Overselling occurs when a product is sold more than its available stock. This article explains the common reasons when overselling can occur and how you can reduce the chances of overselling.
Common Causes of Overselling
Overselling typically occurs when an order is placed before the inventory is updated across all the connected stores. Sumtracker syncs inventory approximately every 10 minutes, which can occasionally result in a time gap where inventory levels are not immediately accurate across all the stores. Here are some common scenarios where overselling might occur:
If a product is sold on one platform (e.g., Shopify) and an order comes in before the inventory is updated on another platform (e.g., Etsy), overselling can occur. The delay in sync can lead to the other stores thinking the product is still available.
When the same product has multiple listings on the same platform, and an order is placed, the inventory may only be updated for one listing initially. If another order comes in before the inventory for the duplicate listings are updated, this can lead to overselling.
When an order comes in for a bundle that shares one or more components with other bundles, there will be a delay in updating the inventory for those other bundles. If an order is placed during this delay, it can result in overselling.
Bundles containing large quantities of a specific component are more prone to overselling if multiple orders are placed before Sumtracker can update the inventory levels for that component.
For example, imagine you own an online store that sells household cleaning supplies. One popular bundle is the "6-Pack Cleaning solution," which includes 6 bottles of All-Purpose Cleaner which is also sold individually.
Suppose you have 20 bottles of All-Purpose Cleaner in stock. If a customer orders 3 "6-Pack cleaning solution," this would use up 18 bottles of All-Purpose Cleaner (leaving 2).
If another customer places an order for 4 bottles of All-Purpose Cleaner before the inventory is updated, you would end up overselling this, as the stock levels have not yet been adjusted to reflect the first order.
While Sumtracker significantly reduces the chances of overselling, it is important to understand that Sumtracker cannot entirely eliminate this risk due to the nature of real-time sales and inventory updates.
For Shopify users, overselling can occur even outside of the above scenarios. This can happen if the "Continue selling when out of stock" setting is enabled for a product. When this option is turned on, the product will continue to be available for sale even when it is out of stock, leading to overselling. Learn more.
How to prevent overselling?
While overselling cannot be completely avoided, you can reduce the risk by using the "Close at Quantity" feature in Sumtracker, which allows you to mark a product as out of stock before it actually runs out, accounting for the time lag in updates. Learn more.
In case of Shopify, you can prevent overselling by disabling the "Continue selling when out of stock" option for your products. This will ensure that once a product is sold out, it will no longer be available for purchase until the stock is replenished.
Get in touch with support team
If you face issues with products overselling, you must write to the support team at [email protected] with a few example of the SKUs that have been oversold and on which stock you face issues with products overselling, you must write to the support team with a few example of the SKUs that have been oversold and on which store.