"Sold Out", "Shipping not available" or "Your order cannot be shipped to the selected address" Error
It can be frustrating when your Shopify store isn't working as expected. You know you have inventory, but customers see a "Sold Out" message. You've set up shipping rates, but checkout errors like "Shipping not available" persist. These are classic signs of a simple misconfiguration, and the good news is, they are always fixable. Let's diagnose the problem together.
The Key Insight: "Sold Out" often doesn't mean your inventory is zero. It usually means the product is "Unavailable for this specific customer." Think of Shopify as a bouncer at a club. The club isn't full, but this particular customer doesn't meet all the criteria to get in.
A Step-by-Step Checklist to Find the Cause
Start with #1 and work your way down. The most common culprits are at the top.
🗺️ Culprit #1: Country Not in Market
What it means: The customer's country isn't active in one of your Shopify Markets, making all products unavailable to them.
- Go to Settings → Markets.
- Review your active markets and ensure the customer's country is included.
🚚 Culprit #2: No Shipping Rate
What it means: If Shopify can't calculate a shipping price for a customer's address, it can't sell the product.
- Go to Settings → Shipping and delivery.
- Check your shipping profiles and zones to ensure the customer's country has a rate.
🏢 Culprit #3: Stock in Wrong Location
What it means: Your inventory is stocked in a location that isn't set up to ship to the customer's address.
- Check the product's Inventory section to see where stock is located.
- Ensure that location is included in a shipping profile that can deliver to the customer.
✅ Culprit #4: Product Not Active
What it means: The product is set to "Draft" status or isn't published to the "Online Store" sales channel.
- On the product page, set the Status to "Active."
- Check the Publishing box to ensure it's available to the Online Store.
🧩 Culprit #5: App Mismanaging Inventory
What it means: A third-party app (dropshipping, print-on-demand, etc.) is incorrectly setting your stock to zero.
- Go to the app's dashboard and check the product's status and stock levels there.
- Sync the product from the app to Shopify again. The app is the "source of truth."
Remember, "Sold Out" is just Shopify's way of saying "I can't complete a sale for this specific person." By checking these five culprits, you can almost always find the reason and get back to selling.
