What is a stockout?
A stockout is when a product you sell runs out, so shoppers can't buy it until you restock. It costs at least the profit on each sale you miss. A shirt that sells 6 a day at $15 profit, out for 5 days, costs $450.
Stockout vs out of stock
Stockout, also written stock-out, names the event: you ran out. Out of stock describes the product until stock returns. Shopify counts an item out of stock when you track its inventory and the count reaches zero or below. Taking orders for stock on its way makes it a backorder or a pre-order.
What causes a stockout?
A sale or a viral post empties two weeks of stock in two days. Your supplier quotes 14 days and delivers in 21. Shopify says 6 left while the shelf holds 2. Or the reorder waits for the day you notice.
What does a stockout cost?
The stockout cost formula is days out of stock × average units sold a day × profit per unit. For the shirt, 5 × 6 × $15 = $450. The formula leaves out rush shipping on the reorder and the later orders of shoppers who never return. In Baymard's testing, 30% of shoppers told only that an item was out of stock were likely to look for it elsewhere. Lost sales never show in your reports.
How do you prevent a stockout?
Set a reorder point: units sold a day × your supplier's delivery time, plus safety stock. At 6 shirts a day and a 12-day wait, reorder at 72 plus safety stock. A Shopify inventory report under Analytics then Reports shows the days of stock each size and color has left, from its last 28 days of sales.
What do you do when a product sells out?
If stock lands soon, keep selling and tell shoppers the ship date. In the Inventory section of the product or each size and color, open "Sell when out of stock" and tick its checkbox to take orders at zero. Without a date, a back in stock alert collects emails for the restock. Move sold-out products down your collections, so shoppers see in-stock products first.
Sold-out products that still get visits, with Sledge
Sledge does not forecast demand, reorder stock or change your stock counts. On a paid plan, Sledge Analytics marks a product "Sold out but wanted" in its Signals tab and counts the visits that found it sold out. From Accelerate up, Sledge Back in Stock emails the shoppers who signed up once the product returns. Growth Intelligence, also on paid plans, adds up the sales its suggested fixes could bring as one dollar figure, labeled "Est. potential".
