Inventory states in Shopify: committed, incoming and available

Available is stock free to sell; Committed is stock allocated to orders or other commitments; Incoming is stock expected but not yet received. Those labels answer different questions, which is why the largest number on the inventory screen is not automatically the number you can promise.

Say the Madison sofa in Fog linen shows Available 0, Committed 2, and Incoming 4. The associate quotes a fresh twelve-week build, but two incoming sofas are unallocated. In this illustrative example, the better answer comes from checking the purchase and its destination before quoting the customer.

Read the states together

Shopify’s inventory-state definitions distinguish the stock physically present from stock that is free to sell.

Incoming is not part of On hand. A truck on the way is useful information, but it does not create a sofa on the warehouse floor.

A quote is committed only when stock is reserved

A quote’s existence is not proof that its goods are held. Shopify’s draft-order guidance says reserved draft items move to Committed; unreserved items remain available to other customers.

That distinction matters when several associates quote the same floor model. The customer who is still choosing a rug and the customer whose accepted order has a stock hold are in different positions.

Use a clear store policy for reservations and their expiry. The draft-order stock-hold guide explains that workflow.

An app’s customer hold may use a different stock state from a native draft reservation. Read the hold’s purpose and linked order, rather than treating every held item as an identical Shopify commitment.

Incoming does not mean unallocated

Shopify purchase orders can contribute to incoming quantities, as its purchase-order announcement describes. A special-order unit can therefore be expected stock while already belonging to a waiting customer.

Return to the four incoming sofas. The associate needs to know whether they match the requested fabric and configuration, which are spoken for, and how firm the arrival information is. The incoming total alone answers none of those questions.

A different leg finish is still a different sofa for this purpose. “Close enough” belongs in a conversation with the customer, not in an unnoticed stock substitution.

Use the PO and linked order records to identify the destination. Then communicate the expected window without turning an unconfirmed vendor estimate into a delivery appointment.

OrderPilot connects configuration and destination

OrderPilot turns received configured pieces into stock on a stocked variant. Staff can match available units to the customer’s exact choices, then distinguish a stock sale from Order New.

PO lines retain their customer-order connections and outstanding quantities. That gives the buying desk a way to explain which incoming pieces cover which sales. Units held for a customer remain associated with that order until the handover. Read stock held for customer orders for the reservation process and Order New on the iPad for purchasing a fresh piece without releasing the display model.

Investigate a negative Available quantity

A negative Available quantity means the recorded sales or commitments have exceeded that location’s sellable stock. Look at the underlying sale, receipt, adjustment, and location movement before changing the number.

The cross-location POS guide covers one source of confusion. A table sold at the showroom may physically come from the warehouse, so the source must be recorded correctly.

Keep the floor rule short: read the state, identify the exact unit, and check who it belongs to before promising it.

For the complete sale around those numbers, continue with selling made-to-order furniture on Shopify.

Sources

1. Inventory states — Shopify Help Center.
2. Creating draft orders — Shopify Help Center.
3. Use purchase orders to order and stock inventory from your suppliers — Shopify Changelog, May 1, 2023.