Selling an out of stock item at POS

[TDS2019]

Is it possible for a customer to order an out of stock item via the POS app when we check them out in person?

We are doing a pop up store for customers to bulk order their products in advance. We are not having any inventory available at the pop up itself. What's the easy way to do this?

[Julie]

Hi, @TDS2019.

Julie, here from Shopify Support.

Yes, if you're using Shopify POS, you can most definitely continue selling products when inventory reaches zero and below. This is because the Shopify POS app assumes you have the inventory on hand if you are selling in person. Feel free to check out our help doc on adding items to the Shopify POS cart. If you haven't already used the POS app before, then it's a great idea to review this prior to your pop-up. 

What have you been doing to promote your pop-up so far? We have a pretty thorough guide called "Pop-Up Shops 101: Everything You Need to Know to Try Temporary Retail" I recommend checking out. Here, you'll find some great tips on how you can build buzz and awareness, make the most out of your venue with the right signage and display, and how you can measure the success of your event once it's over. It also includes a few examples of successful pop-ups to give you some more ideas. 

Let me know if you have any further questions and best of luck at your pop-up! 

[TDS2019]

Thanks, Julie.

So when I run the POS app and set the location for the pop-up, I see no products available, but they are available in our warehouse location. How do I add the product to the pop-up location POS without actually having any stock to physically put in inventory at that location? Do I have to say 1 is in stock to get it to add the product? The products are already set to continue selling when out of stock.

Thanks!

[TDS2019]

I figured it out. Existing products need me to edit the variant availability for the new location. New products created after the location was set up will show up available in the POS.

[Julie]

That's right. Although you can oversell using the POS app, the products must be made available at the POS location. If you have multiple locations, then only the products stocked at your Shopify POS device’s assigned location are available for sale (in the products view). 

Editing the variant ability as you mentioned is a way around this. To save time, you can also stock products at locations using the Bulk Editor. Using the Bulk Editor makes it a lot easier to move existing inventory over, without having to edit each individual variant. 

Let me know if you have any further questions. 

[Joanna9]

Is it possible to switch off "out of stock" information online and sell products out of stock?  I use another POS program where I will record the transaction so all my products online will be "out of stock"/

[Julie]

Hi, @Joanna9!

Yes, you can most definitely continue selling products that are out of stock online. In fact, there are a couple of ways you can do this. First, you could edit individual products to allow overselling. This is done by heading to Products and selecting an individual product. If the product has multiple variants, you'll just need to click Edit next to each variant, where you'll then see an Inventory section with a checkbox to "continue selling when out of stock". This is what that looks like:

If you want to edit this setting for multiple products at once, you can do so using the Bulk Editor. If you aren't too familiar with this tool, we have a help doc on the Bulk Editor I recommend checking out. To access it, simply head on over to Products and use the master checkbox above all products. Then, select Edit products > Add fields > Inventory > Continue selling when sold out and just ensure that this option is checked off for all of your products. 

Which POS program are you using? Have you considered using the Shopify POS? This will ensure all orders and inventory are synced. We also offer our own POS hardware, which is compatible with the Shopify Payments gateway. However, if you're using a third-party gateway, you can still use our POS app and simply choose the "external terminal" payment method when processing a POS transaction. This will still record the sale, but it will tell Shopify that the payment was processed through an external credit card reader. It might be something worth considering! 

I hope this answers your question. Let me know if you have any further questions!

[Brent13]

Some great info. On a slight variant of this issue, overnight our point of sale asks staff to confirm we want to sell out of stock item when marking items as paid. We haven't set up our inventory tracking as of yet so most items are showing as zero or negative stock on hand. I want to remove the request to confirm selling out of stock items as its very inefficient

[hstb]

I would imagine it to be a welcome feature to others as it is to us.
Doesn't happen too often but it will prevent overselling something that was
recently purchased on our website.

With that said, it should be a configurable setting.