Shopify Available vs On Hand: Which Number to Reorder From

Last updated: 2026-09-28 · Shopify features, pricing, and platform policies change. Verify with official sources before acting.

Your inventory screen says the location holds 85 units. Only 48 of them can be sold today, 40 more are on a truck, and your reorder rule says to order now. It is wrong.

That is the Shopify Available vs On hand problem in one line. The two numbers answer different questions, and most reorder mistakes come from comparing the wrong one against the wrong threshold. Shopify’s help pages define the states well. What they do not do is tell you which combination of them a purchase order decision should read. This article does that.

Quick answer

• On hand is everything at the location. Shopify defines it as Committed plus Unavailable plus Available.
• Available is what you can sell now. It excludes units committed to orders, units set aside as Unavailable, and anything still Incoming.
• Reorder from Available plus Incoming, not from either number alone. That sum is what inventory planners call your inventory position: stock you can sell, plus stock already on its way.
• Count safety stock once. If you hold safety stock in Shopify’s Unavailable state, do not add it to your reorder point as well, or every order goes out early.
• Editing the On hand field moves Available with it, but adding new stock directly into an Unavailable state raises On hand without touching Available. Know which one you did.

Who this is for

You run a Shopify store without an inventory manager, you place purchase orders yourself, and you have either run out of a product the dashboard said you had, or ordered stock you did not need yet. It applies whether safety stock is set by hand or by an app.

Shopify Available vs On hand: what each state means for ordering

Shopify’s inventory states documentation, read on 2026-09-28, gives the definitions. The column that matters here is the last one.

Shopify publishes the identity On hand = Committed + Unavailable + Available. Incoming sits outside it until received. The screen you read also matters: Shopify’s inventory adjustment guide shows Available and On hand on the Inventory page, while product and variant pages show Available and Total.

Unavailable is not only an app feature. Shopify lists four unavailable states a merchant can move stock into by hand: Damaged, Quality control, Safety stock, and Other.

The reorder check that uses the right numbers

A reorder point answers one question: at what level do you order so that new stock lands before you run out? Two inputs decide it.

1. Lead-time demand: how many units you sell per day, multiplied by the days from placing an order to having stock sellable.
2. Safety stock: a buffer for demand or delays you did not predict.

The comparison then works in one of two equivalent ways. Pick one and stick to it.

The mistake the table prevents is counting the buffer twice. If 22 units already sit in Unavailable as safety stock and you also add 22 to the threshold, you are holding a 44-unit buffer while believing it is 22.

Only count Incoming that lands in time. A purchase order due in 5 days helps a 12-day lead time. One due in 30 days does not, and should be left out of the sum until it is closer.

Worked example: three rules, three answers

The figures are a composite example, not a benchmark or a real store.

A store sells about 6 units a day of one product, and its supplier takes 12 days from order to sellable stock. Lead-time demand is 6 × 12 = 72 units. The store holds 22 units of safety stock in Shopify’s Unavailable state.

Three ways of reading those numbers:

The same check done the other way gives the same answer: including safety stock on both sides, 48 + 22 + 40 = 110 against 72 + 22 = 94 leaves the same 16-unit gap. Either convention works. Mixing them is what breaks it.

The busier the store, the bigger the error in the first rule. Committed rises with sales, so On hand looks most reassuring exactly when sellable stock is thinnest.

Correcting a mismatch without making it worse

Shopify links the two headline numbers when you edit them. Changing the On hand field changes Available by the same amount, and changing Available changes On hand by the same amount.

There is one path that behaves differently. Shopify’s adjustment guide says you “can add new inventory directly to an unavailable state,” by choosing Inventory addition as the origin and an unavailable state as the destination. That raises On hand and leaves Available where it was. It is the right move when a delivery arrives with units you need to inspect first, and the wrong one if you meant to make them sellable.

So if the numbers look wrong, do not type over them. Find which state holds the difference and deal with the cause:

• Committed too high: unfulfilled orders are waiting on you, or an old draft order is still reserving stock.
• Unavailable too high: a safety stock level nobody revisited, or quality control stock never released.
• Incoming stale: a purchase order that already arrived but was never marked received.

A three-minute check before a purchase order

Run it on the product you are about to order.

1. Confirm the location. Every state is tracked per location.
2. Read Available and Incoming, and note when the Incoming is due.
3. Read Unavailable and check which part of it is safety stock.
4. Work out lead-time demand: daily sales × days until new stock is sellable.
5. Compare Available plus in-time Incoming against lead-time demand, adding safety stock to the threshold only if it is not held in Unavailable.

The free Reorder Point Calculator sheet keeps this comparison written down, and the reorder point calculator does the lead-time arithmetic in your browser.

What this article does not cover

• How much to order. The reorder point says when. Quantity depends on unit costs, supplier minimums and cash timing, which the Reorder Point SOP covers.
• Setting the safety stock level itself. That depends on how much your demand and supplier lead times vary.
• Multi-location allocation. Deciding which location holds which stock is a separate problem.
• Third-party inventory apps. An app that writes back to Shopify decides which state its units land in. Its own documentation governs that.

Related

• Reorder Point SOP for a Shopify store covers order quantity and the review cadence
• How to run a one-person Shopify store shows where inventory review sits in a weekly routine

Frequently asked questions

Why is my Shopify Available lower than On hand?

Because some units at the location are committed to unfulfilled orders, reserved by a draft order, in a transfer marked ready to ship, or set aside as Unavailable (damaged, quality control, safety stock or other). On hand counts all of them; Available counts only what you can sell.

Which number should I use to reorder, Available or On hand?

Neither alone. Use Available plus any Incoming stock that will arrive within your lead time, and compare it with your lead-time demand. Add safety stock to that threshold only if it is not already held in Shopify’s Unavailable state.

Does Incoming inventory count toward On hand?

No. Shopify says Incoming stock is on its way from transfers, purchase orders or apps and isn’t available to sell until it has been received at the location. It is outside the On hand total until then.

Can I raise On hand without changing Available?

Yes, in one way. Editing the On hand field changes Available by the same amount, but adding new inventory directly to an unavailable state, such as quality control, raises On hand and leaves Available unchanged.

Where does safety stock live in Shopify?

In the Unavailable state, as Safety stock. You can move units there yourself, and some inventory apps set it for you. It counts toward On hand but not toward Available.

Is a large Committed number a problem?

Not by itself. Committed grows whenever orders are placed and not yet fulfilled. It is a problem when those orders are waiting on you rather than on stock, which is a fulfillment backlog, not an inventory shortage.