01What the alert is made of
Strip away the software and a stock alert has four parts: a count that stays correct, a line that means "running low", a person who gets told, and a place where they get told. If the count is wrong, the alert is wrong. A store that sells through its website and also at a market stall, with stock updated by hand in one place and not the other, will alert at the wrong moment however clever the rule is. So the first job is not the alert. It is deciding which system holds the real number, and making every sale and every delivery change that one number.
- Count: one system holds the real number, updated by every sale and delivery
- Line: the level at which you want to hear about it
- Person: one named owner, not a shared inbox
- Place: email, or a flag on a dashboard or in the CRM that the owner already opens
02Where to set the line
A flat "alert me at 10" is the common mistake. It fires constantly for a fast seller and too late for a slow one. The line should be the stock you will use up while waiting for the next delivery, plus a cushion. That means two numbers per product: how many you sell on a normal day, and how many days your supplier takes. As an illustration only, not a benchmark: if you sell 3 a day and restocking takes 10 days, you use about 30 units while waiting. Add a few days of cushion, say 9 units, and the line is 39. If a supplier's lead time changes, the line changes with it. Products that sell a handful a month do not need a live alert at all. A weekly list of everything under its line is enough.
- Limit per product = daily sales times supplier days, plus a cushion
- Set it again when your sales or your supplier's lead time change
- Slow sellers: a weekly list instead of an instant alert
- Treat "low" and "out" as two separate alerts
03Check your platform before you build anything
We read the vendors' own documentation for this post. WooCommerce has it built in. Under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory you find the stock management switch, the notification recipient and the low stock and out of stock thresholds. The notifications are on by default in WooCommerce core, sent to the store's admin email, with a low stock threshold of 2. Stock management still has to be enabled for each product, so check three things: who the recipient is, that the threshold (default 2) fits how fast you sell, and that your products have stock management on. Shopify's route is Shopify Flow. Its trigger "Product variant inventory quantity changed" starts a workflow when a variant's inventory changes, whether from an order, a manual adjustment or an app, and it passes the previous quantity. That lets a workflow alert only on the sale that crosses your line, not on every sale after it. We did not confirm which Shopify plans include Flow, so check yours. If your store runs on something else, look for the words "low stock" in its settings before you pay anyone.
- WooCommerce: Settings > Products > Inventory, with notification recipients and both thresholds
- Shopify: a Flow workflow on the variant inventory trigger, with a check on the previous quantity so it alerts once
- Other platforms: search the settings for "low stock" first
- Test with one product: lower its stock by hand and confirm the email arrives
04Make the alert worth opening
An alert that fires on every sale below the line trains its reader to ignore it. The fix is design, not software. Alert once when the count crosses the line, and again only when it reaches zero. Put the product name, the current count and the reorder quantity in the message, so the person can act without opening anything else. Send it to one owner and name a stand-in for holidays. Email, a dashboard flag or a task in your CRM are all fine. A text or a WhatsApp message is a different channel, and not one AUTOMATE covers. We publish no figure for how many alerts a store should expect, because we have not measured it.
- One alert when the count crosses the line, one when it hits zero
- In the message: product, current count, how many to reorder
- One named owner and one stand-in
- Channels: email, dashboard or CRM task
05What AUTOMATE covers
PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan costs 2,997 EUR a month. Its feature list includes an AI website chatbot that qualifies and books, AI DM and email auto-responders, booking automation with a CRM, and two custom automations a month. A stock alert is not a line of its own. When the platform's built-in alert is not enough, for example when stock lives in a spreadsheet or in a system your store does not read, a rule that watches the count and writes to your CRM or sends an email could be one of the two custom automations. Whether it fits is a scoping question, answered with your real system and your real products. Our post on what two custom automations a month means explains what the allowance is. AUTOMATE does not cover WhatsApp or phone.
- AI website chatbot that qualifies and books (plan list)
- AI DM and email auto-responders
- Booking automation with a CRM
- Two custom automations a month; a stock alert is not a separate feature
- WhatsApp and phone: outside AUTOMATE
06Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
We are the wrong choice in four cases. If your platform already has a low-stock email, switch it on and stop there. If you have a dozen products, a glance at the shelf each morning beats any rule. If you want alerts by WhatsApp or text, that is outside AUTOMATE. And if you do not have a store yet, a store is a separate build at 2,500 to 4,500 EUR with its own timeline, not the 48-hour website; our post on website or online store explains the difference. A single standalone automation, without the monthly plan, is scoped and priced on request through the start page.
- Your platform already sends low-stock emails: switch them on first
- A dozen products or fewer: check the shelf instead
- Alerts by WhatsApp or text: outside AUTOMATE
- No store yet: a store is 2,500 to 4,500 EUR and not a 48-hour job
A store where stock matters from day one
Noryse is a luxury corsetry label. PROOF48 built the brand and the store in the same pass: six product pages for the launch collection, Stripe checkout, transactional email and a private portal for the manufacturer. The case study does not describe stock tracking or stock alerts, so we claim none. It is also a launch, so there are no sales figures to quote. What carries over to any small store is the question this post turns on: who supplies you, and how many days they take. That number sets the line.
See the build: NoryseQuestions, answered
Does WooCommerce send low stock emails by default?
Yes. In WooCommerce core the low stock and out of stock notifications are on by default, sent to the store's admin email, with a low stock threshold of 2. Stock management still has to be enabled for each product. Under Settings > Products > Inventory, check the recipient and whether the threshold fits your sales speed.
What number should I set as the low-stock level?
Daily sales times the days your supplier needs, plus a cushion. It differs for every product, so a single flat number for the whole store is usually wrong.
Can the alert go to WhatsApp or my phone?
Not through AUTOMATE, which does not cover WhatsApp or phone. Email, a dashboard flag or a CRM task are the channels we work with in that plan.
Does PROOF48 set up stock alerts?
AUTOMATE lists no stock alert of its own. It includes two custom automations a month, and a stock rule could be one of them if your platform lacks the alert. Tell us your system and products and we say whether it fits.
Where PROOF48 fits
A low-stock alert is a line per product, a named person and an email, built on a stock count you trust. Check whether WooCommerce or Shopify already does it before paying for anything. Set the line from daily sales and supplier days, and alert once. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, 2,997 EUR a month, lists no stock alert of its own and does not cover WhatsApp or phone.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.