Tracking Inventory at the Product Level

Retail & Point of Sale

Topic summary

Issue: A print-on-demand store wants to track a limited edition run (e.g., 150 total) at the product level, not per variant (size/frame). Shopify natively tracks inventory at the variant level, forcing manual tracking.

Context: An app using “add-ons” briefly solved inventory but failed due to incompatibility with the printer’s system. Forum note: For feature requests, contact Shopify directly; staff no longer monitor this forum.

Suggested workarounds:

  • Material Manager app: Create a shared “material” per print with a total quantity, link all variants to it. Any variant sale decrements the shared material and updates all linked variant inventories.
  • Any inventory sync app: Configure so a sale of one variant reduces inventory on all variants of the product.

Status: No confirmation of a chosen solution; thread remains open with proposed app-based workarounds.

Summarized with AI on December 10. AI used: gpt-5.
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I have a print on demand business that offers limited edition prints. I want to track how many of the print has been sold (up to 150) without tracking the variants that we offer (size and frame style). Currently, I am tracking inventory manually because Shopify only seems to allow tracking at the variant/option level. Does anyone have a similar issue/have you found a solution? I tried using an app that allowed me to add variants as “add-ons” which worked well for inventory management, however, the printing company could not properly integrate that information into their system so ultimately it was not a solution. Shopify, please make tracking inventory at the product level only an option!!

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You should reach out to Shopify directly for feature requests. Staff no longer use this platform.

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Hi @gallerysoolip, the app Material Manager is able to do this. It lets you enter an inventory of materials that are shared across products/variants. When one of those variants is sold it adjust the material inventory, then the app updates the inventory of all variants that share the same materials.

For your case you would enter a material for each print and assign an inventory. Then link all variants from the parent product to that material. Now when any of those variants are sold all their inventory values will update.

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Any inventory Sync app will help to work this problem around.
So when you sell one variant, inventory will be decreased on all variants of the product.

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Thank you! Do you have any app recommendations?

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I see. So if I am selling 30 different print products total, I would enter 30 different materials with a quantity of 150 each? I guess the material would be the print itself/the artwork?

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That’s right each print would be a material. If you wanted you could also ad the different frame sizes/styles as materials for tracking as well.

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Hi @gallerysoolip,

I understand your requirements clearly. I would recommend using the Inventory Sync – GoGo app, as this should be possible with it.

You can create an Inventory Group that includes all variants of a particular print. This grouping tells the app that all these different variants—such as size and frame style—represent the same physical product and therefore must share a single unified inventory.

Simply set the starting inventory to 150, and whenever any variant (size × frame) is sold, the app will automatically update the inventory of all other variants in real time. This ensures that the total available quantity for that print always reflects the correct remaining stock out of 150.

The app also includes a great free welcome plan, so you can test everything without any upfront cost.