PrestaShop out of stock product: hide it, show it or take backorders
You can handle a PrestaShop out of stock product in three ways: show it with an out-of-stock notice and an inactive button, take orders with a longer delivery time, or disable it with a redirect. For a temporary gap the first or second option usually wins. Keep disabling for products that will not return to your range.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for PrestaShop store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
Decision table: what to do with a product that has no stock
The choice depends on two questions: will the item come back, and do you know when. The table below covers the typical situations.
| Situation | What to set | What the customer sees | What happens in Google |
|---|---|---|---|
| The item will come back, you don't know when | show the product, deny orders | a page with an out-of-stock notice, inactive button | the page stays, availability “out of stock” |
| The item will come back on a known date, the supplier is reliable | allow orders when out of stock, with a message about the date | a normal button and a message, e.g. “ships in 10 days” | the page stays, availability matches the message |
| Made-to-order product, produced after purchase | always allow orders | lead time next to the price | the page stays |
| Product discontinued, there is a successor | disable with a 301 redirect to the successor | the new product's page straight away | the old address passes traffic to the new one |
| Product discontinued, no successor | disable with a redirect to the category | the category with similar products | the old address drops out of results |
| Seasonal, back next year | show with a seasonal note or disable for the break | depends on the choice | disabling for a long time means losing the page's ranking |
The date in the second row is only an example. Only enter one you will keep, because the customer pays up front.
Where to set it in PrestaShop
The settings live in two places: the default for the whole store and a product's own setting. The product's own setting wins over the default.
- Open Shop Parameters → Product Settings. The page is described in the PrestaShop 8 user guide.
- In the stock section, set whether the store accepts orders for out-of-stock products by default.
- Enter the labels: for in-stock products, for out-of-stock products that can be ordered and for out-of-stock products that cannot.
- Save, then open a product with zero stock in the store to see the result.
- For exceptions, open the product in Catalog → Products, go to the stock tab and choose the out-of-stock behaviour: deny orders, allow orders or use the store default.
- For a product that takes orders when out of stock, enter your own message about the date.
In products with combinations, stock is counted separately for each combination. A customer may see size M available and size L unavailable on the same page.
Should you hide out-of-stock products from category lists?
The standard PrestaShop settings have no single “hide out-of-stock products from lists” switch. You have three routes:
- An availability filter in the faceted search module. The customer ticks “in stock” themselves, and the out-of-stock products stay in the store.
- Disabling the product. It disappears from lists and search, but its address stops working. This only makes sense for a longer gap and with a redirect.
- A third-party module that hides products with zero stock or moves them to the end of the list. Check that it works with your store version.
Moving out-of-stock products to the end of the category is often better than hiding them. The customer first sees what they can buy right away, and the product page keeps working. The link from the category to the product stays too, and Google's guide to ecommerce site structure advises that every important product should be linked from a category. We cover product order in a separate post on product order in a category.
What Google says
Google wants the page and the product data to say the same thing. In its Merchant Center help on the availability attribute, Google requires the availability in the product feed to match the one on the page and in the cart. When the store says “out of stock” and the feed says “in stock”, the offer may be disapproved. We write about such disapprovals in the post on disapproved products in Merchant Center.
For products removed for good, Google's help on 404 errors advises that the old address should return a 404 or 410 if there is no content that replaces it. When there is a successor or a close category, a 301 redirect keeps the traffic. We describe this step by step in the post on a discontinued product in PrestaShop.
The most common mistakes with out-of-stock items
Backorders allowed for the whole store. Someone changed the default so one product could be ordered, and from then on customers buy everything that is not in stock. Set the exception on the product page, not in the store settings.
The same message for every product. “Available to order” on a product that is back next week and on one that is back in three months are two different promises. For longer waits, enter the message on the product page.
Store stock does not match the warehouse. When stock is updated by warehouse software or a wholesaler, a change in the admin is overwritten at the next sync. First find out where the store gets its stock from.
Disabling the product every time it runs out. A product that disappears and comes back every month loses its page in Google each time.
How the chat sets out-of-stock behaviour for many products
Clicking the same field in dozens of products is tedious work. With the TellMyShop module you describe the rule, and your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) finds the products and prepares one change.
You: Products in the Made-to-order furniture category should always accept orders, even with zero stock.
Your chat: The category has 18 products. 12 already have this setting, 6 use the store default, which denies orders when out of stock. Preview for those 6:
You: Save it.
Your chat: Changing the out-of-stock behaviour needs the Sales switch in the module panel. When you turn it on, I'll save these 6 products and tell you how to undo the change.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: when out of stock: default (deny orders)
new version: when out of stock: allow orders
The numbers in the example are illustrative.
In the free TellMyShop Free, the chat reads product and sales reports and opens the product page the way Google sees it. So it helps you decide what to do about out-of-stock items, but it changes nothing. In TellMyShop Pro it sets stock and out-of-stock behaviour once the Sales switch is on, and the switch stays on until you turn it off. Disabling a product with a redirect works straight after licence activation. Examples are in the use cases correcting stock after a stocktake and discontinuing a product without losing Google traffic.
Every change waits for your “yes” and goes into the change history. You can undo most changes with one instruction. Plans are on the pricing page.
Questions and answers
Does a product with zero stock disappear from the store by itself?
No. With the standard PrestaShop settings a product with no stock stays in its category and keeps its page. The customer sees an out-of-stock notice, and the buy button is inactive unless you allowed orders when out of stock.
Where do I set what happens when stock runs out?
You set the default behaviour in Shop Parameters → Product Settings, in the stock section. For a single product you change it on its product page, in the stock tab. That is also where you enter your own availability message.
Does an out-of-stock product hurt in Google?
Being unavailable is not an error in itself. What matters is that the page tells the truth: the out-of-stock information on the page and in the data for Google should match. When the product will not come back, it is better to disable it with a redirect to a similar product or a category.
Should I disable a product that is temporarily out of stock?
Usually not. A disabled product disappears from the store and its address returns an error, so you lose traffic from Google and links. For a temporary gap it is better to leave the page with a clear note on when the item will be back.
Can the chat change the out-of-stock behaviour for many products at once?
Yes, in TellMyShop Pro once the Sales switch is on. The chat shows the list of products and a preview of the change, and saves it only after your “yes”. The change goes into the history, where you can undo it.
PrestaShop is a registered trademark of PrestaShop SA. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.