> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OOS Spike Alert, BigCommerce > Unusual stock-out velocity, a viral SKU, a fulfilment-system glitch, or a feed re-import. Investigate before ads waste spend. How to read it, why it matte... **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Unusual stock-out velocity, a viral SKU, a fulfilment-system glitch, or a feed re-import. Investigate before ads waste spend. ## At a glance > Real-time alarm when more than five SKUs flip from in-stock to out-of-stock within a single hour. Catches a viral SKU running out faster than the merchant noticed, a fulfilment-system glitch zeroing inventory by mistake, or a feed re-import that wiped stock levels. Where Shopify's app marketplace surfaces dozens of inventory-monitoring add-ons, BigCommerce merchants typically rely on the platform's native inventory tracking and a tighter set of integrations, making this real-time signal more important. | | | | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(DISTINCT product_id WHERE inventoryLevel transitioned from >0 to 0 in last 60 min)`. Each SKU contributes once even if its inventory bounced. The alert evaluates every 5 minutes and fires when the count exceeds 5 for any rolling 60-minute window. | | **API endpoint** | BC Catalog v3 `webhooks/store/product/inventory/order_updated` and `store/product/inventory/updated` events plus reconciliation against the `products` index. Inventory transitions are timestamped at the BC-side webhook receipt time. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, inventory event metric. | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | n/a, but a refund that returns stock to inventory does NOT undo a prior OOS event for alert purposes. | | **Cancelled orders** | n/a, the alert counts SKU state transitions, not orders. | | **Currency** | n/a. | | **Channels** | All channels. The alert fires once store-wide rather than per-channel; per-channel OOS detail surfaces in [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel). | | **B2B Edition behaviour** | B2B portal SKUs share the same inventory pool by default; an OOS event affects both DTC and B2B simultaneously unless the merchant configures customer-group-specific inventory pools (rare, but supported on Enterprise). | | **Multi-Location Inventory** | When MLI is enabled the alert evaluates per-location; an SKU OOS at warehouse A but in-stock at warehouse B counts as OOS only if all locations zero. Configure per-location alerts if location-specific operations matter (fail-over fulfilment between warehouses). | | **Catalogue feed re-imports** | The single most common cause of this alert firing falsely is a catalogue feed re-import that briefly zeroes inventory before re-populating. The alert applies a 5-minute settling window to filter these; if the count returns to in-stock within 5 minutes, the event is suppressed. | | **Time window** | `RT` (rolling 60-minute window evaluated every 5 minutes). | | **Alert trigger** | `>5 SKUs flipped to OOS in 1h` | | **Sentiment key** | `out_of_stock_count` | | **Roles** | owner, operations, marketing | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your BigCommerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro. Snapshot at 11:00 UTC on Friday 17 Apr 26. | Time | SKU | Channel availability | Pre-OOS daily revenue | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------ | -------------------- | -------------------------- | | 10:08 | "Linen sheet, King, Ivory" | All channels | \$340/day | | 10:14 | "Linen sheet, King, Sage" | All channels | \$280/day | | 10:19 | "Linen sheet, King, Charcoal" | All channels | \$220/day | | 10:31 | "Linen sheet, Queen, Ivory" | All channels | \$410/day | | 10:44 | "Linen sheet, Queen, Sage" | All channels | \$290/day | | 10:52 | "Linen sheet, Queen, Charcoal" | All channels | \$250/day | | **Count in 60min window** | **6 SKUs** | | **\~\$1,790/day exposure** | ALERT FIRES at 10:52 when SKU #6 crosses zero. What's interesting: 1. **The pattern reveals the cause.** Six bedding SKUs in the same product family, all king and queen sizes, all colours, all dropping within 45 minutes. This is not natural buyer demand; this is a catalogue sync event (warehouse just reported the linen-set lot finished) or a viral moment (a TikTok influencer posted, demand surged across the family). Same alert, two completely different responses. 2. **Diagnostic sequence in the first 5 minutes**: (a) Check Channel Manager Activity log for any feed re-imports in the last hour, false-positive culprit #1. (b) Check [BC Top SKUs Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) for any of these SKUs spiking, that's a viral signal. (c) Check warehouse / 3PL inventory feed for the lot status. (d) Check social platforms for the SKU getting tagged. 3. **If viral, the action is "raise prices and pause ads".** Six SKUs at $1,790/day pre-OOS would generate $50k/month at full velocity; if a viral wave is doubling that, the right move is to capture the demand at higher price (10-20% lift on the in-stock siblings) and pause ads pointing at the OOS SKUs to avoid wasted spend. 4. **If catalogue glitch, the action is "freeze the feed and roll back".** A re-import that wiped inventory should be obvious in Channel Manager logs; pause the source feed, manually restore the inventory from the warehouse export, and investigate the feed-pipeline regression before resuming. 5. **The Amazon penalty exposure is significant.** Six SKUs going OOS on Amazon simultaneously can trigger a buy-box loss across the whole product family. **Set Channel Manager → Amazon to auto-hide on OOS** rather than leaving zombie listings; an Amazon delisting recovers within hours, but a buy-box loss can take weeks. The rapid-response playbook (when this alert fires): 1. **Determine cause** (viral vs glitch vs ordinary). Viral has supporting [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus) signal; glitch has Channel Manager log signal. 2. **Pause ads** pointing at affected SKUs immediately. Every minute of paid traffic to OOS pages is wasted spend. 3. **Auto-hide on marketplaces** to protect ranking and avoid buy-box loss. 4. **Communicate restock timing** if known. Customers convert at 12-25% on back-in-stock email if you have their address; capture them. 5. **Document the cause** for post-incident review. Repeat OOS events on the same SKU family flag a deeper inventory-planning issue. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with OOS Spike Alert | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel) | The static count view; this card is the rate-of-change view. | | [BC Stock vs Sales](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/stock-vs-sales-velocity) | The velocity-weighted view. Tells you which OOS items are urgent (high velocity) vs tail (can wait). | | [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus) | Cross-reference: if your top sellers appear in this alert, it's a five-alarm event. | | [BC Top SKUs Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) | The revenue-impact view; multiply OOS velocity by hours-OOS. | | [BC Inventory Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/inventory-distribution) | The healthy-stock baseline. Lets you see whether OOS is concentrated or distributed. | | [BC Channel Inventory Split](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/inventory-split-by-channel) | If MLI is enabled, surfaces per-location stock. | | [BC Alert Channel Revenue Drop](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/channel-revenue-drop-alert) | Often co-fires when the OOS event hits a high-revenue channel. | | [BC XC Ads on OOS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/active-ads-on-out-of-stock-skus) | Cross-connector; surfaces ad spend pointed at OOS items. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Products → View](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/products), filter by `Inventory Level = 0`, sort by Last Modified descending; the most recent flips to zero appear at the top. Compare against this card's count for the last hour. For the operational source: [Channel Manager](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/channel-manager) Activity log shows feed events; if a sync just ran, that's almost certainly the cause. For Multi-Location Inventory: [Settings → Inventory → Locations](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/settings/inventory) shows per-location stock. **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC's recent-changes view:** | Reason | Direction | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | **Webhook delivery lag**. Inventory webhooks can lag the actual change by 30-120 seconds during peak load. | Vortex IQ slightly LAGS BC for short windows | | **Variant vs product**. We count variant transitions; BC's "Inventory Level = 0" filter shows products where any variant is zero. | Vortex IQ HIGHER count than BC product filter | | **MLI multi-location**. We count "all locations zero"; BC product filter counts "any location zero" by default. | Vortex IQ LOWER count on MLI stores | | **Feed re-import settling**. We apply a 5-minute settling window; BC shows the transient zero immediately. | Vortex IQ LOWER count during feed events | | **Preorder / Backorder semantics**. We exclude preorder items (`is_preorder = true`); BC includes them. | Vortex IQ LOWER on preorder-heavy stores | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when ad / marketplace integrations are connected):** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_ads.ga_oos_disapproved`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/ga_oos_disapproved) | Google Merchant Center disapproves OOS items within 4-12 hours of detection | GMC has its own feed cycle; disapproval lag means the two cards don't match exactly during fast-moving events. | | [`amazon_sp.amazon_buy_box_loss`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amazon_buy_box_loss) | Amazon buy-box loss often co-occurs with OOS spikes when Amazon is the affected channel | Amazon's buy-box algorithm has more inputs than just stock; not all OOS events lose the box. | | [`klaviyo.kl_back_in_stock_capture`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/kl_back_in_stock_capture) | Each OOS event triggers back-in-stock email captures | Klaviyo's capture form must be configured on the product page; if absent, captures lag. | **The OOS spike alert shape is BC-aligned with similar alerts on Shopify (per `inventory_quantity` transitions) and Adobe Commerce (per `qty` transitions); merchant-facing semantics are equivalent.** ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.alert_oos_spike`](/nerve-centre/shopify/alert_oos_spike) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.alert_oos_spike`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/alert_oos_spike) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **The alert fired right after my warehouse export ran. Was it a false positive?** Probably yes, that's the catalogue-feed-reimport pattern. Modern feed pipelines should batch-update inventory atomically, but many older integrations clear inventory before populating. The 5-minute settling window catches most of these; if your feed takes longer than 5 minutes to repopulate, configure the settling window to 10-15 minutes under Settings → Alerts → OOS spike → Settling. **My alert fires every Tuesday morning. Why?** Probably your weekly cycle-count or inventory adjustment runs Monday night. Cycle counts often produce momentary OOS as quantities zero before the new count writes. Either move the cycle count to a single atomic operation (preferred), or configure the alert to silence Monday 22:00 to Tuesday 06:00. **Can I configure per-SKU alert rules?** Yes. High-velocity SKUs (your top 50) typically need an alert at any single-SKU OOS event; tail SKUs can wait. Configure per-SKU thresholds under Settings → Alerts → SKU Alert Rules, or use the velocity-tiered preset (top 50 = single-SKU alert, tail = bulk-only). **Why does this alert fire on inventory we never carried?** Possibly a Channel Manager listing for a marketplace-only SKU that doesn't exist in BC catalogue but has inventory tracked in Channel Manager. The alert sees the transition correctly. To suppress, mark the SKU as `track_inventory = false` in BC, or configure Channel Manager to manage its own inventory. **My multi-storefront BC instance shares a catalogue across storefronts. Does the alert fire once or per-storefront?** Once, store-wide, because the inventory pool is shared. Per-storefront alerts only make sense if you have storefront-specific inventory (rare, and BC doesn't natively support it without third-party extension). **Should I auto-hide listings or just alert?** Auto-hide on marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Facebook), alert-only on web. Marketplace algorithms penalise OOS-but-listed harshly; web theme can show "out of stock, restock notify" copy that captures email and converts on restock. **The OOS event was caused by an oversold SKU (Channel Manager kept selling after BC zeroed). What now?** Common BC pattern. Channel Manager's marketplace listings can sell faster than BC's inventory webhook propagates. The result: orders flow in for SKUs at zero stock. Configure Channel Manager → Inventory buffer to maintain a safety-stock margin (typically 2-5 units) below which marketplaces auto-hide; the buffer absorbs the propagation lag. **The alert says 6 SKUs but my products page shows 12 OOS. Which is right?** Both, different windows. The alert counts transitions in the last 60 minutes; the products page shows total currently-OOS regardless of when. The 6 in the alert plus 6 already OOS before the window started = 12 total. Pair with [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel) for the static count. **My B2B portal sells the same SKUs as DTC. Will an OOS event affect both?** Yes, by default both customer groups draw from the same inventory pool. If you want to reserve stock for B2B customers (common in industrial / wholesale), configure customer-group-specific inventory pools under Settings → Inventory → Customer group reservations. Then OOS-on-DTC won't necessarily mean OOS-on-B2B. **Why exclude preorder items?** Because preorder items are intentionally OOS but available to purchase. Including them would flag every preorder launch as an alert. The exclusion uses the `is_preorder` flag and the `preorder_release_date` to determine state; if either is set, the item is treated as preorder, not OOS. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *OOS Spike Alert* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.