How does Shopify update inventory when new orders are created?

Question

When does shopify deduct the inventory level for products that just got sold in new orders? When the order is created? Or after it's fulfilled and physically shipped out?

Let's say....

Product A has only 1 unit remaining in stock. And someone just bought this last unit. The warehouse has not fulfilled the order yet. Might take a few hours, maybe a full business day.

During this time, would the product page for this product show an inventory of 1 or 0?

Answer 1

First off you should make sure you have Inventory Tracking enabled. Once a product is purchased it is totally removed from inventory. In addition my store uses Sku Vault for detailed tracking and order fulfillment but we are a large operation. The standard Shopify inventory system would suffice depending on the scale of your store.