Competitor stock alerts: who sold out, who restocked

01What counts as a stock change

Every offer Pricebeeper records carries one of six stock states: in stock, low stock, pre-order, backorder, out of stock, or unknown when the source didn't say. A stock alert compares a seller's state now with the last state that seller actually reported:

• Out of stock: the seller was in stock, low on stock, on pre-order or on backorder, and now reports out of stock.
• Back in stock: the seller was out of stock and is now in stock or low on stock. A move to pre-order or backorder doesn't count, because the product still can't be bought today.
• Most sellers sold out: at least half of the sellers in a region that report their stock are out of stock, with at least 2 such sellers. It fires once when the share crosses half, not again while it stays there.

A seller with several listings of the product counts as in stock when any listing is. Readings that say nothing about stock are skipped, so a seller that goes from in stock to unknown and back to in stock raises nothing. The first check of a new product only records where each seller stands, as with price alerts.

02Where the stock data comes from

Not every source reports stock, and that decides which competitors can raise a stock alert:

Amazon's seller data doesn't include stock, and Amazon pages are never read directly, so Amazon sellers don't raise stock alerts. Products found only by keyword search have no per-seller stock either. Matching a product to its exact Google Shopping listing is what brings each seller's stock; exact product matching explains how that happens.

03Two readings before a store page counts as sold out

A direct reading of a store page is one look at one moment. So when a sell-out comes from reading the competitor's own page, Pricebeeper waits for the next reading of that page to agree before it raises the alert. Until then the last confirmed state holds. A sell-out reported in Google Shopping's seller data needs no second reading.

How long the second reading takes depends on how often the page is read. On Growth and up that is about 6 hours for the 5 cheapest offers and your pinned competitor pages, and a day for the other known sellers. On Free, Starter and Plus it is a week. The Check now button re-reads a product's known offers and pinned pages on demand, on every plan (pages read in the last 15 minutes are skipped).

04What you see in the app and the inbox

• The offers table on each product shows a stock badge on every offer. The shop filter shows each shop's cheapest price in stock, or "Out of stock" when all its offers are sold out.
• The Alerts page labels stock alerts "Sold out", "Back in stock" and, for the regional alert, how many sellers are out of how many, such as "3 of 4 sellers out of stock".
• The alert email puts stock changes in their own section with its own unsubscribe link. If a batch holds only stock changes, the email is just that section.
• The daily digest lists the 10 latest stock changes apart from price alerts.
• Slack messages and webhooks carry the new stock state, and for the regional alert the count of sellers out of stock.

05Using a competitor's sell-out in your pricing

When a rival sells out, the cheapest price a shopper can actually pay moves to the next seller. Pricebeeper applies that everywhere prices are compared:

• The product's lowest market price leaves sold-out offers out, unless every offer is sold out.
• Target price alerts count only offers that can be bought.
• Repricing rules on Growth, Pro, Business and Custom never follow an out-of-stock offer. With "in-stock offers only" on, they also skip pre-order, backorder and unknown stock. A match-the-lowest rule then suggests a price against the next seller in stock, within your floor, ceiling and maximum change per step (10% by default).
• Pricing analytics leave sold-out offers out of price statistics unless you ask to include them.

Whether to raise a price while a competitor is out is your decision. Pricebeeper shows the change, and on plans with repricing it can place a suggested price in your approval queue. A back-in-stock alert is the moment to look again, since the returning seller may pull the lowest price back down.

06Stock alerts by plan

Pins don't use slots: on a product you already monitor, you can pin a specific rival's page and follow its stock at no extra slot cost. Daily and weekly re-checks explains which pages can be read directly.

07Settings, preferences and teammates

Stock alerts use the same per-product settings as price alerts. For each product and region you can switch "Sold out", "Back in stock" and "Market sold out" on or off, and turn email off so that product's alerts only appear in the app.

Each person also has a stock alerts switch for email and one for the app, separate from price alerts, so you can take stock changes by email and price moves in the app, or the other way round. Teammates with alert emails on get the stock section under their own preferences. Stock alerts are graded medium impact, so a Slack or webhook destination filtered to medium and above still receives them.

08Limits worth knowing

• Amazon sellers never raise stock alerts, for the reasons above.
• A product found only by keyword search has no per-seller stock until it is matched, unless you pin the competitor's page.
• Stores whose robots.txt disallows automated reading are not read directly; their stock comes only from Google Shopping, where it is listed, at the monthly search.
• Stock is per seller and per region. Quantities, warehouses and in-store shelf availability are not tracked; "low stock" is as specific as it gets.
• A competitor can sell out and restock between two readings without you seeing it. Readings are a week apart on Free, Starter and Plus, and a month apart for offers that update only at the monthly search.

Boardfy's pages list Amazon Buy Box and Prime tracking, which Pricebeeper doesn't offer. The Boardfy comparison covers where each tool fits.

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