Websites · Glossary
What is inventory reservation?
Inventory reservation means setting aside stock for a buyer while they complete checkout, so the items cannot be sold to someone else in the meantime. If the payment succeeds, the reserved stock becomes sold; if the buyer abandons checkout, the hold expires and the stock returns to available. It prevents overselling the last items.
Without reservations, two buyers can both reach payment for the last item and both pay. Reservations decide who gets it before anyone is charged.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
3 min read · Published
How a reservation works
When checkout starts, the store tries to reserve every line of the cart at once. If all are available, it records a hold with an expiry time and sends the buyer to pay. Available stock, what other buyers can add, is the stock count minus active holds.
When holds end
A completed payment commits the hold: the reserved quantity becomes sold and the stock count goes down. An abandoned or failed payment lets the hold expire, and a regular sweep releases it, returning the items to available. A good system also handles a slow payment that lands after the hold expired.
All or nothing
Reserving lines one by one can leave a buyer with half a cart. Reserving all lines together, or none, means a buyer either gets everything or is told exactly which items sold out before paying, and nothing is held for a checkout that cannot complete.
Common mistakes
Holds that last hours, which make busy items look sold out while nobody is paying. No hold at all, which oversells limited drops. And forgetting that available stock differs from the stock number you entered while checkouts are open.
Where it shows up in OneCraft
The store reserves every line of an order together when checkout starts, for 35 minutes, slightly longer than the 31 minute Stripe Checkout session. Paid orders commit the stock; expired ones are released by a sweep that runs every ten minutes. A payment that arrives after its hold was released still takes the stock, so paid orders are never lost.
Questions people ask
Why does my store show fewer items than I have?
Some items are probably held in open checkouts. Available stock is your count minus active reservations, so while a buyer is paying for two items, others see two fewer. When the buyer pays, the count drops; if they leave, the items return when the hold expires.
How long should a stock hold last?
Long enough for a buyer to complete payment, including a card security check, and short enough not to block other buyers for long. Around half an hour is common, matching how long hosted payment pages stay valid before expiring and the buyer has to start again.
What happens if the hold expires but the buyer pays anyway?
A careful system still accepts the payment and takes the stock directly, because the buyer has paid and the order should stand. If the item truly sold out in between, the seller may need to refund, so short delays between hold expiry and payment matter.
Do I need reservations for digital products?
Usually not, because files do not run out. Digital variants are typically untracked. If you sell a limited release, such as numbered copies, tracking stock and reserving it during checkout prevents selling more than you promised to the buyers who were first.
Does reservation stop all overselling?
It stops overselling from your online store. It cannot know about sales made elsewhere, such as at a market or in a shop, unless those reduce the same stock count. If you sell in person, update online stock after each session.
Make one with websites
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own.
Create a website with OneCraftRelated questions
- What is an abandoned cart?What is an abandoned cart? A shopping cart or checkout a buyer started but did not pay for. The usual reasons, typical rates, and what small stores can do.
- What are product variants?What are product variants? The buyable versions of a product made from its options, like size and colour, each with its own price, SKU and stock, with examples.
- Stripe Checkout vs Payment LinksStripe Checkout vs Payment Links: a checkout page built per order by your site versus a reusable link made in the dashboard. Carts, stock and shipping compared.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .