Product catalogs are messy. Inventory moves fast. Sales change pricing, seasons rotate collections, and old SKUs pile up in the backend.
If you’ve ever spent hours unpublishing out-of-stock products or updating tags before a campaign, you know how quickly this work can eat your time.
In Part 3 of our What You Should Automate in Shopify series, we’re digging into Shopify product automation — the workflows that keep your catalog clean, your inventory accurate, and your merchandising sharp, without doing it all manually.
Automations to keep your catalog clean
As your store grows, so does the list of SKUs, collections, tags, and fields you need to manage. These automations help keep that data organized — without manual cleanup.
Unpublish or archive products automatically
A product goes out of stock — should it stay live? A discontinued SKU is still appearing in collections. A seasonal item is long past its expiration date. All of these can be automated.
Examples:
- Unpublish products when inventory hits zero
- Archive SKUs that haven’t sold in 60+ days
- Remove discontinued items from collections automatically
This keeps your storefront accurate and saves your customers from browsing dead ends.
Remove or update tags based on product status
Promotional tags and merchandising labels are easy to forget. Automating tag logic makes sure your product labels stay relevant.
Examples:
- Remove “Coming Soon” tags when a product goes live
- Add “Back in Stock” when inventory returns above a threshold
- Remove “Flash Sale” from products once a campaign ends
Tags help power everything from filters to internal workflows, but only when they’re clean.
Hide products seasonally
Seasonal products shouldn’t clutter your catalog year-round. You can use automation to schedule visibility shifts based on dates, tags, or inventory levels.
Examples:
- Unpublish seasonal SKUs after a campaign window
- Tag products by season or collection after launch
- Schedule visibility updates to coincide with new arrivals or product retirements
This helps you maintain a lean, timely catalog and makes merchandising easier to plan.
Automations to monitor and react to inventory changes
When inventory dips or runs out, your store needs to respond quickly. Automations can help surface problems and trigger smart workflows behind the scenes.
Trigger low-stock alerts
If you rely on manual checks to track inventory, you’re already behind. Automation can alert your team the moment something needs attention.
Examples:
- Email inventory managers when stock falls below a threshold
- Send Slack messages when high-priority SKUs dip below 5 units
- Tag low-stock products for internal reporting or display updates
With these alerts in place, your team can move faster and avoid stockouts that cost sales.
Update product status based on inventory
Inventory changes can trigger more than alerts. They can power merchandising and backend logic too.
Examples:
- Add a “Low Stock” badge via tag or metafield
- Move products in and out of “Available Now” or “Staff Picks” collections
- Hide products automatically when inventory reaches zero
These changes help customers see only what’s actually available and reduce support requests tied to inaccurate listings.
Batch update products on a schedule
Not every product update needs to be event-driven. Scheduled workflows help you stay on top of catalog maintenance without having to remember it every week.
Examples:
With scheduled automation, your backend gets the same attention your marketing does and runs without constant oversight.
Automations to support pricing and merchandising
You shouldn’t have to babysit your pricing or manually manage collections every time you run a sale. These workflows help automate the way your store looks, sells, and promotes — with logic tied to what’s happening in your business.
This helps you highlight the right products and keeps your storefront aligned with your strategy.
Customize product data for internal operations
Many stores need more than what the storefront shows. Backend product logic helps teams fulfill, plan, or route correctly.
Examples:
- Add metafields for warehouse instructions or supplier logic
- Tag items for special handling, kitting, or pre-order packaging
- Update internal status fields when pricing or inventory shifts
Automating these updates improves communication across your team and helps operations scale more smoothly.
Conclusion: product and inventory automation saves time where it matters
Your catalog changes constantly. Inventory shifts daily. Promotions rotate weekly. Keeping it all up to date manually creates more stress — and more risk of mistakes.
That’s why product and inventory automation is one of the most valuable places to start.
By using workflows to keep products clean, stock levels accurate, and merchandising tight, you give your customers a better experience and your team more breathing room.
If you’re looking for a Shopify workflow app that lets you automate product tags, inventory alerts, price changes, and backend logic without writing code, Arigato Automation gives you the tools to do it at any scale.