Stock Settings
This page describes every section and control on the Stock Settings page. Use it to configure reservations, back-in-stock alerts, notifications, rules for orders into negative stock, stock display, when stock is reduced or reserved, availability texts, and bulk tools.
Path: Catalog › Stock › Stock Settings (/admin/settings/stock)
The page has four tabs: Reservations & alerts, Availability & orders, Storefront texts, and Bulk tools. The first three are one form — after a change, a floating bar with the Save Settings and Discard buttons appears at the bottom; if you leave the page with unsaved changes, the admin warns you. Actions in the Bulk tools tab run immediately after you confirm them in a dialog, and the form is not saved with them.
1. Reservations & alerts tab
Stock Reservations
Purpose: Reserve stock when items are added to the cart, so the same units are not sold twice.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable Stock Reservations | Turn on to reserve stock when an item is added to the cart. The reserved quantity is released when the cart is abandoned (after the timeout below) or when the order is completed/cancelled. Turn off to disable reservations (stock is then deducted only according to the "What happens on successful payment?" choice). |
| Auto-release reservations after timeout | Shown only when reservations are on. If it is off, cart reservations do not expire — they are held until the order is completed or the customer removes the item from the cart (guest carts are still cleaned up after 2 days). |
| Reservation Timeout (minutes) | Shown only when auto-release above is on. The time in minutes (1–1440, default 30) after which an inactive cart's reservation is released. |
You can see the reservations currently held and release them manually in Catalog › Stock › Reservations — see Managing stock.
Back-in-stock alerts
Purpose: Let customers sign up to be notified when a sold-out product is available again.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable Watchdog | Turn on to show the back-in-stock notification option on sold-out products. Turn off to hide it. |
| Max Watchdogs Per User | Shown only when the watchdog is on. The maximum number of products one customer can sign up for. Empty = no limit. |
You'll find the list of subscribed customers in Catalog › Stock › Watchdogs.
Admin Notifications
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Notify Admin on Watchdog Signup | An e-mail to the admin every time a customer signs up for a sold-out product. |
| Notify Admin on Low Stock | An e-mail to the admin when a product's stock drops to the low stock threshold or below it. |
| Enable Low Stock Alerts | Turns on the behaviour based on the low stock threshold. |
| Low Stock Threshold | A number (≥ 0). Stock is "low" when the quantity is above 0 but below this value. Used for the low stock status, for the "Set status from stock" tool, and for notifications. |
2. Availability & orders tab
Stock Management
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Allow Backorder to negative stock (Global) | Turn on if products that are not in stock should still be orderable (stock can go negative). Turn off to block adding to cart when stock is not available. Individual products and variants can override this — see the rule below. |
| Allow Cross-Warehouse Fulfillment (Global) | Turn on to allow fulfilling an order from any warehouse that has stock, even if the shipping method's warehouse has none. Turn off to require stock in the shipping method's warehouse. |
| Stock Display Mode (Global) | How stock information is shown on product pages: Always Show, Show Only When Low Stock, Show Only When Out of Stock, Never Show. Individual products can override this. |
| Default Max Quantity Per Product | A number (1–1000). The default maximum quantity of one product in the cart for the whole store. A product can have its own limit (the Maximum Order Quantity field on the product), which overrides this value. |
When orders into negative stock are allowed
Whether a customer can buy goods that are not in stock is decided by three settings, in this order:
- Variant — the Allow orders into negative stock checkbox in a specific variant's edit panel. If it is ticked, the variant can be ordered into negative stock.
- Product — the Allow orders into negative stock field in the product's stock settings, with three options: Use Global Setting, Force allow orders below stock, or Force disallow orders below stock.
- Whole store — the Allow Backorder to negative stock (Global) switch on this page. It applies to all products set to "Use Global Setting".
Products with their own setting
If you have products whose own setting contradicts the global switch, the page shows this under the switch — e.g. how many products have orders into negative stock allowed although they are switched off globally (or the other way round). The Show these products link opens the product list filtered to just those products, so you can check and edit them.
What happens on successful payment?
Choose one of three options:
- Reduce stock quantity – physical stock is reduced as soon as the order is paid; existing cart reservations are confirmed (recommended for most shops).
- Reserve stock only – physical stock stays the same; the quantity is held as reserved for the order and is deducted when the order moves to completed / processing / paid, and released if it is cancelled.
- Do nothing – no automatic changes on payment; stock is deducted only when the order status changes.
The options exclude each other — exactly one is always active.
Delivery policy
On the product detail you can show the customer a "Delivery in X working days" line under availability. There are two values:
- Delivery when in stock (working days) — used when the product (or the selected size) is in stock.
- Delivery when out of stock (working days) — used when the product is not in stock but can still be ordered (on backorder / preorder).
An empty field = that line is not shown. Here in Stock Settings you set the global default value for the whole store (placeholder "Do not show").
Overrides at product and variant level:
- A specific product can override both values in its form (Delivery policy). Empty = the value from Stock Settings is used.
- A specific variant (size/color) can override the values even more finely. Empty = inherited from the product.
So the order of precedence is: variant → product → Stock Settings → hidden.
INFO
The line is not shown if the product is out of stock and cannot be ordered, or if no value is set anywhere in the chain. On products with variants it appears only after a variant is selected.
Relation to supplier warehouses
If an item is in stock only at a supplier (external warehouse), the line uses the supplier's lead time instead of the "when in stock" value. Supplier warehouses and the delivery-date shift are a separate feature.
3. Storefront texts tab
Custom Stock Messages
Purpose: Decide what customers see for product availability.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show stock quantity | If it is off, product cards and the product detail show only the status text (e.g. "In Stock") without concrete numbers. |
| Split availability by warehouse | Off by default. On the product detail it shows availability as separate lines for each warehouse marked Show as an availability line on the product. The Configure warehouses → link leads to the warehouse list; details are in Warehouses & Suppliers. |
| High Stock Threshold | From this quantity upward, the high stock message is used. |
| Low Stock Threshold | The same value as in the Reservations & alerts tab. Between the low and high threshold the low stock message is used; at 0, the out of stock message. |
Behaviour on the shop: When available stock is 0, the shop always shows the out of stock message, regardless of the stock status set on the product. When stock is > 0, the label is decided by the product's status and these messages.
Message Text
Choose the language with the language switch (e.g. SK, EN, CS) and fill in:
| Message | When it is shown |
|---|---|
| High Stock Message | Stock ≥ high stock threshold. |
| Low Stock Message | Low stock threshold < stock < high stock threshold. |
| Out of Stock Message | Stock = 0. |
| On Backorder Message | The product has the "On Backorder" status. |
| Preorder Message | The product has the "Preorder" status. |
An empty field = the system default for that language. Custom messages at product level can override these.
4. Bulk tools tab
The tools in this tab immediately overwrite the data of all products in the catalog. Each action asks for confirmation in a dialog first.
Global Stock Status
The boxes at the top show the number of products in each status: In Stock, Low Stock, Out of Stock, On Backorder, Preorder. Below them is the total number of products and variants.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stock Status | A dropdown with the status you want to set. |
| Apply to variants too | If it is on, the same status is also set on all variants. If it is off, only the product-level status changes. |
| Apply to all products | Sets the chosen status on every product (and optionally on every variant). A message after it finishes shows the number of products and variants changed. |
INFO
This tool changes only the stock status. It does not set whether orders into negative stock are allowed — that is controlled by the rule in the Availability & orders tab.
Set status from stock
The Set status from stock (default) button sets the status of every product (and, with Apply to variants too on, of every variant) based on the actual quantity in stock and the low stock threshold:
- 0 units → Out of Stock
- Above 0 but below the low stock threshold → Low Stock
- At the threshold or above it → In Stock
Products that already have the correct status are not changed.
Cart Limits
Enter a number and click Apply to all products — the maximum cart quantity of every product is set to this value. Use it to reset all products to the same limit.
Stock Migration
Purpose: Copy stock from the old single field on the product/variant into the warehouse stock system. Use it when moving to the multi-warehouse model.
Four counters show Products pending migration, Variants pending migration, Products migrated, and Variants migrated. The Target Warehouse line shows the warehouse that will receive the migrated stock (the default warehouse; if there is none, the migration creates "E-shop Warehouse (ESHOP)").
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Include products | Simple products with stock in the old field get a warehouse stock row with that quantity. |
| Include variants | The same for variants. |
| Clear legacy stock | After the warehouse stock row is created, the original field is set to 0. If it is off, the old field is not changed. |
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Run Migration | Runs the migration with the current options. Only products/variants that don't have warehouse stock yet are processed. The button is inactive if nothing is waiting for migration or both "Include" options are off. |
| Refresh Stats | Reloads the counters without running the migration. |
After migration, these products/variants use warehouse stock as the source of truth; the rest of the application (Stock Management, the shop, the cart) uses warehouse totals, as described in the stock overview.
Quick reference: where the settings are used
| Setting | Used for |
|---|---|
| Enable Stock Reservations + timeout | Cart reservations; release after the timeout or on order/cancellation. |
| Enable Watchdog + max per customer | Back-in-stock notification on sold-out products. |
| Low Stock Threshold | Low stock status, "Set status from stock", notifications, and display. |
| Default Max Quantity Per Product | Max quantity of one product in the cart. |
| Allow Backorder to negative stock (Global) | Whether customers can buy sold-out items (unless a product or variant overrides it). |
| Stock Display Mode (Global) | Whether and when stock is shown on product pages. |
| Allow Cross-Warehouse Fulfillment (Global) | Fulfillment from any warehouse vs. only from the shipping method's warehouse. |
| What happens on successful payment? | When stock is deducted or reserved (payment vs. order status). |
| High / low stock thresholds + messages | Availability texts for the customer (e.g. "In Stock", "Out of Stock"). |
| Admin Notifications | E-mails on a new watchdog signup or on low stock. |
For everyday stock changes (add, subtract, transfer, import/export), use Catalog › Stock › Stock Management (see the stock overview). You manage warehouses (create, edit, default warehouse) in Catalog › Stock › Warehouses.