Marketplace orders for SKUs OOS on WC = cancellations + customer dissatisfaction. Highest-priority cross-channel diagnostic.
At a glance
SKUs that are out of stock in WooCommerce but still listed as active and sellable on a connected marketplace (Amazon, eBay). Every order placed against one of these SKUs is a near-certain cancellation: the marketplace takes the order, you cannot fulfil it, the buyer is refunded and frustrated, and your marketplace seller metrics take the hit. This is the single highest-priority cross-channel diagnostic on WooCommerce because the damage compounds across customer trust, marketplace account health, and refund cost.
| What it counts | COUNT(SKUs WHERE woo.stock_status = 'outofstock' AND marketplace.listing_status = 'active'). Each row is one SKU that cannot ship from Woo but is still buyable on at least one connected marketplace. |
| Data sources (BOTH required) | WooCommerce side: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products reading stock_status (instock / outofstock / onbackorder) and sku. Marketplace side: Amazon SP-API listings (getListingsItem / inventory) and/or eBay listing status (GetItem / Inventory API) for active listings. |
| How the join works | By SKU (the merchant’s own seller SKU), with EAN / GTIN as a fallback key when SKUs differ between systems. A SKU must exist on both sides to be matched; SKU gaps on the Woo side are a common reason a problem listing is not detected. |
| Status treatment | Woo: only outofstock products are eligible. onbackorder is excluded because backorder-allowed items are still purchasable and the merchant intends to fulfil them. Marketplace: only active / sellable listings count; ended, suppressed, or out-of-stock-on-marketplace listings are not flagged. |
| Refunds / cancelled / failed orders | Not part of the count, but the consequence of the mismatch: orders placed against these SKUs typically end in cancellation and refund. |
| Currency | Currency-agnostic. The join is on SKU and stock status, not price, so multi-currency does not create false positives here (unlike a price-drift card). |
| Channels / sources | Compares Woo against each connected marketplace separately (Amazon, eBay), so a SKU can be flagged for one marketplace and clean on another. |
| Self-hosted vs managed-Woo | Self-hosted Woo with object-cache or sync-plugin lag is the classic cause: Woo flips a SKU to outofstock, but the marketplace sync plugin pushes the OOS signal hours later, leaving a live listing. Managed-Woo with faster cron and proper caching shortens the gap. |
| Time window | RT/24H (real-time polled, with a 24-hour view of newly opened mismatches) |
| Alert trigger | >10 SKUs OOS on WC but active elsewhere, driven by sentiment_key: wc_xc_inventory_vs_marketplace_listings |
| Roles | owner, operations, marketing |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your WooCommerce 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 self-hosted WooCommerce 8.6, listed on Amazon US (WooCommerce Amazon Connector) and eBay (WooCommerce eBay Connector). Polled 12 Apr 26 14:00 UTC. 1,840 active Woo SKUs. The card surfaces 13 mismatched SKUs; here are the top rows.| SKU | Woo stock status | Amazon listing | eBay listing | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MUG-MUSH-01 | outofstock (since 11 Apr) | active | active | High, top seller, live on both |
| LMP-BRASS-04 | outofstock (since 12 Apr 08:00) | active | ended | Medium, Amazon only |
| TWL-WAFL-02 | outofstock (since 09 Apr) | active | active | High, multi-day gap |
| PLT-CERA-07 | onbackorder | active | active | Not flagged (backorder is sellable) |
| VAS-GLS-03 | outofstock (since 12 Apr 13:30) | active | active | Low, just went OOS, sync pending |
- 13 mismatched SKUs is above the alert line of 10. Nerve Centre fires. Every one of these 13 is a live trap: a marketplace buyer can place an order you cannot fulfil. The highest-priority rows are the multi-day gaps (TWL-WAFL-02 has been OOS on Woo since 09 Apr but is still selling on both marketplaces).
- Backorder is correctly excluded. PLT-CERA-07 is
onbackorder, notoutofstock. The merchant intends to fulfil it after restock, so a live marketplace listing is appropriate. The card does not flag it, only trueoutofstockSKUs count. - The newest mismatch is the least worrying. VAS-GLS-03 went OOS at 13:30 and was polled at 14:00; the marketplace sync plugin has not yet pushed the OOS signal. This will likely self-resolve at the next sync, the
RT/24Hwindow lets you see whether a mismatch is brand-new (sync pending) or stale (genuinely stuck). - The join is by SKU, so SKU hygiene matters. A Woo product with a blank SKU cannot be matched to its marketplace listing and so cannot be flagged here, even if it is the worst offender. Fix Products Missing SKU first or this card under-reports.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with this card |
|---|---|
| WC Out of Stock Products | The Woo OOS source. This card is the subset of OOS SKUs that are still live on a marketplace. |
| WC Marketplace Listing Drift vs Catalog | The price/title/image-drift sibling. Stock mismatch is the most damaging kind of drift; pair for the full catalogue-sync picture. |
| WC Products Missing SKU | SKU gaps make a mismatch undetectable. Fix SKU coverage so this card can see every problem listing. |
| WC OOS Spike Alert | A sudden OOS spike on Woo means a wave of new marketplace mismatches is about to open; this card shows which ones reach marketplaces. |
| WC Cancellation Rate | The downstream cost. Unfulfillable marketplace orders flow back as cancellations; a rising rate often traces to this card. |
| Amazon SP Listing Health | The marketplace-side view. Amazon penalises sellers for cancelled orders; this card is your early warning before the penalty lands. |
Reconciling against WooCommerce
This is a cross-channel card. It requires BOTH connectors. For this card to populate you must have both the WooCommerce connector and at least one marketplace connector (Amazon, eBay) connected in the same Vortex IQ workspace. WooCommerce supplies the per-SKU stock status; the marketplace connector supplies the live listing status. With only one side connected the card cannot run the join and renders empty. How the two sides are joined:| Join key | WooCommerce side | Marketplace side |
|---|---|---|
| Seller SKU (primary) | sku field on the product / variation | Seller SKU on the Amazon / eBay listing |
| EAN / GTIN (fallback) | Global identifier in product meta | Marketplace product identifier |
| Stock status | stock_status = outofstock | Listing active / sellable |
- WooCommerce stock: WP Admin → WooCommerce → Reports → Stock → Out of stock, or filter the Products list by stock status.
- Marketplace listings: Amazon Seller Central → Inventory → Manage All Inventory (filter Active); eBay Seller Hub → Listings → Active.
- Sync plugin status: WP Admin → WooCommerce → Status → the Amazon / eBay connector’s sync log shows the last successful push.
| Reason | Effect |
|---|---|
| One connector not connected. Only Woo or only the marketplace connected. | Card empty |
| SKU mismatch. Woo SKU differs from the marketplace seller SKU, and no EAN/GTIN fallback. | Problem listing not detected (under-reports) |
Backorder treated as sellable. onbackorder SKUs are excluded by design. | A manual check that lumps backorder with OOS will count more |
| Sync lag. A SKU just went OOS on Woo; the marketplace push is pending. | Appears briefly, often self-resolves at next sync |
| Marketplace suppression. The marketplace may have already suppressed the listing for an unrelated reason. | Not flagged (listing is not “active”) |
| Timezone. Woo on WP-site timezone, marketplace on its account timezone, Vortex IQ on UTC. “Since” timestamps can shift a day at the boundary. | Boundary effects on the age of a mismatch |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Why is this card empty? Because it joins two connectors. You need both the WooCommerce connector and at least one marketplace connector (Amazon, eBay) connected in the same Vortex IQ workspace. With only one side the join cannot run. The second common cause is that your Woo SKUs do not match your marketplace seller SKUs, so there is nothing to join, fix SKU coverage and naming first. Why are backorder products not flagged? Becauseonbackorder items are still purchasable and you intend to fulfil them after restock. A live marketplace listing for a backorder-allowed SKU is appropriate, so the card only counts true outofstock SKUs.
A SKU just went OOS and is already flagged, is that a false alarm?
Possibly. A mismatch polled within minutes of the SKU going OOS often reflects pending sync, the marketplace plugin has not yet pushed the OOS signal. The RT/24H window helps you tell brand-new (likely to self-resolve) from stale (genuinely stuck) mismatches. A mismatch older than your plugin’s sync interval is the real problem.
Why does this card miss a SKU I know is OOS and selling on Amazon?
Almost always a SKU mismatch. If the Woo SKU and the Amazon seller SKU differ and there is no shared EAN/GTIN, the join cannot link them. Standardise SKUs across systems, see Products Missing SKU.
Self-hosted vs managed-Woo, does it change the risk?
Yes, materially. Self-hosted Woo with object-cache lag or a throttled cron pushes OOS signals to marketplaces slowly, widening the dangerous window. Managed-Woo (WP Engine, Pressable, Kinsta, Woo.com Cloud) with Redis and reliable cron closes the gap faster. Check your marketplace connector’s sync interval and last-success timestamp.
What is the actual cost of ignoring this card?
Three compounding costs: refunds on unfulfillable orders, customer dissatisfaction and negative feedback, and marketplace seller-metric penalties (Amazon’s cancellation rate and Order Defect Rate, eBay’s seller standards). Account suspension is the worst case. This is why it is the highest-priority cross-channel diagnostic.
Can I change the threshold of 10 SKUs?
Yes, the alert threshold is configurable per profile in the Sensitivity tab. High-volume multi-marketplace sellers often tighten it; small catalogues may set it lower still.