Stock you can trust

Stock figures are only useful if they are true. Most stock problems are not a system fault — they are the gap between what the shelf has and what the screen says.

Tracking, or not

Switch tracking off for things you can always supply: made to order, digital, print on demand. The shop then never stops selling them, which is correct.

Switch it on for anything finite, and put in a real number. A tracked product with a made-up number is worse than an untracked one: it will either refuse a real order or accept one you cannot fill.

Locations

If you ship from more than one place, stock lives per location. An order then needs to know where it is going out from. Getting this wrong shows up as parcels that cannot be picked.

Overselling

Allowing a product to go below zero is sometimes right — a pre-order, a restock you have already paid for. It is never right by accident. Decide it per product.

What to check

• Count one shelf and compare it to the screen. That number is the honest measure of everything else here.
• A product at zero cannot be added to the cart, unless you chose to allow it.
• After a test order, the figure drops by the right amount.