need to add $1.00 to each item as the actual cost in the system.
Does that make sense?
As a secondary question, I cannot see where I can email the PO to the supplier. Do I have to save it as a PDF and then email it outside of the Shopify system?a

[bhh]

Recently Shopify changed the function of the search bar on "inventory" . You used to be able to put in a partial number and everything would come up.

Example, I have 10 items that start with part number PCX87 then each has 3 more digits in numerical order. I used to be able to type in PCX87 and everything starting with that part number would show up so I could see inventory and change inventory quickly. Now I have to type the exact part number PCX87123 for example, so now I can only see one item on "inventory" search at a time.  Why change this after so many years? Modifying or checking one at a time is the farthest from efficient. This whole event is for inventory control and Shopify will not even let us search our own inventory? 

[Iniquity]

are you sure? I just tested the search bar with brief part number and i'm able to pull up the list for all numbers starting that

[bhh]

inventory page, not product page

[Iniquity]

oh yea, don't know why they used 2 different search bar for product vs inventory page. I have issues with that too, can't even filter out collections in inventory and the tag don't suggest while you type. 

[petgrocer]

The search used to be the shining star in the shopify system. Now the search is so painful. When we try to search for a customer name on the POS, it autocorrects the names (plus the bouncing cursor bug is still there). It is no longer the useful thing it was. We need the old functionality back. I am confounded as to why Shopify continues to remove functionality!

[cbella]

@bhh @Iniquity We just shipped a bug fix for that!

Try it again and let me know if it works. 

@bhh And just to clarify, when you mentioned "part number", that was the SKU you were referring to, right?

[Iniquity]

still doesnt' have filter by collection or tag filter doesn't populate closest match

[petgrocer]

Can we get an update on the autocorrect issue on the POS search? Entering customer names is a task we do for every single transaction. Thanks!

[petgrocer]

Looks like the autocorrect has been fixed (thanks!). Now if we could get it set back to no more pop up (it's even tinier than all the other tiny things on the screen) and stop setting it to have the cursor automatically in the 'create new client' spot. It's so many extra clicks and frustrating!

[Wildernest1]

Why isn't there a "print barcode label" option in the shopify purchase order page?  Accuracy with data entry is one of the most important things with inventory management and currently my staff have to first go to the individual products and print labels and then enter the items in a purchase order.  This can lead to incorrect tags being printed or the wrong items being put onto the purchase order. Wouldn't it streamline the process and improve accuracy to just enter all the items in a purchase order and have a "print barcode label" in the "more actions" tab.  This seem like such an easy addition to a pretty well designed purchase order process - I HATE stocky.  Thanks -Steve

[mscmith11]

Agreed Steve! It is a huge waste of time through this process.

[FishHead-Greg]

Agreed, the process of printing labels should be so much better. I also wish there was a way to better customize the data/layout of the label more than just the templates provided.

[mariaacle]

Hi @wildernessx! Thank you for your feedback and apologies for the delayed reponse.

We understand that accuracy in data entry is crucial for effective inventory management, and we appreciate your suggestion regarding the "print barcode label" option on the purchase order page.

I'm pleased to inform you that barcode scanning and bulk printing of barcode labels are features that are on our roadmap. We recognize the importance of streamlining this process to improve accuracy and efficiency, and we're working towards incorporating these enhancements in future updates.

[CarloRSM]

 I have plenty of inventory of products on my Shopify store but it still says sold out. I’ve tried everything from looking at the location and seeing if all the boxes are checked and I even hired someone from Fiverr and even they couldn’t help me 

I have 5 products that are available for customer to purchase and ny store will allow me to add products and list inventory for the product but it still says sold out when a customer looks at it 

My website is www.redseamade.com

Please someone help me 

[elinenberg]

We have custom templates using the Shopify Order Printer.  However we are unable to access the inventory location via the app.  We can access the inventory location if we use the default invoice and packing slips (not app, but built into Shopify).  Why are there different fields/objects only available in the default invoice and packing slip, but not the Shopify owned and developed Order Printer app.  Can this difference be reconciled?

[melams]

Hi @elinenberg, Thank you for highlighting this behaviour discrepancy between the default invoice/packing slip and Shopify Order Printer. I've brought this to the attention of our development team to investigate.

[KAMOFY]

WHat apps can you suggest to help owners manage inventory across multiple stores?

[ericdude4]

Hi @KAMOFY ,

Eric here - the developer behind the app Synkro: Inventory sync (https://apps.shopify.com/synkro). We have worked hard to build a reliable and fast real-time inventory syncing solution which can be used to sync inventory between any number of Shopify stores. We offer a complementary white-gloves onboarding service to make sure everything is set up perfectly for your requirements.

To get started with inventory syncing, you can follow these step-by-step instructions: https://synkro-app.com/documentation/sync-inventory-between-stores

Once you've installed the Synkro app, you can optionally book a help session with us to go through the installation together. You can also feel free to email me at eric@techvomfass.com and I will be happy to answer all of your questions 🙂

- Eric

[cyclops]

Im checking it out!

[ericdude4]

Fantastic! Please be sure to reach out with any questions. If you let us know what your requirements are, we will be able to come up with a tailored solution for you 🙂

Eric

[petgrocer]

Eric does your app work with Shopify 1.0 themes, or only with 2.0 themes? We want to use a loyalty app but have postponed because of the issues Shopify caused with this change.

[ericdude4]

Hi @petgrocer ,

Synkro does not have any affect on your store's theme. It only interacts with your product & inventory data in your store's back-end. This means that it is compatible with all Shopify themes 🙂

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to help.

Eric

[MarcoM0857]

It is time for Shopify to REPLY and address the most active Community topic/request!!!

https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/can-we-access-inventory-history-beyond-90-days-i...

[petgrocer]

I would say the save cart was one of the most active community requests as well!

[mariaacle]

Hello @Marco thank you for flagging this and apologies for the delay. I was sharing this information with appropriate teams on our end. We understand that having access to a longer history of inventory adjustments is crucial for comprehensive inventory management and tracking.

This feature is on our radar, and we are considering ways to extend the inventory adjustment history period in future updates. In the meantime, you might consider using third-party inventory management apps or exporting your inventory data regularly to maintain a longer history. However, to be clear, these third-party apps won’t have historical data immediately; they will start saving the data from the point of integration and keep it longer than Shopify does. I understand it's not an ideal solution, but rest assured our Product team is aware of this limitation and will address it in the future.

[mariaacle]

Great news! 🎉 We've listened to your feedback and have doubled the inventory adjustment history from 90 to 180 days!

Now, you can view a more extensive history on a product or variant's adjustment history page. This update helps you see all the events that caused inventory adjustments, such as new orders, returns, or manual changes.

Learn more about Viewing inventory adjustment history in the Shopify Help Center.

[GwenLittle]

When looking at Sales reports is there an option to see 0 sales or 0 inventory movement of a specific product?

Additionally, I just set up my flow notifications for inventory, however the notification tells me the entire products stock number rather than the specific variant it is alerting me about. Is there a way to adjust this?

[mariaacle]

Thank you for your questions, @GwenLittle  and apologies for the delay!

Sales Reports: To identify products with no sales, you can utilize the "Sell-Through Rate by Product" or the "Average Inventory Sold per Day" metrics. Both of these can be found in the Inventory category under Analytics -> Reports. Please note that there isn't a specific report available to highlight products with no inventory movements.

Flow Notifications: To ensure the notification includes the specific variant it is alerting you about, make sure you are adding the variant name/id into the email as a variable. You can follow this video walkthrough for instructions: Video Walkthrough.

[jennibrand]

Hi,

We have a very small pet supplies boutique store. Once a month we order direct from the wholesaler on behalf of our clients who are willing to place a monthly order. This is a laborious process because we either have to stop all orders during the week that we are accepting monthly orders from VIP clients or we have to ‘oversell’ our current inventory and then decipher who wants to be included in the preorder and who wants product right now (often we are sold out of an item and have to call someone and tell them we won’t have it for a week to 10 days and they are frustrated because our website shows that it is available since we are overselling). Is there a way to make this so it doesn’t affect our current inventory? Should I set up a shadow store that we only open once a month for these wholesale preorders? What’s the best way to do this? Currently it’s super inefficient and frustrating for all those involved. Thanks!

[ericdude4]

Hi @jennibrand ,

Eric here from the Synkro: Inventory sync app. I wonder if you would be able to create separate products which are only available to your VIP customers? Then you could track inventory separately for these pre-order products which are only available to your VIP customers.

[jennibrand]

That would be amazing…

[jennibrand]

So are you suggestion I have a separate collection that I only make available to certain clients? I have no idea how to do that and nothing I’ve found in the help section address that. Do you have a sense of how to do that?

[ericdude4]

Hi @jennibrand ,

I have never personally done it, but I have seen others do it. What I usually see is a separate Shopify store which is only available to "VIP" customers who have access to a password protected site where these products are present.

Alternately, if you want to do this within your same store, here is the result from a question I asked ChatGPT:

In Shopify, you can create a collection of products that are only available to specific customers by using one of the following methods:

1. Use Shopify Scripts (For Shopify Plus)

If you are on Shopify Plus, you can use Shopify Scripts to hide or restrict collections based on customer tags or other criteria during the checkout process. Here's how:

1. Tag your customers: Assign specific tags to customers (e.g., "VIP" or "Wholesale").
2. Create a collection: Add products to a new collection that will only be available to the tagged customers.
3. Write a custom script: Use Shopify Scripts to check for customer tags and adjust the product availability during checkout, allowing only tagged customers to access the collection.

2. Use an App

If you're not on Shopify Plus, you can use a third-party app to manage customer-specific collections. Here are some popular apps that can help:

• Locksmith: Allows you to lock certain collections and make them accessible only to specific customers, such as those with certain tags.
• Wholesale Club: Allows you to set up customer-specific pricing and collections for wholesale customers, which can be restricted to certain groups.
• Bold Custom Pricing: Offers features to restrict access to collections based on customer groups.

3. Manual Password Protection (Basic Method)

For a more manual approach:

1. Create a hidden collection: Set up a new collection, but do not link it in your store navigation.
2. Create a separate page with a password: Use a page with a password to give specific customers access to the collection link.
3. Email or communicate the password to customers you want to grant access to, so only they can view the collection.

While not fully automated, this method allows some control over who can access the collection.

4. Customer Accounts with Tagged Access

1. Enable Customer Accounts: In Shopify settings, enable customer accounts.
2. Tag Customers: Manually or automatically tag customers based on specific criteria (like "VIP" or "Wholesale").
3. Use Custom Liquid Code: Modify your Shopify theme to restrict access to certain collections or products by checking customer tags. This will require some development work, but it provides flexibility to display collections only to tagged customers.

These methods will allow you to restrict a collection’s visibility and availability to specific customer groups based on your store's plan and needs.

[petgrocer]

We have set up a google sheet (online excel sheet) that all our staff have access to and is open on a separate computer at the check out. All our special order requests go in there. Prior to switching from our old amazing POS system, we never used any manual entry like this. Now we have spreadsheets for everything, since Shopify is still in its infancy for setting up a proper POS (and learning that merchants aren't going to pay another $200 a month in apps for it work as it should out of the box). My staff have gotten extremely adept at using multiple points of manual tracking since we had to switch to Shopify a few years ago.

[mariaacle]

Hello @jennibrand thanks for your question! If I understand your use case correctly, you're looking to offer customers the ability to preorder products. To achieve this, I recommend exploring a preorders app that integrates with Shopify. These apps allow you to manage preorder orders seamlessly within your Shopify store.

With most preorder apps, you can choose to reserve inventory either at the time of sale or at the time of fulfillment, depending on your preference. If you don't see this option available in the app settings, I suggest reaching out to the app developer for further assistance and customization options.

[jennibrand]

I have a pre-order app installed, but I need to be able to allow for future pre-orders that won’t affect my current inventory.

[JoshM23]

What is the best way to keep track of inventory when half is sold online and the other half is sold in person?

[ericdude4]

Hi @JoshM23 ,

What is your objective? If you'd like to track inventory separately between your online location and your POS location, you can simply create a second inventory location in your store.

Or do you need inventory that is sold in your POS inventory location to be reflected in your online inventory location?

Eric

[JoshM23]

The second one. I need inventory that is sold in the POS inventory location to be reflected in the online inventory location. Is this even possible?

[ericdude4]

Hi @JoshM23 ,

In that case, I can recommend the Synkro: Inventory sync app (https://apps.shopify.com/synkro) which includes a "same store location syncing" feature. With this, you will be able to connect your POS and Online inventory locations together within Synkro so that any inventory change which occurs at one location will sync to the other location for the same product/variant in real time.

For instructions on how to set this up, please refer to this page: https://synkro-app.com/documentation/sync-inventory-between-locations

I am the developer behind this app, so please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to help you get everything set up 🙂

Eric

[Caria208]

I’m currently online only. I sell items with specific variants and it seems
like the only reports I can get are variant-based reports. Basically, if I
have 10 each of 3 different Nike T-Shirt’s and each T-shirt is available in
multiple colors and sizes, I only get a report that has each individual
variant listed which will say I have zero in inventory based solely on that
specific variant. It doesn’t break down the inventory of each of the 3
shirts. I need a report that shows how many of each of the 3 shirts I’ve
sold regardless of variants so I know that I’ve sold x amount of Nike shirt
1, 2, or 3. It would be nice to run a report that says, “you’ve sold 8 Nike
Shirt design 1, you’ve sold 4 Nike Shirt design 2, etc”

Hopefully that makes sense.

[ericdude4]

Hi @Caria208 ,

Are you printing these shirt designs on-demand based on blank Nike T-Shirts? I wonder how you are tracking inventory between all of your printed designs on the same blank shirt.

Eric

[Iniquity]

Is there a way to have a report to show sales by TAGS? 

For example if we have products tagged as colors, orange, blue green etc across socks and tshirts, a report to show sales based on the tags will give us better insight of what colors or tags sell better. 

Also, is there a way to import purchase order in csv format into the shopify to track cost and average landed cost? 

[mariaacle]

Hello @Iniquity thank you so much for your valuable question! We understand the importance of being able to run reports and filter by tags, and we recognize this as a current limitation. I will make sure to pass your feedback along to the team responsible for our Analytics product.

As for the creation of Purchase Orders, this functionality is not available at the moment. However, I will also share your suggestion with our Inventory team for their consideration.