Continue Selling When Out of Stock on Shopify: How to Enable, Disable & When to Use It

When inventory hits zero, Shopify normally replaces Add to Cart with Sold Out. If you want to keep taking orders, you need to enable Continue selling when out of stock.

To continue selling when out of stock on Shopify, open the product in your admin, scroll to the Inventory section, tick "Continue selling when out of stock," and save. The product stays purchasable at zero inventory. Shopify adds no preorder label, ship date, or messaging on its own.

That setting is the foundation for preorders, backorders and made-to-order selling. This guide covers how to turn it on for one product or your whole catalog, how to turn it off, what it does in your theme code and when to use it.

What does "Continue selling when out of stock" do?

By default, when a product's inventory hits zero, Shopify marks it unavailable and replaces Add to Cart with Sold Out. That default protects you from overselling.

Continue selling when out of stock overrides it. With the setting enabled, customers can keep buying after inventory reaches zero and your inventory count simply goes negative (a count of −15 means 15 units sold beyond stock on hand). Nothing else changes: any preorder messaging, button changes or shipping information has to come from your theme or an app.

How to enable continue selling when out of stock

For a single product or variant

1. In Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.
2. Scroll to the Inventory section.
3. Tick Continue selling when out of stock.
4. Click Save.

If the product has variants, open each variant and repeat. The setting is per variant, not per product.

For many products at once (Shopify bulk editor)

1. Go to Products and select the products you want to change.
2. Click Bulk edit.
3. Add the Continue selling when out of stock column (Columns → Inventory).
4. Tick the box for each row, then Save.

The bulk editor works for a handful of products, but gets tedious with larger catalogs because it still shows one row per variant. (For very large catalogs you can also export products to CSV, set the Continue selling when out of stock column — Variant Inventory Policy = continue — and re-import.)

For your whole catalog (bulk toggle in STOQ)

If you're setting up preorders, skip the product-by-product editing. In STOQ, open Preorders → Products: the product table has a Continue selling when out of stock control that turns the setting on or off for any selected products or variants in bulk. STOQ also warns you when a product in an active preorder offer has it switched off, since it's a prerequisite for out-of-stock preorder flows.

How to stop selling when out of stock

To switch it off, reverse the same setting: Products → [product] → Inventory → untick Continue selling when out of stock → Save (or untick in bulk using either method above).

Two things to check when you disable it:

• Negative inventory. If the count went negative while the setting was on, those orders still exist and new stock you receive fills the negative count first. Reconcile before your next sync if you use an inventory system.
• Live carts. Customers who already have the product in their cart may still check out for a short window. If you're stopping sales because you genuinely can't fulfill more, untick the setting first, then fix the product page copy so nobody orders against stock that isn't coming.

Continue selling when out of stock in Liquid (theme code)

In your theme, the setting is exposed on each variant as variant.inventory_policy: it returns "continue" when continue-selling is enabled and "deny" when it isn't. Themes typically use it like this:

{% if variant.inventory_quantity <= 0 and variant.inventory_policy == "continue" %}  <!-- show "Preorder" or "Backorder" instead of "Sold out" -->{% endif %}

That's how you make the storefront say something different when you're overselling on purpose: changing the button label to "Preorder now," adding expected shipping copy, or showing a badge. If you don't want to maintain theme code, a preorder app can handle these changes for you. STOQ swaps the button text, adds shipping timelines and disclaimers and keeps them translated across languages — no Liquid editing.

For multi-location stores: inventory_quantity in Liquid is a single total across all your locations, not a per-location number, so a product can show healthy stock in Liquid while the location that's actually fulfilling it is empty. Checkout itself doesn't care which location has stock either: Shopify decrements inventory against the location with the lowest location ID by default. That may differ from the location that ultimately fulfills the order. If you fulfill from multiple locations, plan for that reconciliation rather than assuming the numbers line up. If you run preorders across multiple Shopify Markets, STOQ's Locations & Markets setting controls which locations count toward preorder availability per market — it doesn't decide which location absorbs an oversold unit.

Also read: How to change "Sold Out" to "Coming Soon" on Shopify

When should you allow purchases when out of stock?

Turn it ON when:

• You're running preorders or backorders. Restock is coming or production starts after the order. The setting is what keeps checkout open.
• You sell made-to-order products. Inventory tracking doesn't map to how you produce.
• You dropship or have reliable continuous supply, so inventory counts don't need to block a sale.

Keep it OFF when:

• You can't restock, or restock timing is unknown — overselling here means refunds and support tickets.
• Scarcity is part of the sell (limited drops) and a hard sell-out is the point.
• You can't confirm supply yet. Collect signups instead of taking orders, then notify customers when the product is available.

The risk: overselling without limits

The setting doesn't limit how many orders you can take. If you enable it, add a few controls around the preorder itself:

1. Cap the quantity. Decide how many units you can actually deliver and stop there. In STOQ, preorder offers take inventory conditions plus min/max per order and can show remaining availability as a "X of Y claimed" progress bar.
2. Set expectations before checkout. Show shipping timelines on the product page, in cart and in confirmation emails.
3. Label it clearly. A 'Preorder' button tells customers they're buying something that isn't currently in stock.
4. Tag the orders. Tag oversold and preorder orders (STOQ can apply order tags automatically) so fulfillment and support can see at a glance which orders are waiting on stock. Especially useful if a 3PL or an inventory system reads your Shopify orders.

Three ways to keep selling when out of stock (beyond the toggle)

Option 1: Preorders

Preorders turn "sold out" into "be first in line." The setting stays on, but the customer sees a preorder button, expected shipping dates and (if you choose) pays a deposit rather than full price. Ideal when you know restock timing, you're launching with buzz, or you want to validate demand before committing to production.

Option 2: Back-in-stock alerts

Some customers only buy when delivery is certain. A Notify me when available button lets them opt in; when you restock, they get an email or SMS and come back to buy. And if 500 people join a Shopify out of stock waitlist for one product, you know what the next production run should look like.

Option 3: Recommend alternatives on dead pages

If a product is gone for good but the page still gets traffic from search or old email campaigns, recommend similar products instead of leaving visitors at a dead end. This gives them another product to consider and keeps the page useful even after the original product is gone.

Bonus: organize out-of-stock items thoughtfully

Don't delete or hide sold-out pages; that creates 404s from search results, old emails and social links. Instead: push sold-out items to the bottom of collections, badge them clearly and give every one a next step (a Notify me button or an alternative product).

How STOQ keeps you in control

Shopify handles the continue-selling setting, while the rest of the preorder and back-in-stock flow needs additional controls. STOQ adds those controls in one place.

• Bulk continue-selling control. Flip the setting for whole collections from the Preorders → Products view, with warnings when an active offer needs it.
• Real preorder flows on top of the setting. Button text, badges, countdown timers, deposits and partial payments, quantity limits and scheduled or split fulfillment.
• Back-in-stock alerts for everything else. A Notify me widget, email and SMS alerts (including via Klaviyo) and per-product waitlist counts that tell you what to restock.
• Sales recovered. See how much revenue your out-of-stock setup recovers.

FAQs

Can you sell products on Shopify when they're out of stock? 

Yes. Enable Continue selling when out of stock in the product's Inventory settings and the product stays purchasable at zero inventory. Pair it with preorder messaging so customers know what they're buying and when it ships.

Why is my product still selling after it went out of stock? 

Continue-selling is enabled on that product or variant (inventory policy = "continue"). Untick it in the product's Inventory section to stop sales at zero.

Why does my product show sold out when I have inventory? 

Usually a location, variant-tracking, or app-sync issue rather than this setting. The fixes are covered separately. Check out our guide on fixing items incorrectly showing out of stock.

Does continue-selling show customers any preorder message? 

No — on its own it just keeps the buy button active. Preorder labels, shipping timelines and deposits come from your theme code or a preorder app.

Can I enable it for all products at once? 

Shopify's bulk editor works but is row-by-row per variant. STOQ's Preorders → Products view toggles it in bulk for selected products or variants.

What happens to my inventory count? 

It goes negative: a count of −15 means 15 units sold beyond stock on hand. Restocks fill the negative number first, so reconcile before syncing other systems.

How do I check it in my theme (Liquid)? 

Read variant.inventory_policy — "continue" means the setting is on. Combine it with variant.inventory_quantity <= 0 to show preorder or backorder messaging instead of Sold Out.

Should I use continue-selling or back-in-stock alerts? 

Use continue-selling with preorder or backorder messaging when you're confident of supply and want the revenue now. Use back-in-stock alerts when supply is uncertain and you'd rather capture demand without taking payment. Many stores use both, per product.

Can you charge customers for out-of-stock items? 

Yes. Customers can pay for an out-of-stock product if Continue selling when out of stock is enabled. For longer waits, you can use a deposit or another deferred-payment setup supported by your preorder flow.

How do I get notified when my own products are running out of stock? 

That's a different feature — low-stock alerts for merchants rather than customers. Shopify doesn't notify you natively; see our guide to setting up low-stock alerts.

The bottom line

Continue selling when out of stock only keeps checkout open. It doesn't tell customers that the product is a preorder, when it will ship or how many units you can actually fulfill. If you're using the setting for preorders or backorders, add those controls around it.

Selling on this setting? Install STOQ from the Shopify App Store (free plan, no code) to put real preorder flows on top of it. 

Already using STOQ? Here's the help guide: setting up preorder offers to configure buttons, limits and ship dates.