It is important to keep your inventory accurate and track the quantity of each product in your store. Accurate inventories allow you to avoid selling more than you actually have in stock and help you replenish your stock before running out.
You can specify stock quantities for every product in your SHOPLINE store, and SHOPLINE will automatically reduce it once a product is ordered. When the quantity of a certain product reaches zero, the product will show the Sold out label and become unavailable for purchase unless you enable pre-order. You can also choose to receive email notifications by downloading the Low Stock Notification app such that when a product quantity gets low, you'll be notified and will have time to restock.
Table of content
- Setting stock tracking for products
- View inventory in inventory management
- Exporting inventory with CSV file
- Importing inventory with CSV file
- Inventory CSV File statuses
Setting stock tracking for products
When you add a new product to your store, quantity is unlimited by default. To enable stock tracking for a product, you should specify how many units of this product you have in stock.
When customers place orders for a product (and the order payment status is either Awaiting Payment or Paid), the product’s stock will be deducted automatically. Once the particular product’s stock level reaches zero, it is labeled as “Out of stock” in your store admin. As for the storefront, you can choose one of the following out-of-stock behavior options for each product:
- Mark the product as “Sold Out” and hide it from your storefront so that customers will not be able to see it and the product will be unavailable for purchase.
- Mark the product as “Out of stock”/“Sold Out” and show it on your storefront. The product will be unavailable for purchase, and customers will know that it is not for sale.
- Enable pre-orders for products that have been sold out.
To set quantity stock for a product:
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From your SHOPLINE admin, go to Products.
- Select the product you want to start tracking.
- Under the Inventory section, toggle on Tracking quantity.
- Enter the inventory quantity and click Update.
View inventory in inventory management
If you have set stock levels for products in multiple locations, you can then view stock data for products in different locations in Inventory Management.
If you have set up multi-location stock for a product, you can switch between locations to check the stock availability.
Note that if you do not have a corresponding stock level set for a product at a location and when you switch to said location to view the stock data, the relevant product will not be displayed.
Exporting inventory with CSV file
You can export an inventory CSV file containing the quantities you have in stock at each location, which can be used as a template to update stock quantities. Additionally, you can then import the CSV file to update the stock situation on the SHOPLINE platform to show the quantity of each product in stock at each location.
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When multiple locations exist in your store, please do not use product CSV files to export or import inventory quantities. Instead, you will need to use an inventory CSV file. Data for SKUs without choosing the 'Toggle on tracking quantity' will not be exported. |
To export inventory using CSV:
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From your SHOPLINE admin, go to Product > Inventory.
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Click on Export inventory.
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Select the export range in the pop-up window
- All variants
- Selected variants
- All results
- Select the locations from which you need to export your inventory data. If you have more than one location, specify whether you want to export data for all locations or only for a specific location.
- Click Export.
Importing inventory with CSV file
If you wish to update stock levels via a CSV file, please export the CSV file for a template. The CSV file contains multiple columns to help you identify products. Please edit only the inventory quantities in the location column.
| Please do not use SHOPLINE product CSV files to import inventory quantities since the system will not recognise them. You must use the exported inventory CSV files. |
The import process will only update the inventory quantity of SKUs that are currently available for 'Toggle on tracking quantity' and will not create new items or new SKU information.
Importing inventory quantities will cover your previous inventory data. To avoid data mismatches, it is recommended that inventory should be modified without other modifications to it (e.g. shop is open; someone else is changing the inventory information).
To import inventory using CSV:
- From your SHOPLINE admin, go to Product > Inventory.
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Open the CSV file you exported. Learn how to export CSV file.
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Update the number in the remaining locations columns. The number you enter in each row can be positive, negative or 0. You can also leave it blank or enter Not stocked to indicate that the product has never been stocked at that location.
If your CSV file contains columns of locations for which you do not want to update your inventory, please delete the entire column for those locations, including their titles. - Save the CSV file.
- Click on Import inventory and upload the CSV file.
Before importing your inventory data, please ensure that your CSV file is in the correct format. Incorrect line information in the CSV file will be skipped directly, and no error message will be provided. Please fill in the information in the CSV file according to the specifications.
Inventory CSV File statuses
Inventory CSV files contain information that can uniquely identify the characteristic of multiple variants and quantities of a product or product at a specific location.
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Handle |
Handle is the unique identification value for each product. They can contain letters, dashes, and numbers, but not spaces. A handle is used in the URL of each product. Handle is the key field in the inventory CSV file to locate which item the row information belongs to, otherwise, the row information will be invalid. |
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Title |
The title field is ancillary information used to help users understand which item the line information belongs to when exporting. Filling it in when importing will not affect the original title information of the product. Not required, but this column could not be deleted. |
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Option1 name |
For products with multiple variants, each variant has its corresponding attribute name and attribute value information. Fill in the attribute name information for the first attribute of the variant here. Option Name and Option Value in the inventory CSV file are key fields to locate which variant the row information belongs to, otherwise the row information will be invalid. |
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Option1 value |
For products with multiple variants, each variant has its corresponding attribute name, and attribute value information. Fill in the attribute value information for the first attribute of the variant here. Option Name and Option Value in the inventory CSV file are key fields to locate which variant the row information belongs to, otherwise the row information will be invalid. |
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Option2 name |
As described in Option1 name |
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Option2 value |
As described in Option1 value |
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Option3 name |
As described in Option1 name |
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Option3 value |
As described in Option1 value |
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Option4 name |
As described in Option1 name |
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Option4 value |
As described in Option1 value |
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Option5 name |
As described in Option1 name |
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Option5 value |
As described in Option1 value |
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SKU |
The SKU field is auxiliary information used to help the user understand which variant the row information belongs to when exporting. Filling it in when importing the data will not affect the original title information of the product. Not required, but this column could not be deleted. |
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Name of location |
The column headings represent the name of the location where you keep the inventory, and the rows represent the number of products in stock at that location. If your online store is configured with multiple locations, there will be multiple location columns when you select to export all locations. |
Get in Touch
SHOPLINE has a specialized Merchant Success Team available to assist you with any questions or issues. Please feel free to contact us via the chatbox in the lower right corner of your SHOPLINE admin panel or on the SHOPLINE official website. We are always here to support you every step of the way and help your business thrive.
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