At a glance
Distribution of variants across inventory bands (out-of-stock, critical low, low, healthy, surplus). The fat-tail view of stock health, useful for catching slow-burn stockouts before Inventory Alerts fires.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Shopify 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 UK menswear DTC brand on Shopify, 1,420 active variants. Real-time snapshot 12 May 26.
Six things to notice:
- The OOS band is the present problem. 28 variants currently OOS. Pair with Inventory Alerts for the action list. The 4 negative-stock variants are the most urgent (oversells deepening).
- The Critical Low band is the future problem. 96 variants at 1-5 units. At normal velocity, half of these will OOS within 7 days. This is where reorder POs need to land first; check Stock vs Sales Velocity for predicted-OOS dates.
- The shape tells the story. 78% in Healthy or Surplus suggests a healthy operation; <60% in those bands suggests cumulative stockout drift. A brand with 30% in Surplus and 30% in OOS+Critical+Low is poorly balanced (over-orders some SKUs, under-orders others).
- Surplus isn’t always bad. New-launch SKUs appropriately start in Surplus. Long-tail clearance items in Surplus are problems (capital tied up, warehouse space). Pair with sell-through-by-SKU to differentiate.
- POS visibility is reduced. POS sales drain inventory in real-time but the band shifts only when crossing a threshold. A variant at 6 units (Low) sells one at till and stays at 5 (Critical); the band changed without warning.
- The bands are ratios, not absolute counts. A small store with 200 variants and a giant retailer with 200,000 will have the same shape if equally healthy. Don’t compare absolute counts to peers; compare share percentages.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Inventory Distribution is the strategic view; the tactical companions:Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Shopify Admin: Shopify doesn’t expose an inventory-band distribution directly; reconstruct from:- Products → Inventory: filter by Available less than, Available equal to, Available greater than. Run for each band’s threshold.
- Apps like Stocky, Inventory Planner, ShipBob Inventory: typically expose distribution and forecasting; numbers should match within sync-lag tolerance (5-15 min).
- Reports → Inventory snapshot (Shopify Plus only): closest equivalent.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What’s a healthy distribution shape? Rough heuristics:- Healthy + Surplus: 70-80% combined. Below 60% means you’re chronically under-stocked.
- OOS + Critical: <10% combined. Above 15% means you’re losing sales daily.
- Surplus: <40% on its own. Surplus above 50% means capital is tied up in slow-movers; consider clearance pricing.
- Over-ordered launch. A new collection ordered conservatively per SKU but with too many SKUs in the range. The Surplus band fills with slow-movers.
- End-of-season carry-over. Last season’s stock not yet cleared. Push into clearance pricing.
- Forecasting model too generous. PO sizing assumed velocity that didn’t materialise. Tighten next round.
- Lead times shifted longer: supplier delays, customs, etc.
- Velocity increased: marketing wave drove demand higher than the PO assumed.
- PO sizing too small: structural under-order across the board.
- Furniture / large items: 0 / 1 / 3 / 10. Single units have meaningful operational implications.
- Fast-moving consumables: 0 / 50 / 200 / 1000. Velocity is per-day, not per-month.
- B2B with bulk POs: 0 / 100 / 500 / 5000.
Available across all active fulfillment locations into one number per variant. A variant with 0 in London and 50 in Manchester is “Healthy” on this card. Per-location distribution is on the roadmap; for now use Shopify Admin → Inventory at this location.
My subscription store, do recurring billings affect the bands?
Yes. Each subscription billing draws from inventory the same as one-off orders. Subscription-heavy brands often see more predictable band shapes (steady drains) compared to one-off-purchase stores (spikier patterns).
Action playbook based on band shape:
- OOS + Critical >10%: emergency reorder review; consider expedited shipping on top-velocity at-risk SKUs.
- Critical band rising week-over-week: lead-time shifted longer or velocity increased; widen the Healthy floor in your PO model.
- Surplus >40% and growing: clearance event needed; capital is sitting idle.
- Healthy band <50%: structural under-stocking; widen safety stock company-wide.
- OOS band drops to zero: surprising; either you have very high stock levels (capital tied up) or your indexer is missing records. Sanity check.