Low-Stock Alerts and Days-of-Stock Reports for Sellers
How to set low-stock thresholds per product, read a days-of-stock report across all your marketplaces, and reorder before a listing goes dark.
A low-stock alert notifies you when a product's quantity falls below a threshold you set; a days-of-stock report shows how many days current inventory will last at today's sales rate. Together they turn "when should I reorder?" from a guess into a calculation. In multi-channel selling this matters even more, because a product sells on five channels at once and no single seller portal shows the real velocity. This article covers how to set the threshold, how to read days of stock, and how to use the report in daily operations.
Why running out is expensive
When a product sells out, you lose more than that day's sales. On a marketplace, a zero-stock listing stops selling, drops in search ranking and does not recover its position the moment stock returns. If the product was in a promotion, running out means the promotion budget was wasted. Listings left at zero for long can be removed on some marketplaces; rules change, so check the seller agreement.
The opposite is also costly: ordering early and in excess ties cash to the shelf. Low-stock thresholds and days of stock exist to find the right point between those two extremes.
A scene from the floor: 40 units of a product in the warehouse. Someone looking at one seller portal says "it sells 10 a week, that is a month." But the product sells on five channels, and total velocity is 6 a day. Real days of stock is one week, not one month. This calculation is impossible without a single stock pool; see inventory sync and overselling for why the pool matters.
How to set the low-stock threshold
The threshold should be calculated per product. Giving every product a fixed "5 units" fires too late on fast sellers and needlessly on slow ones. The simple formula:
- Find the product's recent daily sales velocity (all channels combined).
- Set the product's lead time in days (from placing the order to the goods entering the warehouse).
- Multiply the two: units that will sell during the lead time.
- Add a safety margin for supplier delays or a spike in demand.
Example: a product selling 2 a day with a 10-day lead time sells 20 units during the lead time. With a safety margin, the threshold goes to 25–30. When stock drops to 30 the alert fires, the order is placed, and stock lasts until the goods arrive.
Three things to watch when setting thresholds:
- Seasonality: a summer product's November threshold is not set from its June velocity.
- Variant level: the threshold belongs to size and color, not the parent product. If size 38 is gone, stock in size 40 is no consolation.
- Promotion calendar: raise thresholds before a sale event. See stock and price management during campaigns.
A low-stock threshold is not a number you set once and forget; it moves with sales velocity. The days-of-stock report is what triggers the update.
How to read the days-of-stock report
Days of stock is current inventory divided by daily velocity: 40 units, 6 sales a day, roughly 7 days. The report calculates this for every product and puts the fewest days on top.
In Bulutegra the days-of-stock report is fed by the single stock pool; velocity is the total across more than 24 marketplaces. Opening the report in the morning, you see three groups:
- Fewer days than lead time: even if you order today, stock will run out before goods arrive. Decisions like pulling the product from a promotion, raising the price or reducing the number of channels are made here.
- Close to lead time: today is the day to reorder.
- Comfortable: no action needed, though a sudden velocity jump can move a product up a group by tomorrow.
The report also reads in reverse: products with very long days of stock are overstocked. A discount or promotion decision on those frees up cash.
What to do when an alert fires
An alert by itself solves nothing; it needs a flow attached. A simple flow that works in practice:
- The alert appears in the panel and on your phone (mobile interface).
- Check the product's days of stock against its lead time.
- If reordering, send it to the supplier; if not (product being discontinued), plan channel visibility.
- If stock will not last through the lead time, adjust channel allocation: leave the last units to the channel with the highest contribution. Which channel that is shows on the profitability page; see price sync and repricing.
- When goods arrive and are accepted by barcode, the pool updates and the alert closes.
With several warehouses, alerts can be set per location; a product gone in one warehouse but available in another does not push channel stock to zero. See multi-warehouse stock management.
Setup checklist
Complete these before relying on low-stock alerts and days of stock:
- Is the single stock pool live? Is velocity the sum of all channels?
- Is lead time entered for every variant?
- Are thresholds per product, or still one fixed number?
- Who receives the alert: the Warehouse role, the Admin, or both?
- Is there an owner and a flow attached to each alert?
- Is the overstock side monitored as well?
- Is the report part of the morning routine? Adding one line to the daily list in multi-channel order management is enough.
Because the system only reads for one to two weeks in shadow mode, thresholds can be tested against real velocity during that period; by go-live the alerts are already validated.
How it works with Bulutegra
In Bulutegra, low-stock alerts and the days-of-stock report run on top of the single stock pool. Velocity is calculated from Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, Trendyol and every other connected channel; thresholds are entered per variant; alerts show in the Integration Panel and the mobile interface. When goods are accepted by barcode at the warehouse, the pool updates and the alert closes. The report sits in the same panel as the profitability page and the campaign calculator, so you decide which channel gets the last units on the same screen. The master catalog comes from Shopify, WooCommerce, ikas, Ticimax, T-Soft, İdeasoft or XML; Nebim V3, Logo, Mikro and SAP connect as ERPs. See all modules under Solutions.
To see the days-of-stock report with your own velocity, request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set a low-stock threshold?
Multiply the product's daily sales velocity by its lead time and add a safety margin. A product selling 2 a day with a 10-day lead time needs a threshold above 20. It should be calculated per product and variant, not set as one fixed number for the whole catalog.
What is days of stock?
An estimate of how many more days current inventory will last at the recent sales rate, counted across all channels. It reads as "12 days of stock left on this product" and tells you when to reorder.
What happens on a marketplace when stock hits zero?
The listing stops selling, drops in search ranking and does not regain its old position immediately when stock returns. Listings that stay at zero for long can be delisted on some marketplaces; check the current seller agreement for the rule that applies.
