How to Turn Off the “Sold Out” Button on Shopify — Fix Out of Stock & Continue Selling

How to Remove the “Sold Out” Button on Shopify — Fix Out of Stock Products

If your Shopify store keeps showing a “Sold Out” button and you can’t figure out how to bring back your Add to Cart option, don’t worry — this is one of the most common beginner problems in Shopify. In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to fix it and what each setting means.

When Shopify shows “Sold Out” instead of “Add to Cart,” it’s almost always because your product inventory is set to zero at all store locations. Shopify automatically disables checkout to prevent customers from ordering unavailable items.

Step 1 — Check Your Product Inventory

From your Shopify admin, go to Products → (select your product) → Inventory. Here, you’ll see stock levels at each location. If all locations show “0 available,” that’s why the “Sold Out” message appears. Simply click “Adjust quantity,” add the correct number of units, and hit Save.

Step 2 — Enable “Continue Selling When Out of Stock”

If you’d like to take pre-orders or let customers buy products that are temporarily unavailable, scroll down to the Inventory section and check the box labeled “Continue selling when out of stock.”

This will immediately reactivate your Add to Cart button, even if you have no physical inventory in stock. It’s perfect for pre-orders, new product launches, or items on backorder. Just make sure your product description clearly explains that fulfillment will happen later.

If you’re setting up a pre-order campaign, you can also mention it clearly on your product page, and link to your homepage at professorcommerce.com for updates and tutorials on how to manage your store more effectively.

Step 3 — Refresh and Test Your Store

After saving your changes, preview your product page. The Sold Out label should disappear, replaced by your Add to Cart button. If not, double-check that your inventory quantity is greater than zero, or that “Continue selling when out of stock” is checked.

Keep in mind: depending on your Shopify theme, error messages may appear if customers try to add more items to their cart than available stock. This is normal and ensures customers don’t oversell your inventory.

Tips for Managing Inventory Efficiently

• Use inventory reasons when adjusting stock — this helps track who made changes and why.
• If you’re running pre-orders, make it clear in product titles or descriptions to avoid chargebacks.
• Consider using apps or automations to manage inventory sync between physical and online stores.

For a complete beginner-friendly walkthrough of setting up and running your store correctly, check out the 30-Day Beginner’s Shopify Program — it covers inventory, fulfillment, and theme setup in depth.

If you’d like to support my tutorials and even get your Shopify store featured for SEO exposure, visit Patreon.

Shopify can seem complicated at first, but it’s all about learning one system at a time. Once you understand inventory management, it becomes much easier to customize and grow your store.