Stock followed on the main product, and not on the variations, any solution for that?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Main issue: A seller offering custom charm jewelry needs to track inventory at the base product level (one necklace), while using variants only to set pricing by number of charms (0–10). Shopify ties inventory to each variant, causing over-selling risk or no tracking if variant inventory is disabled.

Constraints/attempts: Price add-ons via apps (e.g., to adjust price by charm count) require paid plans, which the seller wants to avoid. Manually deactivating the product after a sale is error-prone.

Community suggestions:

  • Manual workflow: Use a single product with a hidden variant as a placeholder (stock of 1) and clearly describe customization; manually adjust orders and decrement stock based on choices.
  • Inventory tags: Use tags to represent combinations and set stock per tag; limited and relies on customer instructions.

Shopify staff update: No native feature to track stock at the main product level across variants. Recommends a third-party app (Connected Inventory) to link variant stock, and will pass feedback to developers.

Status: Unresolved; hinges on using an app or manual processes.

Summarized with AI on December 28. AI used: gpt-5.
3

Hi @TheFrenchWitch ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

While I can completely understand the impact of this not being available natively, the Shopify App Store would be the best course of action here. I’d recommend checking out the app called 'Connected Inventory’, as it may work for your business needs. I will however, be sure to pass this feedback along to our Developers. We’re always looking for ways to improve the platform and appreciate these suggestions.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!