Common examples: one shirt listed under two colourway names, the same item listed on two products, or made-to-order pieces where every colour uses the same weekly capacity.
Why it oversells
Say you have 10 shirts listed as "Tee – Ocean" and "Tee – Blue". If both show 10, you can sell 20. If you split them 5 and 5, one sells out while the other still shows stock you could have sold.
Option 1: one variant with a choice field
If the variants differ only by a label, sell one variant and let the customer choose through a custom field on the product page (theme code or a product options app). One variant means one count. The cost: no separate photos, prices or SKUs per choice, and reports show a single variant.
Option 2: split the stock and rebalance
Give each variant part of the stock and move it around as things sell. It's free, but it depends on you checking, and it breaks on a busy day.
Option 3: a shared stock pool
A shared inventory app keeps one count and updates every variant when any of them sells, is refunded or is edited.
Here's how it works in OneCount. Disclosure: we make it, so we're biased, but the steps above work without it.
- In OneCount, click Create pool, then Select variants. Pick every variant that comes out of the same stock. They can be on different products.
- Leave Units used per sale at 1. (Packs that use several units are covered in the multipack guide.)
- Under Starting stock, pick the variant that holds your real count, or choose Enter a number.
- Click Create pool. Check the changes shows every variant's number now and after. Nothing changes until you confirm.
From then on, a sale, refund, restock or manual edit on any variant updates the others within seconds, separately at each location. The pool page lists every change, and its health check warns about settings that would still let you oversell, like Continue selling when out of stock.
Which should you pick?
- A few variants that differ only by name: a choice field is simplest.
- Separate photos, prices or SKUs, or variants on different products: a shared pool.
- Low volume and you check stock every day: splitting works until it doesn't.