Low-stock alerts and inventory thresholds
Set per-product thresholds and alert toggles, and learn when low-stock alert emails fire and which parts of the alert system are not switched on yet.
When a product's stock crosses your alert threshold, VeloCMS emails the site owner so you can reorder before you stock out. The check runs after each checkout that decrements stock: if a variant dropped to or below its threshold, the owner gets an email for the affected product naming the variants that crossed. A nightly catch-up scan is also built into the product, but that scheduled job is not switched on yet — so today, alerts only fire on checkout activity.
Quick start — setting up your first alert
Open a product at Admin > Products > [id] and find the Stock settings card. Alerts are on by default, and the threshold defaults to 5 — meaning a variant that dips to 5 units or fewer will trigger an alert at the next checkout. Enter a number that reflects your typical reorder lead time: if it takes you two weeks to restock, set the threshold high enough that an alert at that number gives you enough time to place the order. Save the card and repeat for each product you want covered. There is no separate inventory settings page — this per-product card is where low-stock alerts are configured.
How the threshold is resolved
Each product carries its own threshold, set in its Stock settings card, and the default is 5. Set it higher if your turnover is fast and you need more lead time, lower if you run a boutique with small batches. A tenant-wide fallback value exists in the site settings data, but there is currently no admin screen to edit it — in practice, the per-product card is the only place you set thresholds.
Per-product overrides
The product detail page at Admin > Products > [id] has a 'Stock settings' section. The threshold you enter there applies to this product specifically — useful when one SKU has a longer lead time or needs a larger safety buffer. The alert toggle in the same card silences alerts entirely for this product, for fast-movers where you'd rather watch stock manually.
The nightly scan — built, not yet running
A nightly stock scan is built into VeloCMS to run at 07:00 UTC, checking every active product variant against its threshold and emailing the owner about anything below the line. Its purpose is to catch stock reductions that don't come from checkouts — manual stock corrections, returns that reduced inventory, or import errors that zeroed a variant. This scheduled job is not currently enabled, so those non-checkout reductions do not trigger alerts yet. Until it is switched on, the checkout-time check is the only alert path.
Alert delivery and troubleshooting
Alerts go to the site owner's email address — the one used to create the account. There's currently no way to CC additional addresses from within VeloCMS, though you can forward from your email client or set up an email alias. An alert fires once per threshold crossing: after the email goes out, VeloCMS stays quiet about that variant until you restock it above the threshold and it drops below the line again — so you won't get a repeat email after every subsequent sale. If you're not receiving alerts despite having stock below threshold, check that the alert toggle on the product's Stock settings card is enabled.
Common pitfalls
Setting the threshold too low (like 1 or 2) means you'll get the alert right when you're already dangerously close to stockout — not enough runway to actually reorder in time. A threshold of 10–15 for products with a two-week supplier lead time is more realistic. Another pitfall: the alert email names the specific variants that crossed, not just the product. If you have a shirt in sizes XS–XXL and only the XL is low, the email will say so — restock that specific variant, not the whole product. Finally, remember that alerts currently fire only when a checkout happens: if you edit stock down by hand, no alert fires until the next purchase crosses the threshold.
Related articles
- Managing product variants (size × color → SKUs) — how variant-level stock tracking works
- Selling physical and digital products together — mixed carts and fulfillment
- Setting up shipping zones and rates — the other half of physical fulfillment
Turn alerts off for a single product with the toggle in its Stock settings card — useful for fast-movers you watch manually, or digital-adjacent products where 'low stock' doesn't apply.