Shopify has no native reorder point field and no built-in low-stock alert setting on products. That surprises most merchants the first time they go looking for it. The official answer is Shopify Flow: an automation with the "Product variant inventory quantity changed" trigger and a quantity condition, which emails you (or your vendor) when a variant drops below a number you choose. It works, it's free on paid plans, and Shopify's own Stocky migration doc points merchants to it by name.
This guide shows how to set that up properly, what Sidekick adds, where the threshold approach breaks down as your catalog grows, and what a real replenishment setup looks like on top of Shopify.
Quick answer: low-stock alerts with Shopify Flow
- Install Shopify Flow (free on paid Shopify plans) from the App Store if you don't have it
- Start from Flow's template library — there's a ready-made template called "Get notified by email when product variant inventory is low" — or create a workflow from scratch
- Use the trigger "Product variant inventory quantity changed"
- Add a condition so it fires once at the crossing, not on every subsequent sale: inventory quantity is less than your threshold and prior quantity was at or above it (e.g., quantity < 5 and prior quantity >= 5)
- Add the action: send an internal email, or use Flow's related templates that email a vendor to reorder or hide the product when it hits zero
That's a functioning low-stock alert. Ten minutes, no app spend.
What about reorder points?
A low-stock alert is the poor cousin of a reorder point. A real reorder point is computed: expected demand during the supplier's lead time, plus to absorb variability. The Flow threshold is just a number you typed — and that difference is the entire story of whether you stock out.