Okount team ·
Keep one stock count for every channel, hold stock the moment an order arrives, keep a small buffer on each marketplace, and send stock updates after every sale rather than once a day.
Why overselling happens
Overselling is selling a unit you no longer have. It happens when two channels each believe they own the same stock. Your Shopify store shows 3 left, Amazon shows 3 left, and between them they take 5 orders before anyone updates either number.
The cost is more than one refund. Marketplaces count a cancelled order against your account, and enough of them lowers your ranking or pauses your listing. The buyer you let down rarely comes back.
Habit 1: One count, not one per channel
Every channel should read from the same number. If you keep a spreadsheet for the website and trust the marketplace's own stock field for everything else, you have two counts, and they will drift apart.
Pick one place where stock lives, and treat every channel's number as a copy of it.
Habit 2: Hold stock when the order arrives
A unit is gone the moment someone orders it, not when it is packed. Take it out of what channels can sell as soon as the order lands, and put it back only if the order is cancelled.
Worked example. You have 10 mugs. At 9:00 an order for 4 arrives. The stock on the shelf is still 10, but what you can sell is now 6. If the other channels still show 10, the next 4 orders are already a problem.
Habit 3: Keep a buffer on each marketplace
Updates take time to reach a marketplace. A buffer covers the gap: show each channel a little less than you have. With 20 units and a buffer of 2 on two marketplaces, each shows 18.
Use a bigger buffer where cancellations hurt most and on fast sellers, and none on slow, high-stock items where it would only hide sales.
- Fast seller, few left: buffer 2 to 3.
- Slow seller, plenty in stock: buffer 0.
- A marketplace with strict cancellation penalties: the larger buffer.
- Your own website, where you can refund and apologise: the smaller one.
Habit 4: Update after every sale
A stock file uploaded once a day leaves a whole day for channels to oversell. Send the new number after every sale, or at least every few minutes on busy days. If a channel's number stops matching yours, find out why the same day.
How Okount helps
Okount keeps one stock count for the counter, the warehouse and every channel. Orders hold their stock the moment they are accepted, each channel has its own buffer, and you are alerted when a channel's number no longer matches yours. Shopify and WooCommerce orders arrive as they are placed and stock goes back after every sale; Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho orders come in from their order report.