How to Bulk Hide Out-of-Stock Products on Shopify?

Discover a simple and efficient method to bulk hide out-of-stock products in your Shopify store, ensuring your customers always find what they need without disappointment. Save time and effort by avoiding the tedious task of removing products one by one.

Managing inventory effectively is crucial for delivering a seamless shopping experience in your Shopify store. Out-of-stock products can frustrate customers and lead to missed sales opportunities. Instead of handling this manually, what if there were an easier way to hide unavailable products in bulk?

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to achieve that with the help of the WebToffee StoreRobo Import Export App for Shopify.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Hiding out-of-stock products in Shopify means making products unavailable on your storefront without deleting them from your store. These products remain in your Shopify admin with all their data, such as images, descriptions, and inventory history, intact, but customers can no longer see or purchase them until they are restocked.

Hiding typically involves setting the product’s visibility so it is not shown on sales channels like the Online Store. The product still exists in your admin and can be republished instantly when inventory is available again.

This approach is different from unpublishing a product, which removes it only from selected sales channels while keeping it active on others. It’s also safer than deleting products, which permanently removes all product data and cannot be undone. Hiding out-of-stock products gives you the flexibility to maintain a clean storefront while preserving all product information for future use.

Why Should You Hide Out-of-Stock Products on Your Shopify Store?

Out-of-stock products can negatively impact your customers’ shopping experience and your store’s overall performance. Here are some compelling reasons to hide unavailable items from your Shopify store:

1. Prevent Customer Frustration

Imagine a customer excitedly clicking on a product only to find it unavailable. This disappointment can lead to higher bounce rates and damage your brand’s reputation. Hiding out-of-stock products ensures customers only see items they can purchase, maintaining a positive user experience.

2. Streamline the Shopping Journey

Displaying unavailable products clutters your store and makes navigation more challenging for customers. By hiding these items, you create a cleaner and more intuitive shopping experience, helping customers quickly find what they need.

3. Maintain Professionalism

A store filled with unavailable products can appear neglected or poorly managed. Hiding out-of-stock items demonstrates professionalism and shows your commitment to delivering a seamless shopping experience.

4. Boost Conversion Rates

Fewer distractions mean a higher likelihood of conversion. When customers don’t encounter unavailable products, they’re more likely to focus on and purchase in-stock items.

5. Optimize SEO and Marketing Efforts

Search engines and marketing campaigns benefit from promoting active, purchasable products. Hiding out-of-stock products prevents irrelevant traffic and ensures your efforts target items that are currently available.

By managing your inventory visibility proactively, you enhance customer satisfaction, streamline operations, and maximize your store’s profitability.

Manually removing out-of-stock products can be a tedious and time-consuming task. First, you need to identify the unavailable items, then individually remove or change their status—an overwhelming process, especially if your store has a large inventory.

But don’t worry! We have a simple and efficient solution to help you hide all out-of-stock products using our StoreRobo Import Export App.

You might already know StoreRobo as a reliable tool for importing and exporting data to and from Shopify. However, this versatile app can also streamline inventory management by allowing you to bulk-hide out-of-stock products effortlessly.

Using the app’s bulk update feature, you can change the status of all products with zero inventory to “draft” in just a few steps. This ensures that unavailable items are hidden from your store without the need for manual updates.

Now, follow the steps below to get started. 

Step 1: Install & Activate StoreRobo Import Export App

• Log in to your Shopify Admin account and go to Apps.
• Search for “StoreRobo Import Export App for Shopify.”

• Once you have found the app, choose a plan that suits your needs and install and activate the app on your Shopify store.

Step 2: Choose an Export Template

• After installing the app, go to the StoreRobo app’s Home page.
• From the Export section, choose Shopify CSV as the export template.
• Then, proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Export Shopify Products With Inventory Qty Field

• In this step, choose Products as the data type to export from the drop-down menu.
• All the columns in the Basic fields will be enabled by default. Just make sure it’s all enabled.
• Then go to the Variants & Inventory column and enable the Variant Inventory Qty column. This will export the Shopify product data with the inventory quantity details.

Then, scroll down to the Filters section and from here:

• Click Add new filter, then choose the Status filter.
• Select Active products. This will only export the active products from your store.
• Click on Export to initiate the export process. 

Once the export job is complete, click on the Download file button to download the CSV file. 

Step 4: Choose Products with Inventory Quantity Zero

• Open the exported CSV file using a spreadsheet tool such as Excel or Google Sheets.
• Select the products with “Variant Inventory Qty” as zero, and delete the remaining products.

Now, you will have a CSV file with all the out-of-stock items.

• Next, find the Status column and update the value to Draft for all listed products. This change ensures that these out-of-stock items will be hidden from your Shopify storefront. Once done, save the updated CSV file to proceed with the import step.

Step 5: Upload CSV file to Shopify

Go to the StoreRobo app from your Shopify store and upload the CSV file we prepared in the previous step under the Import section.

• Choose Products as the data type in the CSV file and click on Upload.

Step 6: Import Updated CSV to Hide Products in Bulk 

• Enable the Update if products already exist in the store and Skip import of new products checkboxes. This ensures that only the status of out-of-stock products is updated, and they are hidden safely without affecting your existing catalog.
• Click on Import to update products from the CSV file.

This will import the product data from the CSV file and change the status of out-of-stock products to “Draft.”

And that’s it! You’ve successfully hidden all out-of-stock products in your Shopify store.

Managing out-of-stock products effectively helps maintain a smooth shopping experience while protecting your store’s performance and SEO.

• When to hide vs keep products visible: Hide products when restocking timelines are uncertain or when unavailable items could frustrate customers. If a product will be back in stock soon, consider keeping it visible with a clear “Out of Stock” message or a back-in-stock notification option to retain customer interest.

• Inventory thresholds and automation: Set inventory thresholds to automatically trigger actions when stock reaches zero or a predefined limit. Using automation tools or bulk update apps allows you to hide products instantly when inventory runs out and republish them once stock is replenished, saving time and reducing manual effort.

• SEO considerations: Completely removing or deleting products can negatively impact SEO by causing broken links and lost rankings. Hiding products is often a safer option, as it preserves URLs and product data. If products are hidden for long periods, consider adding redirects or optimizing category pages to ensure search engines and customers are guided to available alternatives.

Hiding out-of-stock products is essential for maintaining a smooth and professional shopping experience on your Shopify store. By removing unavailable items, you improve customer satisfaction, increase conversion rates, and keep your inventory organized. With the StoreRobo Import Export App for Shopify, you can easily bulk hide out-of-stock products, saving valuable time and effort.

Now that you know the simple steps to use this app, you can ensure your store always displays only available products. Take action today and enhance your store’s performance, ensuring a better shopping experience for your customers!