How to manage Printful POD inventory in my store?

[GeeBeeBeeGee]

We recently opened a store, fulfillment through Printful. Trying to understand how to manage inventory (if at all). When we make sales, we get negative numbers of those products in the inventory column of our product display. Does this matter? Should we let it be and just assume Printful will fulfill unless told otherwise? Should we be building up inventory for each product? That doesn't seem to make sense since Printful is POD. Is this just a glitch because Shopify is simply telling us that our theoretical  inventory has depleted? Something else going on? Any help would be much appreciated.

[DaniellaB · Accepted solution]

Hey, it's Daniella from Printful here. 

We fulfill each order on-demand, therefore there is really no inventory to track. There can be multiple reasons as to why a zero or negative number is displayed in the inventory column, so I'd suggest reaching out to our Customer Support by chat (if it's on) or support@printful.com with more details. That way, we can properly look into this and advise you why it's displayed this way. 

[GeeBeeBeeGee]

This is on Shopify,  not Printful. We were told by a Shopify advisor to ignore it. What do you think?

[soufwestthreads]

Hi GeeBeeBeeGee,

I think I am having the same issue as you. I am using Printful as my POD partner for Shopify and when I go to my Products page, all of the inventory is showing as “0 in stock for ‘ ‘ variants” or “inventory not tracked.” I’m assuming this is if you keep product on stock and are shipping yourself. Have you had success selling from your store with it still not technically showing any inventory?

[citynsurf]

im having an issue where if printful is out of stock on an item its not showing up on my store when someone goes to purchase that item

[Articologist]

Printful's approach to inventory suits their model, but clashes with merchants selling limited editions. For us, it's nonsensical. We're left reporting phantom stock when our physical merchandise is either attached or warehoused at Printful. This disconnect between reality and reporting creates unnecessary complications for merchants with specialized inventory needs. It's a shame almost 5 years later this has gone unaddressed.