What Happens When Inventory Is Missing

Sometimes an order arrives and no single location has every item in stock. This article explains what Orca does in that situation and what you will see while it happens.

Orca moves the stock, not the problem

When your routing rules call for consolidation and the chosen location is missing items, Orca creates an inventory transfer to bring the missing stock to that location. The order is placed on hold so nothing ships incomplete, and the transfer makes its way to the fulfilling location.

What you see while the order waits

In your Shopify admin, the order appears as On hold with the reason "Inventory out of stock". Shopify shows this same reason for every Orca hold, so for the specific cause — such as a transfer in transit — open the order in Orca, where the hold reason and the related transfer are shown.

The hold releases itself

When the transfer arrives, staff at the receiving location scan the items in. As soon as the stock is recorded, Orca releases the hold automatically and the order continues to fulfillment. There is no manual step to release a hold — receiving the stock is the release.

When an order cannot be routed at all

If no combination of locations and transfers can cover the order — or routing fails for another reason — Orca keeps the order on hold and flags it for your attention instead of guessing. From the order page in Orca you can review what happened, adjust stock or rules, and re-route the order.

Holds require the fulfillment holds option to be enabled in your Orca settings. On plans or settings where Orca is not allowed to act, decisions are recorded in simulation only and no holds are placed.