Can we access inventory history beyond 90 days in Shopify?

[Val_Huggett]

Hello,

It has recently come to our attention that the Inventory History only covers the last 90 days.  We frequently use this feature to investigate inventory outages, assess customer buying patterns, and more. 

However, the limit of a 90 day window makes this feature frustratingly useless to us.  We often order product on a seasonal or quarterly basis, which means by the time the next buying window comes around the inventory history is wiped clean. 

I want to know if there is any way to bypass the 90 day window in Shopify's buying history, OR create an equivalent report either in Shopify, in Stocky, or using BetterReports (pinging @KBetterReports  🙂 ).  The key for us is that we need to know the quantity sold per order, NOT total sold in a certain time period. 

[mscmith11]

Hi Dirk,

We are all still sitting here wondering where @Shopify stands on this issue. It impacts the merchant on a DAILY basis.

When I check back on inventory history on specific products, or "adjustments" as Shopify refers to it, I am 95% of the time left hitting my head against the wall because I know I have zero control of my inventory values. I don't know when I first received it, how many were received, when they were sold, and what dates they were sold off.  As mentioned previously, you cannot run a retail operation without having all these details.

And just to re-iterate, I can however go into "ORDERS", and Shopify will show results of each and every order that had product X in it, but for some odd reason, Shopify refuses to list these order adjustments under the product details.

Can you answer this question???

[GhostApps]

Hi,

I created Inventory History Guardian because of this post and the amount of people saying that it was an issue for them.
The app saves a record of the inventory of each product variant per location per day, allowing you to extend your inventory history beyond 90 days.
It also allows you to create inventory adjustments with custom notes, see all of them across your entire store in a single list view and again save them for more than 90 days whilst still working with Shopify's inventory system.

Hopefully some of the posters in this thread will find the app useful. Let me know if you have any questions

[mscmith11]

I have a feeling this does not post the inventory results in the actual product "adjustments" however?

Is this correct? Having a report of inventory changes does not really help in this situation. What merchants are looking for are the entire list of adjustments since day 1 of the item being first received in its entirety.

See attached which shows one of my products for last 90 days only.  Soon, all this information will disappear.

[GhostApps]

It does post the adjustment in the product adjustments in the Shopify admin, it can't access previous history but will save everything from when the app is installed onwards

[mscmith11]

Shopify is having a special Inventory Management forum until noon:

https://community.shopify.com/c/community-amas-ask-me-anything/exclusive-ama-optimizing-your-invento...

I urge everyone to comment on the Historical inventory issues from this thread. I have already posed the question myself.

[hotpinkdaisy1]

I was fixing to post the same thing! Praying they listen!

[orkman]

<sarcasm>It's OK everyone, it's on Shopify's roadmap. Phew! 🤦🏻 And there I was thinking they were just ignoring us</sarcasm>

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.

---

What an absolute joke.

Check out how many people asked about this incredible limitation in their AMA here:

https://community.shopify.com/c/community-amas-ask-me-anything/exclusive-ama-optimizing-your-invento...

[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.

[mscmith11]

Hi Mariaacle @Shopify , this is good news.

So, now my next obvious question is, we know 90 is possible and 180 is possible, so why not 360 days? Why is this information limited at all?

As we have all mentioned many times, the actual transactions and/or orders linked to these products do not "expire in displaying", so why then is Shopify restricting information that is held on the server and obviously very accesible,  from us the customers, on the product variant pages? 

From a retail owners POV, this seems like an intentional process that Shopify is keeping from us.  Our inventory adjustments NEED to be shown from the inception/creation of the product fully. If you cannot see the adjustments from Day 1 to the day we make it inactive then I am sorry to say that 180 days doesn't make alot of difference. We have products that we have had for sometimes 5-10 years, so unfortunately another 3 months of data is a step in the right direction, but not the solution to this problem. I will also make mention again of the business who commented on an govt audit and they were not able to produce documentation on their own inventory's inventory adjustments throughout the years. I urge @Shopify  to take legal issues like this into account as it is of the utmost importance.

Thank you and we all appreciate attention to this matter. I can be reached directly should more input be required on a retail perspective 🙂

-Michelle

[mariaacle]

Thank you for your feedback again! The recent update extending inventory history from 90 to 180 days is only the beginning. We understand the importance of having a comprehensive inventory history and are actively working on further extending this period in the near future. Inventory adjustments involve one of the largest data sets at Shopify, rest assured this is a top priority for us.

[MarcoM0857]

Thank you, but it is definitely NOT enough! Has anyone at Shopify ever been involved in managing a real-life e-commerce business? I mean, actually running an e-commerce enterprise? If so surely they would understand the importance of the inventory history! Actually, the history should begin from the product's creation date, although I’m sure most people would be satisfied with a period of 60 months (5 years).

Come on, Shopify! I personally love your company (we have four websites with you), but I have to say that this specific shortcoming is quite embarrassing.