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Inventory management

For brands selling products on subscription, managing inventory isn’t just about tracking stock; it’s about ensuring a seamless and reliable experience for subscribers. With Loop, you get full control over how inventory is managed across recurring orders. From preventing orders for out-of-stock items to customizing what subscribers see when a product is unavailable, Loop’s inventory management helps brands minimize churn, improve trust, and maintain operational efficiency.

In this article, we’ll explore how inventory settings work in Loop and how to configure them based on your business needs.

What is inventory management?

Inventory management helps you identify and handle out-of-stock situations by tracking product availability directly from Shopify. Loop uses this real-time inventory data to power rules and conditions that automatically determine how out-of-stock products should be handled in active subscriptions.

By leveraging features like Inventory forecasting in reporting and out-of-stock handling in Loop, brands can stay ahead of potential stock issues, ensuring that subscribers always receive their products on time. The merchant can always stay updated on their subscription stock requirements for all their products and automatically handle out-of-stock situations.

How inventory impacts subscriber retention

For a regular storefront, when a customer sees a product marked “Out of stock,” they might simply move on, browse alternatives, check back later, or even purchase from somewhere else. It's not ideal, but it’s a one-time lost sale.

But for a subscription-first brand, the stakes are much higher. Subscribers have committed to receiving products on a recurring basis, trusting the brand to fulfil that promise without fail. If a subscribed product suddenly becomes unavailable, and the subscriber doesn’t receive it as expected, it can damage the relationship. It signals unreliability and leads to frustration, especially when the subscriber has been offering consistent revenue to the brand.

This is why inventory management becomes a critical pillar of subscriber trust and retention. When done right, it not only avoids churn caused by stockouts but also reinforces a reliable, professional experience that keeps subscribers loyal for the long term.

Where to find inventory settings?

Inventory management in Loop is easy to set up and can be managed entirely from one central screen.

Pre-requisites

Before configuring the inventory management, we need to make sure these things are in place.

✅ Enable the “Track quantity” setting in your Shopify product-level configuration to ensure that Loop can monitor available inventory.

✅ Disable the checkbox "Continue selling when out of stock" so that inventory for the product is tracked.

✅ Additionally, make sure to check the “This is a physical product” checkbox.

To learn more about Shopify inventory, click here

Once the above things are in place, follow these steps to complete the process.

Navigate to Loop admin > Tools & apps > Inventory

The inventory management settings in Loop are divided into three sections. Based on your selections, the system will handle out-of-stock situations accordingly. In the following sections, we'll explore each available option in detail and how it impacts subscription fulfillment.

Inventory settings explained

Merchants can configure these settings based on specific use cases to define how out-of-stock situations should be handled.

Inventory tracking location for recurring orders

This section helps you track inventory for recurring orders across multiple fulfillment locations, enabling efficient monitoring throughout the order cycle. You can select desired option to determine product availability and handle out-of-stock situations accordingly.

Available options:

➔ All locations: Inventory across all the locations will be tracked for order processing.

➔ Specific locations: Aggregate inventory from selected locations will be considered for determining available product stock.

➔ Smart inventory: Inventory will be considered only from locations that can service the customer's address. In case of digital products, "All locations setting" will be applied.

Tip: The table below helps you understand which option is best to select based on your specific use case.

Which option should I select?	Use case
All locations	Brands can use this option when they want the out-of-stock check to be evaluated across all the locations set up for the store.
Specific locations	Brands can use this option when they want the out-of-stock check to be evaluated only based on selected locations. This is useful when brands have designated specific locations for fulfilling subscription-based orders.
Smart inventory	This smart logic in Loop helps brands automatically check product availability from locations that can service the customer's shipping address. For example, if a subscriber's product was initially shipped from Location 1 (now out of stock), and Location 2 still has stock but does not have a valid shipping rate configured to the customer's address, the product will be treated as out of stock.

When at least one item is available

This setting will apply when a subscription order has at least one item that can be fulfilled.

Available options:

➔ Allow the complete subscription order to be placed: When this setting is enabled, the entire subscription order will be billed and placed even if one or more products in the subscription are out of stock. Inventory of the unavailable items might become negative if allowed to continue being sold.

➔ Allow partial billing: When this setting is enabled, only available items will be shipped as per the scheduled delivery date, and out-of-stock items will be skipped. Partial billing will be done for all the recurring orders, including those containing bundles. This is not supported for prepaid subscriptions currently.

Eligibility for partial billing: This can be defined using 2 available options "Based on order amount" or "Based on order weight." This setting allows you to configure a minimum threshold (amount or weight-based). If the value falls below the defined limit, Loop will trigger the “No item available” inventory setting. This ensures that brands can use the partial billing flow effectively, without facing revenue-related losses for lower value orders (below a certain threshold in value or weight).

Partial billing for bundle products: If enabled, the bundle products will also be eligible for partial billing. This can result into customers receiving only few products and not the complete bundle experience they are expecting. Also, the discount amount configured on the bundle will remain same which may result into customers receiving more discount with less number of products.

Recalculate shipping charge: Enable this setting if you want Loop to apply a different shipping rate when a subscription is partially billed. This is useful in cases where the remaining order value (after removing out-of-stock items) falls below the minimum threshold for free shipping. By enabling this, the system will automatically recalculate and apply appropriate shipping charges, ensuring accurate billing and preventing unintentional free shipping on smaller orders.

➔ Delay the complete subscription order: If enabled, the entire subscription order will be shifted to a date that you have defined and billed only when all the items added in the order are in stock.

➔ Skip the subscription order: If enabled, the entire subscription order will be skipped and the next order will be billed as per the subscription schedule.

When no items are available

These settings will apply when all items of the subscription order are not available or in low inventory.

Available options:

➔ Allow the complete subscription order to be placed: When this setting is enabled, the entire subscription order will be billed and placed even if all the items in the subscription order are out of stock. Inventory of the unavailable items might become negative if allowed to continue being sold.

➔ Skip the subscription order: If enabled, the entire subscription order will be skipped and the next order will be billed as per the subscription schedule.

Here are some related articles that may offer additional insight and context.

Need help?

No worries - we're here for you!

If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to email us at support@loopwork.co or chat with us using the support beacon at the bottom right of your screen.

Regards,

Loop Subscriptions Team 🙂

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Updated on: 11/08/2025

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