Sell-out behaviour by channel
When a product in a sell-through state sells out, SKU.io can tidy up its listings. What "ending" a listing means depends on the marketplace. This page lists what each channel does, which channels can delete a listing, and how to read the lifecycle chip next to a listing's quantity.
You choose the action on the Sell-out tab of Settings → Products → Product Lifecycle. See Choose what happens when a product sells out. For when a product counts as sold out and what happens step by step, read What happens when a discontinued product sells out.
The sell-out actions
The default action applies to every channel. Under Per-channel overrides, each connected channel can follow the default or use its own action.
| Action | Option label | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | Keep its listings live at zero (override: Keep at zero) | Listings stay up, showing sold out. Choose it if you might restock or want to keep the page's search ranking. |
| End | End its listings (override: End) | Each listing is ended the reversible way for its channel, as shown in the table below. |
| End + archive | End its listings and archive the product (override: End + archive (archives the product once every channel has ended it)) | Ends the listings, then archives the product in SKU.io once every channel has ended it. |
| Delete | Override only: Delete | Deletes the listing on the channel. Offered only for channels that support it. It can't be undone, and a deleted listing is never relisted. |
The product is archived when the default or at least one channel is set to End + archive, and only once every listing has reached its end state. If any channel keeps its listing live at zero, or a channel fails to end it, the product stays unarchived. The What happened column of its lifecycle history says why.
What End and Delete do on each channel
The What "End" does here column on the Sell-out tab shows the same text for each of your channels.
| Channel | What End does | Delete |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Archives the product (it can be set back to Active), then redirects its page to the successor. | Not offered. |
| Amazon | Sets the quantity to 0, so the offer goes inactive and can be reopened. The SKU is not deleted. FBA listings need nothing: their stock is already 0. | Deletes the SKU and its history on Amazon. Blocked while any FBA units remain. |
| eBay | Sets the item to out of stock. The same item ID and its sales history are kept, so it can be relisted. | Ends the item on eBay. Relisting later creates a new item. |
| Walmart | Sets the inventory to 0. The item stays in your catalog. | Retires the item on Walmart. |
| Faire | Pauses sales with no restock date. | Takes the product off Faire by setting it to unpublished. |
| WooCommerce | Moves the product to the WooCommerce trash, where it can be restored. | Permanently deletes the product on WooCommerce. |
| BigCommerce | Hides the product from the storefront. | Permanently deletes the product on BigCommerce. |
| TikTok Shop | Deactivates the product, which can be activated again. | Deletes the product on TikTok Shop. |
| Temu | Takes the product off sale. | Not offered. |
| Any other channel | Keeps the listing at quantity 0. | Not offered. |
When you pick Delete for a channel, its warning appears in red under the choice, for example "Deletes the SKU and its history on Amazon. Blocked while any FBA units remain."
The Shopify redirect, the fallback collection and the other Shopify options are set on the Channels tab. See Set up channel lifecycle behaviour.
Products with variants
On Shopify, Faire, TikTok Shop, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Temu and eBay, ending or deleting acts on the whole product on the channel, so every variant on it. SKU.io does that only when every other variant on that channel product is also sold out at the end of its life. Until then, only the sold-out variant is closed, by setting its quantity to 0. It stays visible at zero while its siblings keep selling.
When the channel hasn't confirmed yet
Setting a quantity to 0 counts as done only once the channel confirms 0 on every location. Until then the listing is pending, and SKU.io keeps checking and pushes the quantity again. If a channel refuses, for example because its connection has expired, SKU.io retries three times, raises a Sell-out Action Failed alert and doesn't archive the product. You can retry from the Sell-through tab of PIM → Lifecycle once the problem is fixed. See Work the Lifecycle workspace.
Getting listings back
An ended listing can be recovered. Select the product on PIM → Products and use Channel actions → Recover. If you turn on Relist when discontinued stock comes back on the Sell-out tab, ended listings are recovered automatically when stock is received for a product that sell-out archived. A deleted listing is never relisted.
The lifecycle chip on a listing's quantity
A product's state can make its listings publish less than you might expect. When it does, the listing's page shows a small chip under Quantity. Hover over the chip to see why.
| Chip | When you see it | What the tooltip says |
|---|---|---|
| Sell-through quantity | The product's state sets Channel quantity to Sell-through. | "State: publishes only the stock that's really available — no minimum quantity, never below 0." and "Substitute stock is not added." |
| Excludes drop-ship stock | The state leaves out drop-ship supplier stock, but the quantity is otherwise normal. | "Drop-ship supplier stock is not counted." |
| Includes successor SKU's stock | The product is in a sell-through state and its successor stock is included. | "Includes the stock of its successor SKU: orders for this listing are auto-substituted with SKU." |
A listing for a product in a sell-through state that also excludes drop-ship stock lists both notes in the tooltip. A product whose state changes nothing about its quantity shows no chip.
When a successor's stock is included
Normally a sell-through listing never adds substitute stock. It includes the successor's stock only when all of these are true:
- The product has a successor with an automatic substitution, set when you link a successor product.
- Publish alias availability is on under Settings → Products → Product Substitutions.
- That substitution actually contributes the successor's stock to this listing.
Orders for the listing are then filled with the successor. See Substitute products on sales orders.
Next steps
- Choose what happens when a product sells out: set the default and the per-channel overrides.
- Lifecycle policy matrix reference: the Channel quantity and Drop-ship supplier stock rows.
- How channel stock is calculated: the normal quantity rules.