A variant shows as unavailable even though it's in stock

If a product variant shows as unavailable on your storefront, or the Add to Cart button is greyed out, even though Shopify admin shows stock on hand, this is almost always a Shopify inventory and location setting, not a Bundlex problem. Bundlex only reads availability from Shopify; it can't change it. This article explains why it happens and how to fix it.

Why this is not a Bundlex issue

The Bundlex widget mirrors whatever Shopify reports for a variant. It reads each variant's availableForSale flag and disables the buy option when that flag is false. The app has no permission to write inventory, change locations, or alter publication state, so it cannot make a variant unavailable on its own.

When Bundlex is installed around the same time the problem appears, the timing can look like cause and effect. In practice the variant was already unavailable at the Shopify level, and the widget simply made the existing state more visible by showing an "Unavailable" button.

This is a Shopify inventory and location setting. Bundlex only reads availability, it can't change it.

The usual cause: stock at a location that doesn't fulfill online orders

The most common reason Shopify returns a variant as unavailable while you still see stock on hand is that the inventory sits at a location that is not set to fulfill online orders, or the location is inactive for your Online Store.

A surprising part of this: even with "Continue selling when out of stock" turned on (you may also see this labelled "Allow purchase when out of stock"), Shopify can still report the variant as unavailable. That setting only lets you oversell from a location that already fulfills the online channel. If no online-fulfilling location holds the variant, Shopify reports it as out of stock regardless of the quantity on hand or the inventory policy.

Shopify's own Help Center describes the same behaviour: if you have an item at a location that fulfills online orders with an inventory level of zero or below, plus a separate location that holds inventory but doesn't fulfill online orders, that item is still shown as out of stock to customers on your online store.

How to confirm it

You can check what Shopify itself is reporting for the variant, independently of Bundlex:

1. On your live storefront, open your browser's developer console.
2. Run fetch('/variants/<variant-id>.js').then(r => r.json()).then(console.log), replacing <variant-id> with the affected variant ID.
3. Look at the available field. If it is false, the unavailability is coming from Shopify, not from Bundlex.

If available is false but the variant shows stock with "Continue selling when out of stock" turned on, you're looking at the location-fulfillment cause described above.

How to fix it (merchant side, in Shopify)

This is fixed entirely in your Shopify admin. There is no change to make in Bundlex.

1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Locations.
2. Open the location that holds the variant's stock.
3. Make sure the location is set to Active.
4. Enable "Fulfill online orders from this location" for that location.
5. Alternatively, move the stock to a location that already fulfills online orders.
6. Return to the storefront product page and re-check that the variant is now orderable.

After the change, re-run the /variants/<variant-id>.js check from the section above. The available field should now read true, and the Bundlex widget will show the variant as orderable again.

Other things to rule out

If the location settings are already correct, check these related causes before assuming a bug:

• Genuinely out of stock. If "Continue selling when out of stock" is off and the quantity is zero, the variant is correctly unavailable. Restock it, or enable continue-selling at an online-fulfilling location.
• Not published to the Online Store. If the product page itself 404s or has no storefront URL, the product isn't published to the Online Store channel. Publish it from the product's sales channels.

In every one of these cases, the fix is on the Shopify side. Bundlex will reflect the corrected availability automatically once Shopify reports the variant as available.