Effectively managing your inventory is crucial for any successful e-commerce business. Whether you're receiving new stock, conducting an inventory audit, or preparing for an upcoming product launch, the Shopify admin provides powerful tools to streamline your inventory management process.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

On this page

• Managing Inventory

• Inventory States

• Adjusting Inventory

• Bulk Editing Inventory

• Using a CSV File to Update Inventory

• Transferring Inventory Between Locations

• Creating B2B Catalogs

• Now It’s Your Turn!

Managing Inventory

From the Inventory page in Shopify, you can set up inventory tracking, view current stock levels, and make necessary adjustments. This page allows you to search, sort, and customize your view, helping you maintain optimal inventory levels.

Effective inventory tracking is essential for preventing overselling and provides valuable insights into when you need to restock items, ensuring your business runs smoothly.

Inventory States

Understanding your inventory's status is key to effective management. Inventory is categorized into several states:

• Unavailable: Units reserved for draft orders, set aside by apps, or held for other reasons.

• Committed: Units included in orders that have been placed but not yet fulfilled.

• Available: Units ready for sale, not committed to any order or held as unavailable.

• On Hand: The total number of units at a location, including committed, unavailable, and available inventory.

• Incoming: Units on their way from transfers, purchase orders, or apps. These aren’t available for sale until received and updated to available.

Adjusting Inventory

Inventory quantities can be adjusted directly on the Inventory page for each product or variant. Common adjustments include:

• Changing the amount of available inventory.

• Moving inventory between available and unavailable statuses.

• Modifying the total inventory on hand.

Each time you make an adjustment, the reason for the change is recorded, providing an audit log for your inventory adjustments, which can be reviewed at any time.

Bulk Editing Inventory

To streamline the process of updating multiple products and their variants at once, utilize the bulk editing tool. Here’s how:

1. From the Inventory page, select the variants you wish to edit.

2. Choose “Bulk Edit” from the top menu.

3. The Inventory Bulk Editor page will appear, displaying the selected product variants in a table format. You can customize which properties are displayed.

4. Click and type into the fields you wish to edit. Once done, save your changes to apply them.

Using a CSV File to Update Inventory

If you prefer working with CSV files, Shopify allows you to export or import inventory data. Here’s a quick guide:

1. Export your current inventory to a CSV file.

2. Make the necessary adjustments in the file.

3. Upload the updated CSV file back into the Shopify admin.

Transferring Inventory Between Locations

If you manage multiple stores or warehouses, you can easily transfer inventory between locations through the Shopify admin. To create a transfer:

1. Specify the origin (sending location) and destination (receiving location) for the stock.

2. Select the products and quantities you wish to transfer.

3. Add any additional shipping details or references as needed.

The stages of an inventory transfer include:

• Draft: Captures the initial details of the transfer.

• Pending: Indicates that the units are ready to be received.

• Received: Confirms that the units have arrived and been processed.

Creating B2B Catalogs

To enhance the buying experience for businesses, including wholesale customers, you can create B2B catalogs. A catalog allows you to:

• Select which products to offer wholesale to B2B customers.

• Set quantity rules to manage inventory and sales efficiently.

• Offer volume pricing to encourage larger orders.

• Customize pricing for different companies, aligning with your pricing strategy.

You can create a catalog that includes all your products or only specific ones. When ready, assign the catalog to a company for sharing. Manage products and pricing for each catalog, including making overall percentage price adjustments, setting quantity rules, and offering additional price breaks based on order volume.

Now It’s Your Turn!

From a test store, practice adjusting inventory by moving products in and out of availability and transferring them to different locations. Create a catalog and apply a wholesale discount to see how it affects your business.