Low-stock alerts and reorder points

Selling out is bad. Selling out without warning is worse. Here's how to set up alerts that actually fire when you need them.

Per-product reorder point

Edit a product → Inventory → Reorder point. The number is "trigger an alert when stock drops to this". Two patterns work:

• Static. Set a fixed number based on your supplier lead time. If reorders take 7 days and you sell 3/day, set reorder point to 21
• Velocity-based. Let SellStein calculate. We use the trailing 30-day sell rate × your supplier lead time × a safety multiplier (default 1.5). Updates nightly

Velocity-based is better for most products. Static is right when sales are seasonal and the trailing average lies (e.g. you don't want a low Christmas-decoration alert in June).

Where alerts go

Three channels:

• Dashboard. Bell icon top right, plus Inventory → Alerts page
• Email. Daily digest at 9am your timezone, configurable on Settings → Notifications
• Webhook. Product.low_stock event fires the moment threshold is crossed

You can mute alerts per-product (handy for slow movers you intentionally don't restock).

ABC analysis

Inventory → ABC Report classifies your catalogue:

• A items. Top 20% of revenue, 80% of impact. Never let these stock out
• B items. Middle 30% of revenue. Moderate priority
• C items. Bottom 50%. Stock out is fine; restock when convenient

Set tighter reorder points on A items, looser on C items. The report updates daily based on the trailing 90 days.

Auto-reorder

Settings → Inventory → Auto-reorder lets you connect to a supplier API or generate a PO automatically when reorder points trigger. Supports Faire, Alibaba, plus generic CSV/email. Setup is per-supplier in the same settings panel.

Multi-warehouse

If you have multiple warehouses (Settings → Shipping → Origins), each gets its own stock count and reorder point. The alert fires when any one warehouse drops below threshold, not the total. So a 50-unit total split as 5/45 across two warehouses still alerts you on the depleted one.

What to do at the alert

Decide same-day. The cost of stocking out is usually 5-10× the holding cost of an extra week of inventory. When in doubt, reorder.