Count every bottle, never oversell
Inventory keeps a live count of everything you sell. By the end of this page you will know how stock counts down as orders come in, what each stock number means, and how to keep counts accurate across your shop and your warehouse.
The worked example is a small coastal wine shop with two places stock can live. The same steps work for any store. Everything here lives under E-commerce, then Catalog, then Inventory in your dashboard.
How tracking works
Tracking is turned on per product, or per variant if the product has options like size. Open E-commerce, then Catalog, then Products, and edit Bordeaux Rouge 2021. In the Inventory card, turn on Track inventory and enter the quantity you have. There is more on the product form in Products.
From then on Mirin does the counting. Every paid order takes what it bought out of the count. When the count reaches zero the storefront shows the product as out of stock and shoppers can no longer buy it. You never have to remember to turn a product off.
Backorder off. Sales stop at zero. The buy button becomes an out of stock notice.
Backorder on. Shoppers keep buying at zero and you fulfill when stock arrives.
Allow backorder for products you can always restock. For a limited vintage like Bordeaux Rouge 2021, leave it off so you never promise a bottle you cannot pour.What the stock numbers mean
The Inventory page shows four numbers for every variant at every location. They answer different questions, and mixing them up is the most common way stores accidentally oversell. Here is each one with the wine shop as the example.
- Available
- What shoppers can buy right now. Bordeaux Rouge 2021 shows 12 available, so the storefront will sell exactly 12 bottles and then stop.
- Committed
- Sold in a paid order you have not fulfilled yet. A customer paid for 2 bottles this morning, so 2 stay committed until you pack the order and mark it fulfilled.
- Incoming
- On its way to this location. A transfer of 24 bottles from the warehouse shows as 24 incoming until you receive it, so you know a restock is already moving.
- On hand
- Everything physically at the location, which is available plus committed. With 12 available and 2 committed, there are 14 bottles on the shelf.
| Available | Incoming | Committed | On hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 24 | 2 | 14 |
Stock by location
If your stock lives in more than one place, add a location for each. The wine shop has two: the shop on the harbor where customers browse, and a warehouse where cases wait. On the Inventory page, open the Locations tab and add each one with its address.
Every variant keeps a separate count at each location, so you always know where the bottles actually are. One location is the default, which is where new stock lands unless you say otherwise. Each location also has a Fulfills online orders setting. Turn it off for a location and its stock never counts toward what the storefront can sell, which is handy for a tasting room whose bottles are not for sale online.
Correcting stock with adjustments
Real counts drift. A new case arrives from the distributor, a bottle breaks during a tasting, a shelf count comes back different from the screen. When that happens, adjust the number on the Products tab of the Inventory page and pick a reason for the change.
The reason is the point. An adjustment with a reason tells the story later, while a silently edited number tells you nothing. Pick from:
| Date | Product | Change | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 3 | Bordeaux Rouge 2021 | +24 | Received |
| Jun 5 | Riesling Eola-Amity Hills | -1 | Damaged |
| Jun 9 | Bordeaux Rouge 2021 | -2 | Correction |
| Jun 12 | Riesling Eola-Amity Hills | +1 | Returned |
Moving stock with transfers
When the shop runs low and the warehouse is full, do not adjust two numbers by hand. Use a transfer from the Transfers tab. It moves the stock and keeps both locations honest along the way.
Create the transfer. Pick the origin, the destination, and the quantities. Two cases of Bordeaux Rouge 2021, from the Cellar Warehouse to the Harborside Shop.
Mark it shipped. The transfer moves to in transit and the 24 bottles show as incoming at the shop, so everyone can see a restock is on the way.
Receive it at the destination. Enter what actually arrived. If a bottle broke on the van, receive 23 of the 24 requested. The counts update and the difference stays visible.
Catching low stock early
You should never learn a wine sold out from a customer. Mirin surfaces low stock in two places. First, the products list turns the inventory count red when 3 or fewer remain, so a quick scan of the list shows what needs reordering.
Second, your team can get an email the moment something runs low. Open E-commerce, then Settings, and under Notifications turn on Low stock alerts and add the people who should receive them. Setting up notifications is covered in Store Setup.
The payoff. Your counts stay accurate on their own. Orders count stock down, adjustments explain every correction, transfers keep both locations honest, and the red numbers plus alert emails tell you before a customer ever sees an empty shelf. You find out first, every time.