Zest gives you full control over how your product inventory is tracked, displayed, and deducted. Whether you're running direct ship gifting or e-gifting, Zest syncs with your connected ecommerce platform in real time so you're always working from live inventory data.
Overview: How Zest Syncs with Your Inventory
Zest reads product availability, inventory quantities, and pricing directly from your connected ecommerce platform. Inventory data is updated in Zest whenever your ecommerce platform sends a product update notification to Zest. This means:
Inventory changes are reflected in Zest quickly — as soon as your ecommerce platform notifies Zest of a product change, Zest updates its local product data including current inventory levels.
Zest does not maintain its own separate inventory count — it reads from your platform and stores a copy for display purposes.
If notifications stop or are delayed, Zest may show stale inventory data until a resync occurs. Contact Zest support for a manual resync if products appear incorrectly available or unavailable.
Note: Zest supports multiple ecommerce platforms. The advanced inventory configuration options described in this article are currently only available for Shopify-connected stores.
Key Inventory Settings in Zest
For Shopify-connected stores, there are three important inventory settings located under Settings > Integrations. These settings apply globally across all your storefronts.
Heads up! t's be to exercise caution when editing these settings. Incorrect configuration can affect product display and order fulfillment. If you're unsure, reach out to Zest support before making changes.
Use inventory quantities to determine if a product is available
What it does: When this setting is on, Zest uses Shopify's inventory quantity to decide whether a product shows up in your storefront. A product with zero or negative inventory will be hidden.
When it's off: Zest defers to each product's individual Shopify settings — for example, if a product has "Continue selling when out of stock" enabled in Shopify, Zest will still show it even at zero inventory.
This is an important distinction: turning this setting off gives you per-product control using Shopify's native inventory policies, while turning it on applies a uniform quantity-based rule across all products.
Inventory location ID
What it does: If you want Zest to check inventory from a specific warehouse or fulfillment location in Shopify, enter your Shopify location ID here (format: gid://shopify/Location/[your numeric ID]).
Finding your location ID:
In Shopify, go to Settings > Locations.
Click the location you want to use.
Copy the numeric ID from the URL in your browser.
Enter it in Zest in the format
gid://shopify/Location/[ID number].
When no location ID is configured, Zest uses Shopify's overall inventory quantity across all locations.
Important: This field is only available when "Use inventory quantities to determine if a product is available" is also enabled.
Claim inventory upon order submission
What it does: When this setting is on, Zest deducts inventory in Shopify when an order is submitted. When off, Zest submits orders to Shopify without triggering inventory deduction.
This setting controls whether Shopify's inventory count goes down when Zest creates an order. It does not affect whether products are shown as available in your storefront — that's controlled by the "Use inventory quantities" setting above.
When Inventory Is Deducted: Direct Ship vs. E-Gifts
How and when inventory gets deducted depends on the type of gift order.
Direct ship orders
For direct ship (physical address) orders, the Shopify order is created when the order is processed. If Claim inventory upon order submission is enabled, inventory is deducted in Shopify at that time.
E-gift orders
For e-gift orders, Zest does not create a Shopify order — and does not deduct inventory — until the recipient accepts the gift and provides their shipping address. This is by design: until a recipient accepts, they may swap the product for another item at the same price point.
What this means for your inventory:
Unaccepted e-gifts do not hold or reserve inventory in Shopify.
If multiple people place e-gift orders for the same product, Shopify inventory will not reflect those pending orders until recipients accept.
Use the Outstanding Inventory report to monitor unaccepted e-gifts and their potential inventory impact.
Note: When a direct ship order causes inventory to go below the number ordered, Zest sends a warning email noting the order "has depleted" the inventory. For an e-gift order at the same threshold, the warning says the order "may deplete" inventory — because recipients may not all accept, and some may swap products.
Out-of-Stock Behavior and Product Visibility
When a product's availability is set to unavailable based on your inventory settings, Zest automatically removes it from your storefront. It does not show as "sold out" — it simply disappears. It reappears automatically once inventory is restored.
What triggers a product to be hidden:
If "Use inventory quantities" is on: A product variant with zero or negative inventory (and inventory tracking enabled in Shopify) will be hidden.
If "Use inventory quantities" is off: Zest follows Shopify's native availability flag. If a product has "Continue selling when out of stock" enabled in Shopify, it will remain visible even at zero inventory.
When a product is in Draft status in Shopify: Draft products are not accessible by Zest at all — they will not appear in storefronts and will cause errors in Concierge. Products must be set to Active status in Shopify to appear in Zest.
When an e-gift recipient opens a gift for an out-of-stock product: If the gifted product is out of stock when the recipient accepts, Zest automatically shows available swap options at a similar price point (if gift swapping is enabled on your storefront). If no swap options are available and swapping is not enabled, the recipient will need to contact your support team.
Tip: Proactively review the Outstanding Inventory report and restock or enable swapping before popular items run out.
Oversell Prevention and Notifications
By default, Zest allows orders to proceed even when inventory is low or at zero. This is intentional — blocking a gifter at payment after they've already uploaded recipient addresses creates friction and risks losing the sale. Instead, Zest uses notifications and optional controls.
Inventory depletion email notifications
Zest can send an automated email alert to your notification email address whenever an order is placed that is at risk of depleting inventory. The email includes the product SKU, current inventory count, and quantity ordered.
Contact Zest support to enable inventory depletion notifications for your account.
Tip: Shopify also has its own native oversell notification capabilities. You can use both in tandem for full coverage.
Hard block at checkout
Zest offers an optional hard block that prevents order submission for direct ship orders when inventory is insufficient. When enabled, gifters see an error message during checkout if the requested quantity exceeds available inventory.
This setting is off by default due to the UX friction it creates for multi-recipient orders. Contact Zest support to enable it for your account.
Note: The hard block only applies to direct ship (physical address) orders. E-gift orders are not hard-blocked at checkout even when this setting is enabled, because inventory is not deducted until recipient acceptance.
Concierge orders
Concierge orders do not have an inventory hard block. Concierge projects with unsubmitted orders can be tracked separately in the Outstanding Inventory report.
Managing Unaccepted E-Gift Inventory
Since e-gifts don't deduct inventory until a recipient accepts, it's important to track pending e-gifts separately. The Outstanding Inventory report gives you a real-time view of your unresolved inventory exposure.
Where to find it: Go to Reports > Outstanding Inventory in your Zest partner dashboard and click Explore Outstanding Inventory or an existing Outstanding Inventory table you've created and saved.
What it shows:
Unaccepted e-gifts with associated SKUs and quantities.
Unsubmitted Concierge orders pending fulfillment.
Held scheduled orders that have been accepted but not yet pushed to Shopify (for brands using scheduled ship dates).
How Zest helps recipients accept quickly: Zest sends automated reminders to e-gift recipients at 24 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days after sending. You can also configure automatic cancellation and refund for e-gifts that remain unaccepted after a set period (for example, 90 days). Contact Zest support to configure auto-cancellation.
Note: Inventory cannot be reserved for unaccepted e-gifts in Shopify because recipients may swap their product. Exposure is tracked only within the Outstanding Inventory report.
Displaying Inventory Counts to Customers
You can choose to show live inventory counts directly on your storefront product listings. This optional setting helps gifters — especially those placing bulk orders — understand stock limitations before they order.
To enable or disable inventory count display:
Go to your storefront in the Zest partner dashboard.
Open Settings for that storefront.
Scroll to Advanced Settings.
Toggle Display inventory count? on or off.
Click Save changes.
This setting is configured per storefront, meaning you can show inventory counts on one storefront and hide them on another. When enabled, the counts reflect real-time Shopify inventory levels.
Tip: Many brands choose to hide inventory counts during high-volume gifting seasons to avoid deterring buyers from placing orders.
Special Cases: Bundles, Made-to-Order, Multiple Locations, and Pre-Orders
Bundled products
Zest follows Shopify's bundle availability logic. A bundle is treated as available only if all of its component variants are available in Shopify. If any component goes out of stock, the entire bundle will be hidden from your storefront (when "Use inventory quantities" is enabled).
When a bundle order is submitted to Shopify, Zest automatically converts the bundle into its individual component line items in the Shopify order. Each component item is labeled to indicate it is part of the bundle.
Made-to-order and unlimited-availability products
For products where you don't want inventory to limit availability — such as made-to-order items or products with unlimited stock — you have two options in Shopify:
Enable "Continue selling when out of stock" on the product. When Zest's "Use inventory quantities" setting is off (or per Shopify policy when it is on), the product will remain visible regardless of inventory count.
Uncheck "Track inventory" at the Shopify product level. When inventory tracking is disabled for a product, Shopify treats it as always available, and Zest will reflect that.
When "Use inventory quantities" is disabled globally in Zest, all products fall back to their individual Shopify availability policies — giving you per-product control without changing Zest settings.
Multiple warehouse locations
Each Zest instance connects to one Shopify store and can be configured to pull inventory from one specific location or from all locations combined. If your business needs to maintain separate inventory pools (for example, a corporate gifting warehouse vs. a retail warehouse), the available approaches are:
Configure a dedicated Shopify inventory location for Zest orders and set the Inventory location ID in Zest accordingly.
Create a separate set of Shopify products with dedicated inventory for your Zest catalog.
For brands with separate Shopify instances for different channels, manage inventory manually between them.
Important: When migrating warehouses or switching fulfillment providers, update the Inventory location ID in Zest immediately to ensure inventory reflects your new location. Until updated, product availability may not sync correctly.
Scheduled ship date orders (pre-orders and future-date orders)
For brands using scheduled ship dates, Zest's behavior depends on your order push configuration:
If orders are pushed to Shopify immediately at purchase: Inventory is deducted at the time of checkout (if Claim inventory upon order submission is enabled), effectively reserving stock for future fulfillment.
If orders are held in Zest until the ship date: Inventory is NOT deducted in Shopify until the scheduled date arrives and the order is pushed. These held orders appear in the Outstanding Inventory report under "Held Scheduled Order" and represent real inventory exposure not yet reflected in Shopify.
Contact Zest support if you're unsure which configuration your account uses.