Using shopify collective, inventory is showing out of stock online but it shows in stock in product details

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

Main issue: A product imported via Shopify Collective showed 5 units available in admin but appeared “Out of Stock” on the storefront. Toggling “Continue selling when out of stock” or disabling “Track inventory” would revert automatically.

Context: Shopify Collective creates a supplier location and syncs real-time stock. Shipping profiles control whether a location can ship a product to customers.

Possible causes suggested:

  • Inventory pulling from the wrong location or location priority (set Collective location and make it top priority).
  • Sellability blocked by shipping profiles and locations configuration.

Working fix (confirmed):

  • In Settings > Shipping and delivery, open the product’s shipping profile.
  • Under “Shipping from,” enable the Collective/supplier location and add rates for it.
  • Save; the Add to Cart button appears immediately because the product is now shippable from the supplier location.

Notes/constraints:

  • You cannot disable inventory tracking for Collective items; Shopify relies on the supplier’s live stock, so those toggles may auto-revert.

Status: Resolved by updating the shipping profile to include the Collective location with rates; no further issues reported.

Summarized with AI on December 11. AI used: gpt-5.
1

We just got an invite from one of our suppliers to use Collective. I imported one product to try it. In the admin area, it shows that 5 units are available, but on our website its showing Out of Stock. I’m sure there is a missing setting or something but I can’t find it. I even tried to check “Continue Selling when out of stock” but it keeps unchecking it automatically when i refresh. Or…I tried unchecking “track inventory” but it keeps re-checking that box too.

I feel the issue is that the website is only showing the inventory in our STORE, but not our Collective vendor’s. How do we make it show their inventory too and NOT show “out of stock”

Honestly…I don’t want to show inventory quantities at all. i.e . not “Track Inventory” but it seems I cant’ do that.

thoughts?

2

this is a super common Collective glitch I see it on like 1 out of every 5 stores I audit.

Quick fix that works 100% of the time:

  1. Go to the product in Shopify admin

  2. Scroll down to Inventory section

  3. Click “Edit” next to the location

  4. Make sure Collective location is checked AND set as the priority location (drag it to the top)

  5. Save → wait 2–3 minutes → hard refresh the front-end

That forces it to pull inventory from your supplier instead of your physical store.

3

That’s not inventory levels, it’s rather combination of locations and shipping profiles in your shop that makes product not sellable on front end.
Sort this out

4

Hi @NaroEscape

The “Out of Stock” issue is happening because your Shipping Profile doesn’t know it’s allowed to ship from the new supplier location created by Shopify Collective.

To fix this, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery in your admin. Open the shipping profile where the product is assigned. Scroll down to the “Shipping from” list, find the location named after the Shopify Collective app (or the supplier), and enable it by adding rates to it.

Once you save, the “Add to Cart” button will appear immediately because Shopify now knows it’s valid to ship that inventory to your customers. You cannot disable inventory tracking for these items because the system relies on the supplier’s real-time stock levels.

Hope this helps!

5

thanks PieLab - this worked! Much appreciated!

6

Hi Officialmaestro - thanks for the ideas but all of this was already done…except the ‘drag to the top’ part i couldn’t figure out (no drag option). But it turns out that it was the shipping profile as noted from PieLab!