Marketplace orders for SKUs OOS on WC = cancellations + customer dissatisfaction. Highest-priority cross-platform 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-platform diagnostic on WooCommerce because the damage compounds across customer trust, marketplace account health, and refund cost.
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.
Four things to notice:
- 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
Reconciling against WooCommerce
This is a cross-platform 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:
Where to verify each side:
- 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.
Cross-connector reconciliation: the OOS set here is a strict subset of WC Out of Stock Products, filtered to those with a live marketplace listing. The marketplace listing status should match the marketplace seller console; if a SKU shows active here but ended in Seller Central, the marketplace connector sync is stale.
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-platform diagnostic.
Can I change the threshold of 10 SKUs?
Yes, the alert threshold is configurable per profile in the Alert Rules tab. High-volume multi-marketplace sellers often tighten it; small catalogues may set it lower still.