Shopify's built-in low stock alerts: what the admin gives you
Short answer: no, not as a reorder point per SKU. The admin lists the quantity of every variant, and Shopify Flow can be configured to notify you, but nothing built in watches a per SKU number for you and tells you when to order.
Shopify gives you the numbers, not a watcher
Open the inventory area of your Shopify admin. You can see the quantity of every variant, sort it, filter it and export it. What is not sitting there as a switch is a reorder point per SKU: a number that knows how fast a product sells, how long your supplier takes, and how much cover you want on top, then tells you the moment stock crosses it.
That is the answer. The rest of this page is about what you do instead, because the admin is a reference, not a watchman. You go to it, it tells you the truth about this moment, then it waits for you to come back. With a few hundred SKUs, coming back often enough to catch the one product that started moving twice as fast this month is the job that never makes it onto Thursday's list.
Shopify Flow, Shopify's own automation builder, covers part of the gap. A trigger, some conditions, an action such as an email or a chat message. You still pick the number yourself, product by product, and you keep it current as demand moves. Our page on whether Shopify Flow can send low stock emails takes that route apart, so this one stays on the admin itself.
Shopify changes its admin, and what your plan includes changes with it. Check Shopify's own documentation for the current state before you build anything. Below are the questions merchants ask next.
Where the admin stops, and what a reorder point adds
| The job | In the Shopify admin | What a reorder point adds |
|---|---|---|
| See stock right now | Quantity per variant, which you can sort, filter and export | A dashboard of current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status per active SKU, sorted soonest to stock out first |
| Decide the trigger number | A count you choose yourself and retype when demand moves | A reorder point per SKU from a sales velocity window of 7, 14 or 30 days, the lead time you enter, and a store-wide safety stock percentage on top |
| Set lead times without typing hundreds of them | Not a field the admin holds at all | A lead time per vendor, with each SKU's vendor read from your Shopify product, filling any SKU that has no lead time of its own |
| Be told without looking | You go and look; Flow can be configured to notify on a condition you define | An email when a SKU crosses its reorder point, with Slack on Growth and Pro, sent through an idempotent background job |
| Turn stock into an order | Export the list and work it out in a spreadsheet | A weekly report of SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity and safety stock in units, exportable as CSV |
| Name the thing you are ordering | Product and variant titles in the export | Your own SKU code and the vendor alongside the title, so the list reads the way your supplier reads it |
Questions
Does Shopify email me automatically when a product is running low?
Not on its own. The admin is a place you go to look up stock, not something that pushes you a warning with a number attached. Shopify Flow can be configured to send an email or a chat message when a condition you define is met, so notifications are possible, as long as you build them and keep them current. Restoc is built to take the other half of the job: the alert fires when a SKU crosses a reorder point worked out from your own sales velocity, your lead time and your safety stock percentage, and it arrives by email, with Slack on the higher plans.
Where do I see low stock in the Shopify admin?
In the inventory section, where quantity is listed per variant and you can sort and export it. That is a snapshot. It only helps on the day you remember to go and look. With a few hundred to a couple of thousand SKUs, that turns into scanning a long list, or copying it into a spreadsheet once a week. Restoc's dashboard is built to show current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status for every active SKU, soonest to stock out at the top; the page on days of inventory remaining explains that metric on its own, and the page on sorting by days of stock left covers the ordering.
Can Shopify Flow send low stock alerts?
Yes, within limits. Flow runs on a trigger, condition, action pattern, so a stock condition can be wired to an email or a chat message. That is a fair route if you have a handful of hero SKUs and a number you trust. Where it stops, and what to do when it does, is the subject of our page on whether Shopify Flow can send low stock emails. The guide to low stock notifications in Shopify walks all the built-in routes step by step.
What is the difference between a low stock threshold and a reorder point?
A threshold is a fixed count: tell me when this drops below twenty. A reorder point is that count worked out from evidence, your recent sales rate multiplied by the days your supplier takes to deliver, plus a margin for the weeks that run hot. Restoc calculates it per SKU from a sales velocity window of 7, 14 or 30 days, set store-wide, the lead time for that SKU, and a store-wide safety stock percentage you choose. The page on reorder points from your own sales velocity and lead time shows the arithmetic in full.
Why isn't one threshold across the whole store enough?
Because two products with the same stock count are nowhere near the same risk. If one sells forty units a week and another sells two, the same alert number arrives far too late for the first and years too early for the second. Lead times differ too. A domestic supplier who ships in three days and an overseas order that takes eight weeks need different lines in the sand. Set the number low and you find out after the sale is gone; set it high across the board and you tie up cash and start ignoring the alerts.
Do I have to type a lead time for every SKU?
No. Each SKU reads its vendor from your Shopify product, and you set one lead time per vendor on a single screen. Any SKU without a lead time of its own picks up its vendor's number, so a store with hundreds of variants and a dozen suppliers is a dozen fields, not hundreds. Set a lead time directly on a SKU and that overrides the vendor's. The safety stock percentage and the velocity window are store-wide settings, with a per-SKU window override on Pro.
Does Shopify have a built-in reorder report with suggested quantities?
The admin hands you data you can filter and export, not a weekly purchasing list. Turning stock levels into what to order and how much is work you do afterwards, usually in a spreadsheet. Restoc produces a weekly reorder report listing the SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity and safety stock in units, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV. That is the artefact you take to a supplier, and the weekly reorder report page covers what is in each row.
Restoc is not launched yet, so what will it cost?
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs, with email alerts, the weekly report and the dashboard. Growth is $59 a month for up to 1,000 SKUs and adds Slack alerts through an incoming webhook you configure, which the Slack webhook page walks through. Pro is $99 a month for up to 2,000 SKUs and adds custom reorder rules, a per-SKU velocity window override. Paid a year at a time it is $290, $590 and $990, ten months' price for twelve, and every plan carries a 60-day free trial with the first charge held until at least one full weekly reorder cycle has completed. All plans cover one location, which the multi-location page explains, and billing runs through Shopify's native billing API so it lands on your Shopify invoice rather than as a separate card payment.