Why is my e-commerce inventory always incorrect?

[Ride_EquiSafe]

Hivemind,

I have an e-commerce store as well as a couple of brick and mortar locations and we have inventory that we fulfill from in multiple locations. Our inventory always seems to be wrong, no matter how often we update. We are super careful to fulfill orders from the correct location.

We're essentially doing weekly inventory now because we're finding so many discrepancies. Has anyone else experienced this? What are your solutions? Is there an app that helps?

THANKS!

[Made_by_Lanzi]

Hi @Ride_EquiSafe, thank you for visiting the Shopify Forum

Are you using Shopify POS in all of this locations? I would contact support to check if everything is setup correctly and updated.

In the meantime we could make an automatic system to track inventory with Zapier or integromat, so at least you don't have to do it manually.

Hoped it helped

Lanzi

Shopify & Klaviyo Partner

PD: If this answer helped you please like & accept it

[Ride_EquiSafe]

No, POS is not in all locations. But we are either doing manual updates as well as transfers from one location to another and every time we go check inventory levels, they are wrong.

[kingstore]

Hey @Ride_EquiSafe sounds like a headache! With limited information on the challenge you are looking to solve it's tough to provide sound advice, however it sounds like you need a multi-location inventory system that will connect with your Shopify store, and perhaps physical POS for the stores. 

What this will do is allow the order allocation to go to the location with the right availability and shipping speeds according to the address of the customer. An inventory system that connects all these points can hold various inventory levels across your locations and even hold bin location information at each of those locations. 

So, what you could do with an inventory system such as SKUSavvy is to hold most of your central inventory in a warehouse and fulfill as many orders from there as possible. Second, you could cross-dock inventory across your own internal locations so that a request is sent from the destination location, picked at the origin location, and scanned in at the destination so it is always tracked between your locations. This will also help with pick-pack-ship processes with built-in barcode scanning so that each inventory movement is enforced for accuracy. 

A few other features you'll find when running a system like this that might help:

• Management of units and variants
• Mobile device usage and barcode scanning
• Visual warehouse layout and bin allocations
• Cross-docking between multiple warehouse/store locations
• Visual pick guidance
• Purchasing based on order volume and lead times
• Check-in flow for incoming product
• Company-wide inventory view
• Pick-pack-ship flow with built-in address validation, rate shipping, purchase and label printing

SKUSavvy is designed to work with your stores channels and we can create custom modules or integrations if you need customization from your WMS.

Inventory across warehouses

scan any barcode format

[John_OLeary]

I have seen inventory that I updated to one in stock - go back to zero literally in front of my eyes.  I have one store.  Not using POS.  This platform is either getting fixed real soon or I have to move my whole store to another.  I am absolutely sick and tired of crappy unfinished software.  I really think the computer is not meant to make our lives easier.  Just makes us work all the time without ever completing anything, and our data is much less reliable.

[Laura_Brehmer]

I am having the exact same problem. It started a couple months ago as far as I can tell.

[kingstore]

Hey @Laura_Brehmer if you want to effectively manage inventory you should try SKUSavvy which will become source of truth for inventory once your Shopify store is connected enabling you to track inventory directly to bin locations as well as manage the entire pick-pack-ship workflow. 

[nsl]

Just noticed this as well, is there any updates as to the cause of this?

[Discmayhem]

I was looking around the community to see if anyone else is having inventory issues like we are. All products I entered on 4/26/22 disappeared. We use a POS in our brick n mortar store. I have started the process of inventorying all of my food and beverages and finding big discrepancies which I have now forward to Shopify after being on the phone with them trying to figure out the issue. When I add inventory 1 variant at a time to make sure it is adjusting the number goes up, select received, then save. I see the pop up product updated but somewhere between then and now it's gone. I was advised by a Shopify Partner to look at activity and it doesn't go back that far. only shows 250 changes. Not helpful, you should be able to have a way to see all activity for each item. It is almost like the POS is NOT communicating with the back end. It is not our wifi since we upgrade to the highest speed available on the market. It's not the cables because the have all been replaced from the telephone pole to the building and the router. POS is checked every morning to make sure no updates need to be updated/installed. We shouldn't need to install yet another app to have Shopify run correctly.  The work around which yet again is taking up my time to run the business is to download a csv file of my products, which I explained doesn't help since you can no long click on the link to open from you email if it's a larger file. So they want a csv file downloaded before the day starts and again at the end of the day to see what changed. 

Would like to know if anyone is also experiencing the same issue as well.

[Monty456]

I have precisely the same issue.  Stock going from 30+ to 0 .  Every day I'm correcting and have lost sales. Driving me insane.

[Matteo_Maniatty]

We have the same problem. Inventory is always incorrect. We use Shopify for our online business and their POS system for our two stores. We've reached out to Shopify several times and it seems no one can help us.  

[Discmayhem]

I solved our inventory issues by installing yet another app for inventory called, Thrive by Shopventory. This wasn't what I wanted to do, but had no choice after having so many inventory issues. Seemed like no matter how many times we would adjust the count it would be off again. This app has been a lifesaver and so far worth every penny. I made a product inactive in the app and accidently deleted the wrong thing,  I was able to go back into the app , make it active and it brought all of the previous information back into Shopify including images. Adding inventory is a lot easier than the way we were doing it within Shopify. with a simple Add or Edit section if you do not need to do a bulk. Need to delete a variant and the matching image, we no longer a problem since the app will remove it from Shopify with a click. We always disliked how you deleted a variant in Shopify, then would have to manually remove the image from the media box. This was always so time consuming and needed 2 screens to make sure you were deleting the correct image. I found that most of my inventory problems were from transfers within Shopify, not adjusting the correct amount or the POS not communicating with the inventory. I'm able to see every transactions for all products including edits. The audit logs go back to all time basically instead of 250 like Shopify. So far after having the app for a couple months we have had no inventory count issues. The reports are also very easy to generate and read. Additionally, you can set different reorder parameters for each variant, not the product itself or Shopify 1 number for all of your inventory. This has been my savor and happy that I found it. The bonus is customer service is top notch and helps you through anything.

[Monty456]

Please allow access to transfer my domain and copy some of the pages.

I unlocked to transfer domain but new domain host says it's still locked.

Thanks

[Laura_Brehmer]

I am having the same exact problem! As far as I know it only happened in the last month or so. I started noticing that there was zero inventory for items I knew that I had. I just paid someone to go through all my inventory to check it and now it’s all screwed up again. What is going on?

[TimGS]

Hi @Ride_EquiSafe, the answer is yes.  Big inventory issues arose after Shopify made changes to their application.  Not only is the inventory count changing and wrong in the system I can't even make the changes to ensure it is correct.  The summary inventory total on the main inventory page has been negative while the individual product skews are all positive.  After wondering why I was not getting any orders today I checked my online store and most of my products were showing "sold out"!  I have several hundred in stock.  The new feature in inventory has "on hand" and "available" inventory numbers however, if I change one to the correct number the other one automatically changes making the total inventory completely wrong.  It is not editable or fixable, currently.  I have now lost many, many sales that I won't get back and still no fix from Shopify.  Shopify, if future can you please advise users in advance of any product feature changes and can you please step up your user testing.  The other change you made to shipping is likewise causing me grief.  I use only Canada Post shipping and that is all I have accounts for and shipping capability for, however your recent forced change now places a UPS shipping option as the primary selection for a percentage of my shipments.  Now I have to manually verify and correct the shipping choice for every order I get.  Also, no fix offered for this.

[alicepelletier]

Same problem here. Shopify, any update?

[TimGS]

Alice, I finally did get this fixed but I had to do all the work. The
bottom line is that Shopify introduced a new inventory feature (without
telling anyone or testing it) and it affected how the system counts
inventory. The solution involved going into my past orders and making sure
they are all marked "fulfilled". I had to go back 7 years. If an order,
no matter how old it is, is not completed it will show up in the new
inventory system as "committed" and will make it impossible to get the
correct inventory to be "available". Try that and see if it fixes your
problem.

[Heatherp716]

Curious if you had to make refunded or archived order "fulfilled". We have the same inventory issues between our 5 store locations and the web. 

[Bullhug17]

Well I have had archived orders show up as unfulfilled.  I had an old order pop back up ( as a new order that needed to be filled) I made the order and custom tags and then when I went into the order it was from months back. I reached out and they said because the tracking didnt show it was ever delivered it automatically will bounce back in the system as an open order. Which I know is false. 

Ive had inventory show up as available ( Inventory that at the time I was waiting for and had been out of stock for months ) Shopify didnt really have any answers for me.

[Bullhug17]

This is a constant issue I am having. There are items being restocked that I havent had in months. I am having to do inventory weekly its ridiculous 

[Pburt16]

Same problem here... Just corrected another inventory discrepancy I discovered a second ago and the second product I've corrected this week. No idea what's causing the issues, but I've got a small catalog of products with limited inventory, so the discrepancies show up quickly. 

[Discmayhem]

To everyone that has had constant inventory issues I wanted to let you know about a MAJOR ISSUE and wanted to let everyone know to see if it's happening to you.

I have found that when I'm entering products which can be over 1000 variants at a time and since most have a quantity of 1, I'll enter quantity in the bulk edit once the variants have been created. I have seen with my own eyes, all variants have a quantity of 1 once saved. I'll go back to generate barcodes and the quantity will not match how many I have to print and I will see 0's. I then have to go back to the bulk edit screen and notice random variants are now 0. I have brought this major issue to Shopify's attention and it has been over 1 month and still not corrected.

I happened to go back to a product I entered about 20 minutes ago and there were 0's instead of 1 for several variants. I have no idea how many more are like this since I can no longer select multiple products to bulk edit from the main product page and see quantities. Shopify has once again made a process longer and I now have to select each product one by one to see inventory.

Also beware when you select all variants, go to bulk edit that there is a delay and will not bring all variants over. You have to go back wait a little longer then select all and hopefully all variants will be listed in the bulk edit screen.

I was told the follow from Shopify Chat.
Based on the investigation regarding the inventory discrepancy you raised, we've confirmed this is an ongoing issue with certain shops. Our developers are actively taking steps to relieve the backlog of unprocessed inventory adjustments. So, we should hopefully see this start to recover fairly soon. We'll keep you updated!
 
In the meantime, we've run a maintenance task to solve the issue. But, please keep in mind, until the backlog of unprocessed adjustments is cleared, this will continue. Please observe the issue after 24 hours and see if there are now improvements with inventory issues.  

[Bullhug17]

This seems to be an ongoing issue I have with shopify. Anyone have any suggestions?