What happens when some product variants go out of stock?

Written by

Sabrina Barnes

On occasion, some product variants may temporarily go out of stock (OOS). We will alert you when this happens via “out of stock” notifications in My Products:

If you’ve enabled Order Routing for your store, you don’t need to take any further action. If a customer orders a product variant that is temporarily unavailable, the order will be routed to another Print Provider for fulfillment, and you won’t lose the sale.

In case you don't want to use Order Routing, you can use the Unavailable Variant Replacement Tool or manually edit the order to replace the product model or the Print Provider.

However, if the product is offered by just a single Print Provider, and/or if there are no similar alternatives available, or if you don’t wish to use Order Routing, please follow the steps below to update the availability of our products in your sales channel.

Note

The product stock status in your store listing is not updated automatically. You will need to update the product each time you see an “out of stock” notification in your Printify account, unless you’re using Order Routing and there are alternative Print Provider options for the product.

If you’re using Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop US, or Amazon US

Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop US, and Amazon US users can choose their preferred variant visibility option in the product details page before publishing or republishing.

In the My Products tab, open the product details by clicking on its product card.
In the Publishing settings section, choose your preferred option on how to proceed. You can choose between the 3 available options (2 for Shopify users) of variant visibility.
- Show all variants as available for purchase – choose this option if you’re using Order Routing and your products have multiple Print Provider options. If someone orders a product variant that is unavailable, the order will be routed to another Print Provider for fulfillment, and you won’t lose the sale.
- Show in stock variants as available and out of stock variants as “sold out” – this will be the best option for SEO optimization.
- Only show in stock variants and hide any out of stock variants - the out of stock variants will be automatically removed from your store listing upon republishing.
Lastly, select the Colors, sizes, prices, and SKUs option and click Publish to update the stock status in your store.

If you’re using WooCommerce, Squarespace, or PrestaShop

You can update the product availability by deselecting the variants that are out of stock (in the Product Creator), followed by republishing.

In the My Products tab, click on the brush icon to open the product in the Product Creator.
Click Edit tools in the upper right corner, then click Select variants. Next, deselect the size/color variants that are out of stock, and click Save product.
In the My Products tab, open the product details by clicking on its product card. Navigate to Publishing settings. Select the Colors, sizes, prices, and SKUs option and click Publish to update the stock status in your store.

If you’re using eBay US, Wix, or BigCommerce

You can update your product availability by simply republishing them. The unavailable variants will be automatically removed from the listings during republishing.

In the My Products tab, select the affected products and click Publish to republish them in bulk.
Choose Sync and publish selected details for all products and select Colors, sizes, prices, and SKUs, leaving the rest of the product details unchecked. In that case, only the product stock availability will be updated. Click Confirm to update the stock status in your store.

If you’re using Printify Pop-Up Store

When a product variant goes out of stock, it will be removed from the store’s product listing automatically. As soon as it becomes available again, the listing will be automatically updated and the variant will be available for purchase.