Anyone else frustrated with new "update" re: Inventory vs. On Hand Quantity?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Shopify merchants are frustrated by an inventory management update that replaced the “Available” column with “On Hand” in bulk editing views. The “On Hand” quantity represents total physical inventory (Committed + Available + Unavailable), making it difficult for merchants to see at-a-glance what’s actually available for sale.

Key Issues:

  • Bulk editing now only shows “On Hand,” requiring merchants to click into individual products to see “Available” inventory
  • Products with variants display “On Hand” first, cutting off variant names when scrolling to view “Available” quantities
  • Merchants without physical inventory (dropshippers, made-to-order businesses) find “On Hand” meaningless for their workflows
  • The change has caused overselling, incorrect stock displays, and significant time waste
  • Mobile app only shows “On Hand” with no way to view “Available”
  • Technical bugs include: page jumping to top after saving, negative inventory amounts appearing incorrectly, and save buttons disappearing

Shopify’s Response:

  • Initially defended the change, suggesting merchants use “continue selling when out of stock” settings
  • Later re-enabled editing of “Available” quantities and allowed negative inventory
  • Fixed CSV import/export workflows
  • Acknowledged bugs are being investigated but provided no timeline for fixes
  • Stated “On Hand” feature will not be removed despite widespread complaints

Merchant Reactions:
Many are considering switching platforms (WooCommerce, BigCommerce mentioned). Merchants report lost sales, angry customers, staff stress, and hours of additional work managing inventory. The update appears inadequately tested and poorly suited for diverse business models.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
37

@Janusa Several of us have contact Shopify support trying to explain how terrible the update is for retailers who track inventory and have asked them to change it back or simply add an option to select the “available” instead of defaulting to the useless “on hand”.

We’ve all been told they would “give our feedback to the developers” but nothing further could be done at this time. I was also told by the support person I contacted that there was no way they could give me a follow up or update on this issue either since they have no idea if our feedback will result in any action being taken. All they could do was “give our comments to the developers”. So frustrating.

4 Likes