Store inventory management without new software

If your store runs on WooCommerce, the shop plugin for WP, you already have inventory management. WooCommerce keeps a count for each product, shows it as out of stock when the count hits zero, and can email you when a count runs low. WooCommerce is a trademark of Automattic Inc. CMSHands is not affiliated with it.

So you don't need new software. You need counting switched on, the right alerts, and a quick way to update the counts after a delivery or a stock-take. Here are the 5 steps, with the labels WooCommerce 11.2.1 shows.

How to set up WooCommerce inventory management

1. Switch stock counting on. In your WP dashboard, the screens you log in to at yoursite.com/wp-admin, go to WooCommerce › Settings › Products › Inventory. Tick Enable stock management, then press Save changes.

2. Choose when you hear about it. On the same screen, under Notifications, tick Enable low stock notifications and Enable out of stock notifications. Notification recipient(s) is the address the emails go to. Low stock threshold is the count that sends you a low-stock email. Out of stock threshold is the count at which a product shows as out of stock; it starts at 0. Tick Hide out of stock items from the catalog if sold-out items should leave the shop until you restock. Then press Save changes.

3. Give each product its count. Open a product and find the Inventory tab in the Product data box. Tick Track stock quantity for this product, type the count in Quantity, and press Update. From then on, each order takes its items off the count. A Low stock threshold set here wins over the store-wide one.

4. Change many counts at once. When a delivery brings 10 more of everything, use bulk edit. In Products › All Products, tick the products, choose Edit under Bulk actions, and press Apply. Under Stock qty, pick Increase existing stock by:, type 10, and press Update.

5. Update every count from one sheet. When each product needs its own number, as after a stock-take, a sheet is quicker. Start from ours: store-stock-update.csv, 12 rows, one for each product in our test shop. A CSV is a plain spreadsheet file that Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets all open. Put your own products in the rows and keep the column names, because WooCommerce matches columns by their names.

The stock sheet, column by column

Here's what each column does. SKU is the product code from the SKU column of your products list. It's how WooCommerce finds each product. Product is the name, there for you while you count. WooCommerce skips it. Stock is the new count. In stock? is 1 for in stock and 0 for out of stock.

To import it, go to Products › All Products and press Import at the top. Choose your file, tick Update existing products, and press Continue. On the next screen, Product should say Do not import. Press Run the importer. Rows whose SKU matches no product are skipped and listed at the end.

Four things to know before you run it. Press Export, next to Import, first, so you keep a copy of the old counts. A number in Stock switches counting on for that product, and WooCommerce then sets in stock or out of stock from the number. An empty Stock cell does the opposite: it switches counting off for that product and clears its count. And use 1 and 0 in In stock?, never yes and no: WooCommerce reads “no” as in stock.

We ran this sheet through WooCommerce's own importer on our test site, a WP site we run to try every task before we write about it. That's Quillmoor Pottery, on WP 7.1 with WooCommerce 11.2.1, on Oct 11, 2026. All 12 products were updated. None were skipped and none failed.

Where CMSHands fits

If you'd rather ask than click, the free CMSHands plugin adds a chat to your WP dashboard. On our test shop we typed “Which of my products are out of stock? List them with their prices.” 8 seconds later the assistant said: “Three of your twelve products are out of stock”, and named each one with its price. It was a question, so nothing on the site changed. See that run, screen by screen.

It can also update your counts from a sheet, on the paid plan, which isn't open yet. We tried it on our test shop with a sheet for 15 products from an earlier test import. It had two columns, SKU and Stock, and five of the counts were 0. We attached it and typed “Set stock from this list and mark the zeros out of stock.” About 21 seconds later, one card showed the whole job: 15 products, new counts from 0 to 18, and 5 set to out of stock. A card is a box in the chat that shows exactly what would change. Nothing had changed yet.

We pressed Import it, and the 15 products changed. The card's Undo would put the old counts and statuses back, except on a product someone edited since. We didn't press it this time. See that stock update, screen by screen.

On your own sheet it works the same way. It finds each product by its SKU, skips rows that wouldn't change anything, and leaves alone any product you edited after the card appeared. Where a product doesn't count stock yet, it switches stock tracking on, on the same card. Simple products only, up to 2,000 in one import.

What it won't do: it doesn't change variations, and it doesn't keep your counts in step with a shop till, a marketplace or a supplier's feed. Changing one product's count by asking is something we haven't tested yet, so we don't promise it.

The stock question works today on the free plan, and so does the rest of the chat: see what you can ask. Nothing on your site changes until you press the button on a card.