Stock and inventory

Track how many add-ons you have left, and control what customers see when one runs out.

An add-on backed by a Shopify product has its own inventory. When the add-on runs out, the storefront can hide or mark the option automatically, instead of the shortage being discovered when you pack the order.

The 2:47 video on Add-on pricing covers stock tracking alongside pricing, if you would rather watch it than read it.

What you need first

Inventory is only available when a product exists. Therefore, the pricing mode you select determines whether inventory can be tracked:

Mode	Stock?
Existing product	Yes — the linked variant's inventory
New product	Yes — but tracking must be turned on first
Fixed amount	No. There is no product, so nothing to count

If you need inventory behavior and your values use Fixed amount, change them to a product-backed mode.

Setting it up

1

Open the add-on product in Shopify admin

For a generated product, use the Product link in the option values table. For a linked product, open it from your catalog.

2

Turn on inventory tracking

On the variant, enable inventory tracking and enter your quantity.

Generated products are created with tracking disabled, so this step is required for the rest of the setup to work.

3

Set it to stop selling when out of stock

Change the variant's inventory policy, so Shopify stops selling at zero.

Generated products are created with the opposite policy, so they continue selling when out of stock. This is the safe default, but it means nothing changes on your storefront when the quantity reaches zero until you change this setting.

4

Set the option's Out of stock options

In the app, on the option's Advanced tab, select what customers see: Show, Hide, Blur, or Strike-through. See Out of stock options.

5

Test it

Set the quantity to zero in Shopify, reload a product page, and check that the value is displayed as configured. Then restore the quantity.

What customers see when something runs out

Setting	Result
Show	No change. The value stays selectable — which means they can order what you cannot supply
Hide	The value disappears from the list
Blur	Faded and not selectable. Best for color and image swatches
Strike-through	Crossed out and not selectable. Best for text choices

How the counting works

Each option value links to one variant. Selling the add-on reduces that variant's inventory, in the same way as a direct sale of the product.

This has three consequences:

Situation	What happens
An option value points at a variant of a product you also sell directly	Both routes share one inventory figure. Usually what you want
Two option sets link to the same product	They share its stock. Duplicating an option set does not duplicate its add-on products
A generated product has one variant per priced option value	Each value has its own independent quantity

Keeping the counts accurate

Habit	Why
Find your generated products by the globo-product-options tag	It is the only reliable way to see them all at once
Set a low-stock alert where your tools allow it	Add-ons run out quietly — nobody notices ribbon until it is gone
Use Blur rather than Hide for colors	Customers can see the color exists and may come back for it
Put "back in stock soon" in the value's own help text	Turns a dead end into a reason to return. See Working with option values
Review after a busy period	Add-on stock is one of the easiest things to forget to restock.

Weight, SKU, and tax

Add-ons are real products, so they also have the other properties of a product. Set the following:

Property	Why it matters
Weight	Shipping rates calculated by weight will be wrong if your add-ons weigh nothing
SKU	Your fulfillment and stock systems need something to match on
Tax setting	Some add-ons are taxed differently from the product they attach to
Cost per item	Lets you see the real margin on personalized orders

All of these are set on the products in Shopify admin, not in the app.

Notes

• Inventory is checked against live values when the product page loads.

• A value linked to a sold-out variant is out of stock, even when other variants of that product are in stock.

• Deleting an option set does not delete its add-on products or change their inventory. See Duplicate and delete.

• Out of stock options may not be available on all plans. See Compare plans.

• If an add-on product's details are out of date in the app, run Sync Add-on data in the builder's more-actions menu.