WooCommerce inventory management: stock settings and reordering

WooCommerce gives you the basics of stock control out of the box: it counts stock down as orders come in, can stop selling at zero, and can email you when a product runs low. For a store that orders from suppliers with long lead times, the gap is between "stock is low" and "here is what to order from whom". This guide covers the built-in settings, what they do and do not do, and a routine for the part they leave to you.

The built-in stock settings

Most of what you need is in two places. Menu names can change between WooCommerce versions, so check the current WooCommerce documentation if something has moved.

Store-wide: WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory

• Manage stock. Turns stock tracking on for the store.
• Notifications. Choose whether to get low stock and out of stock emails.
• Notification recipient. The address those emails go to.
• Low stock threshold. The quantity at which a product counts as low.
• Out of stock threshold. The quantity at which a product is treated as out of stock.
• Stock display format. Whether and how customers see stock levels.

Per product: the Inventory tab

On each product (and on each variation of a variable product) you can turn on stock management, enter the stock quantity, choose whether to allow backorders, and set a low stock threshold that overrides the store-wide one.

Two settings to get right first

• Track stock where it actually lives. For a variable product, decide whether stock is tracked on the parent product or on each variation. If a T-shirt's sizes are separate items on your shelf, track each variation. Mixing the two makes the numbers hard to trust.
• Keep SKUs on everything. A SKU on every product and variation is what lets you match WooCommerce to your supplier's item codes, your spreadsheet and any tool you use later.

What the low stock email does and does not do

The low stock email tells you that a product's stock has fallen to its threshold. That is useful, and it is also where most stores' reordering problems start, because the threshold is a fixed number:

• It does not know how fast the product is selling now. A threshold of 20 is two weeks of stock at 1.5 a day and two days at 10 a day.
• It does not know the supplier's lead time. If the factory needs four weeks, a threshold that gives you two weeks of warning is too late however carefully you chose it.
• It does not know what you have already ordered. A product with 500 units on a ship still emails you when the shelf hits 20.
• It is one email per product, as it happens, with no quantities and nothing grouped by supplier.

You can set each product's threshold from its sales pace and lead time, using daily sales × (lead time + safety days). Our reorder point calculator guide shows how. But you would need to update every threshold whenever sales or a lead time change, which is why most stores end up with a weekly reorder routine instead.

A weekly reorder routine for WooCommerce

1. Keep a supplier list

One row per supplier: name, ordering email, lead time in days (order to stock on your shelf), how often you order from them, safety days, and any minimum order value. Then record which supplier each SKU comes from, its case pack and its unit cost.

2. Get sales and stock

From WooCommerce, export or report on units sold per SKU over the last four and eight weeks, counting processing and completed orders and leaving out cancelled and refunded ones. Take current stock from the products list.

3. Work out what is due

For each SKU:

• Daily sales = units sold ÷ days in the window
• Days left = (stock + on order) ÷ daily sales
• Due when days left is less than lead time + order cycle + safety days
• Quantity = daily sales × (lead time + order cycle + safety days) − stock − on order, rounded up to the case pack

4. Draft one purchase order per supplier

Group the due SKUs by supplier. Check each draft for surprises: a product that was out of stock recently (its sales look low), a new product without history, a sale coming up. Our Shopify purchase orders guide has a PO template that works for any store.

5. Record what you sent

Keep a list of POs sent and not yet received, with their quantities. That is your "on order" number for step 3 next week. When the delivery arrives, update stock in WooCommerce and close the PO.

Common WooCommerce stock problems

Connecting other tools to WooCommerce

Inventory tools read your store through the WooCommerce REST API. You create a key under WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > REST API and choose its permissions. For a tool that only needs to look at your orders and stock, a read-only key is enough, and you can revoke it from the same screen at any time. Be cautious with any tool that asks for write access when it only needs to read.

Where Reorder Day fits

Reorder Day connects to WooCommerce with a read-only API key. It reads the last 56 days of orders and your stock levels every day, and once a week it compares each SKU's days of stock left with the lead time, order cycle and safety days you set for its supplier. It counts the purchase orders you mark sent as stock on order, and emails you a draft purchase order per supplier, rounded to case packs. You check each draft and send it from your own email. It never places orders or contacts your suppliers.