What is Put-away?

For a small Shopify store, put-away is often just carrying a box from the door to the shelf, but the record-keeping part matters. If you mark stock as received in your system but never actually get it onto the shelf where staff can find it, you end up with orders you cannot pack even though the system says the item is in stock.

Treat put-away as a required step, not an afterthought. Decide where each SKU lives, label the spot if you can, and make sure whoever receives the delivery also puts it away before moving on to something else. This keeps your on-hand numbers matching what is physically on the shelf.

Example

A candle store receives a box of 48 units of its lavender candle. The stockroom worker scans the box in, confirms the count matches the packing slip, then carries the candles to bin C3 on the back shelf and places them there. Once the candles are physically in bin C3, the put-away step is done and the item is ready to be picked for orders.

Common mistakes

• Marking stock as received without actually moving it to its storage spot, so staff cannot find it later.
• Not assigning a fixed location per SKU, which means the same product ends up scattered in different spots over time.
• Letting received boxes sit in the receiving area for days, which delays the stock being available to pick and ship.

Put-away and SteadyShelf

SteadyShelf receives stock into Shopify once a purchase order arrives, but the physical step of carrying items to their shelf spot is still something you or your team handles.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related terms

Receiving · Bin location · Pick list · Quantity on hand · Inventory accuracy

Full inventory glossary

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