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Metrics type: Key Metrics • Category: Ecommerce Platform
Real-time alarm when a cluster of SKUs drops to zero stock within a single hour.

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At a glance

A detection-layer alert that fires when more than five distinct SKUs transition to out of stock (the in_stock flag flips to false, or tracked quantity hits zero) inside a rolling one-hour window. It is a pattern alarm, not a stock-level metric. A burst this fast almost never happens organically; it usually signals a viral product, a bulk inventory edit gone wrong, or a feed / sync error that has zeroed quantities across the catalogue. Catching the cluster early is the difference between a quick fix and a lost-sales day on a small Ecwid catalogue.

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Ecwid data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

A UK hobby seller of enamel pins running an Ecwid widget on a Webflow site. The alert fires at 20:05 on 14 Feb 26. A small TikTok account featured the seller’s “galaxy cat” pin earlier that evening. Demand spiked, and because the seller stocks limited runs of around 30 units per design, a cluster of related pins sold through within minutes of each other. What tripped:
What the merchant sees. A red alert in the Nerve Centre alert feed reading “Stock-Out Burst (>5 SKUs in <1h), >5 SKUs transitioned to in_stock=false in last 1h”, listing the SKUs that flipped and the time of the cluster. The card’s job is to make a fast-moving pattern visible the moment it happens, rather than the seller discovering eight dead product pages the next morning. The playbook (two very different paths depending on cause).
  1. First, decide: real demand or error? If Ecwid API Failure Rate Spike or Inventory Sync Drift Across Storefronts is also firing, a feed error likely zeroed the quantities; the products are not really sold out. Restore from the source of truth, do not panic-reorder.
  2. If it is real demand (as here), this is a good problem. Capture it: enable back-in-stock notifications on the affected SKUs, post a “selling fast / restocking” message, and bring forward a reorder with the supplier.
  3. Protect the storefront. Eight OOS pages in a viral moment kills conversion; consider a “join the waitlist” capture so the traffic spike is not wasted.
  4. If a bulk-edit mistake (someone set quantity to 0 across a collection during an import), reverse the edit immediately; the SKUs flip back into stock and the alert clears.
The value of the card is speed. A viral cluster and a botched import look identical at the catalogue level, eight dead SKUs, but the response is opposite. The alert buys the seller the minutes needed to tell them apart.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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Reconciling against Ecwid

Where to look in Ecwid’s own dashboard:
Ecwid Control Panel (my.ecwid.com) -> Catalog -> Products -> filter / sort by stock (Out of stock) The list of currently out-of-stock SKUs is the standing total; cross-reference the ones that flipped in the last hour against the card’s burst list.
Ecwid does not natively show an “OOS in the last hour” view, so the time-clustered burst is something this card adds on top of the raw stock list. Why our number may differ from Ecwid’s Control Panel: Internal identity: ecwid_stock_out_burst = count(SKUs where in_stock flipped to false within rolling 1h), with the alert firing above 5.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Does this mean I have lost sales? Only if the burst is real demand. If a cluster of popular SKUs genuinely sold through, yes, you will lose further sales until restock. If a feed error zeroed quantities, the products are not really sold out and no sales were lost, just hidden. The card flags the cluster; you decide which it is. How do I tell a viral spike from a feed error? Check the co-firing alerts. If Ecwid API Failure Rate Spike or Inventory Sync Drift Across Storefronts is also live, suspect an error. If sales volume and traffic spiked at the same minute, suspect real demand. A common thread among the SKUs (one collection) leans toward viral; catalogue-wide zeroing leans toward error. Why five SKUs in an hour, specifically? It is a pattern threshold tuned for small catalogues. One or two SKUs selling out in an hour is normal life; six or more at once is statistically unusual and worth a look, whether it is a good problem or a bad one. A bulk import set everything to zero. Will this catch it? Yes, and quickly. A botched import that zeroes quantities across a collection trips this within the hour. Reverse the edit and the SKUs flip back into stock; the alert clears on the next evaluation. Do products with unlimited stock count? No. SKUs with stock tracking disabled never go out of stock, so they can never be part of a burst. Only tracked SKUs that transition to zero are counted. One product has several variations. How is it counted? Transitions are counted at the level we observe them. If individual variations flip OOS, each counts; if the whole product flips, that counts. This can differ from a product-level filter in the Ecwid Control Panel, which is worth knowing when reconciling. How do I clear the alert? The alert is about the rolling hour, so it clears naturally once the cluster ages out of the 1h window. If the cause was an error you fix, restocking the SKUs both clears the underlying problem and stops further bursts. Can I change the threshold? Yes. A larger catalogue with naturally spiky stock may raise it above five to cut noise; a tiny limited-run seller may lower it to catch a smaller cluster. The window length and count are both configurable per merchant.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Stock-Out Burst (>5 SKUs in <1h) is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Ecwid 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 or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.