Wix Stores: Setting When Inventory Gets Updated

Control whether your inventory quantities update as soon as an order is placed or when you receive payment for that order. 

When deciding which setting to use, you should consider the following:

Some payment providers take up to 5 days to process payments. In this case, if a customer purchases the last product in stock and your inventory isn't set to update when the order is placed, new customers may successfully purchase out-of-stock products. 

Note that payment providers who do usually process payments immediately, such as PayPal, sometimes experience delays. This may occasionally cause out-of-stock items to be purchased, especially if you have a large volume of sales. 

If you have an increase in traffic because of a sale, a holiday season (e.g. Cyber Monday), or as a result of extra exposure, it also increases the likelihood that customers could purchase out-of-stock items if your store is set to the "update only after the order is paid" setting. 

To prevent this from happening, we recommend temporarily setting inventory to the "update when the order is placed" setting. When traffic reduces to normal levels, you can change the setting back.

Take into consideration how much stock you normally have on hand. If you have large quantities of stock that are unlikely to run out - even if you have a spike in sales - you may prefer to use the "update only after the order is paid" setting. 

On the other hand, if you only keep a small number of each product in stock, and it takes a long time to restock, the "update when the order is placed" setting may be more suitable for your business. 

If you chose the "update when the order is placed" setting, your inventory reduces as soon as your customer checks out. 

Then, if you do not receive payment for some reason, the product is re-added to the inventory as soon as Wix Stores receives notification that payment couldn't be completed.