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3. Inventory

v. 30.11.2010

Inventory settings can be configured individually per product, however there are also several very important global Inventory configuration settings. Additionally, many of the individual product settings can be set to use the default value (the global setting). Therefore, it is beneficial to discuss the product settings and global settings together. Please refer to the section about Stock Management below for more detailed information.


Note: These settings only exist for Simple Products. For Configurable and Grouped Products, the Stock Availability will be present in the Inventory tab, because this is actually a display setting and aren't related to the actual inventory of the product.

To customize the inventory for a specific product, select the Inventory tab and specify the following settings:

  • Manage Stock - Enable Manage Stock option. 
  • Qty - Enter quantity. This is a required field.
  • Minimum Qty for Items’ Status - Specify Minimum Qty for Items’ Status to be In Stock or click the Use Config Settings checkbox to use the value you input in the Inventory System Configuration. Clicking the check-box will deactivate the text field and it will not be editable.
  • Minimum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart - Enter Minimum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart or click the checkbox.
  • Maximum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart - Enter Maximum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart or click the checkbox.
  • Qty Uses Decimals - Select Qty Uses Decimals status:
    • If you select Yes, the customer can enter a fraction of a whole number into the quantity field in the shopping cart. This is beneficial if items are being sold in alternative units such as weight or length.
    • If you select No, the customer can only purchase quantities in whole numbers.
  • Backorders - Select Backorders status, or click the checkbox.
  • Notify for Quantity Below - Select Notify for Quantity Below, or click the checkbox.
  • Stock Availability - You can designate the product to be Out of Stock even if you have stock remaining for the product, and it will display as such in the front-end. This means that your customers will not be able to add the product to their carts, but they can add it to their wishlists. If there is no stock remaining for the product, you do not need to manually switch this to Out of Stock. Magento will automatically update the front-end accordingly, unless you allow for Backorders, in which case the product will display normally and customers will still be able to add quantity to their carts.