n8n Shopify Inventory Automation: Low Stock Alerts and Reorder Drafts
This n8n workflow checks your Shopify inventory every weekday morning, finds tracked variants at or below your reorder threshold and groups them by supplier. An AI chat model drafts a reorder email for each supplier, which is saved as a Gmail draft for you to review, and a Slack message lists every low-stock item so nothing runs out unnoticed.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Setup time
- About 30 minutes
- Nodes
- 10
- Checked against
- n8n 2.41
- Shopify
- OpenAI or Anthropic
- Gmail
- Slack
Last reviewed October 2026
What this workflow does
Running out of a best seller is one of the more avoidable ways a small online store loses sales. Shopify shows stock levels, but someone still has to look, work out what is low, and write to each supplier. In a busy week that check gets skipped, and the first sign of trouble is a sold-out badge or a customer email.
This template is for Shopify store owners and operations staff who order stock from a handful of suppliers and want a daily nudge with the reorder emails already written. It does not send anything to suppliers by itself: the emails sit in Gmail drafts so you can adjust quantities, add pricing and send when ready.
Who it's for
- →Shopify store owners who reorder stock themselves from a few suppliers
- →Operations or warehouse staff responsible for keeping best sellers in stock
- →Product brands that use the Shopify Vendor field to record each supplier
- →Teams that want a daily low-stock list in Slack without opening Shopify
How it works, step by step
- 1
Run every weekday morning
A Schedule Trigger with a cron expression starts the workflow at 7am Monday to Friday in the workflow's Australia/Sydney timezone.
- 2
Get your products
The Shopify node fetches all products with their variants, SKUs and inventory quantities using an Admin API access token.
- 3
Find low-stock variants
A Code node skips inactive products and untracked variants, compares each variant's quantity with a default or per-SKU threshold, and calculates a suggested reorder quantity.
- 4
Group by supplier
A second Code node groups low-stock lines by the product's Vendor field and looks up each supplier's ordering email from a list you maintain.
- 5
Draft the reorder email
A Basic LLM Chain with an OpenAI or Anthropic chat model writes a short, polite reorder email per supplier, using the exact quantities and no invented prices or dates.
- 6
Return subject and body
A Structured Output Parser makes the model return the email subject and body as separate fields for Gmail.
- 7
Save a Gmail draft
The Gmail node creates a draft addressed to the supplier. It is not sent, so you can check quantities and add details first.
- 8
Alert the team in Slack
A Code node builds one summary of every low-stock line grouped by supplier, and Slack posts it with a reminder to review the Gmail drafts.
What you need
Shopify store admin access
An app for your store with read access to products and inventory, and its Admin API access token added to n8n as a Shopify Access Token credential.
Supplier details
The Vendor field filled in on your products and an ordering email address for each supplier.
OpenAI or Anthropic API key
Used to write the reorder email drafts.
Gmail and Slack
A Gmail OAuth2 credential to save drafts and a Slack credential that can post to your operations channel.
Set it up in n8n
- 1
Import the workflow JSON into n8n and read the Setup Instructions sticky note.
- 2
Create an app for your store from the Shopify admin or Dev Dashboard with read access to products and inventory, then add its access token to a Shopify Access Token credential in n8n.
- 3
Make sure each product's Vendor field names the supplier you reorder from.
- 4
In Find Low Stock Variants, set DEFAULT_THRESHOLD and add per-SKU thresholds for fast or slow sellers.
- 5
In Group by Supplier, map each Vendor name to that supplier's ordering email.
- 6
Edit the system message in Draft Reorder Email with your business name, your name and phone number.
- 7
Add your OpenAI key, or swap the chat model for an Anthropic Chat Model connected to the same chain.
- 8
Connect Gmail and Slack, set the #inventory channel to your own, run a test, check the drafts, then activate.
Ways to customise it
- +Keep thresholds, lead times and supplier emails in Google Sheets instead of the Code nodes.
- +Base suggested quantities on recent sales by pulling the last 30 days of Shopify orders.
- +Add a Shopify trigger on inventory level updates for real-time alerts on best sellers.
- +Skip public holidays by adding a date check after the schedule trigger.
- +Create a draft purchase order in your inventory or accounting system alongside the email.
For Australian businesses
Inventory and supplier data is mostly business information rather than personal information, but supplier contact names and emails can still be personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 if your business is covered, so share only what the email needs with the AI provider. Shopify, Gmail and the AI provider may store data overseas; if that matters, self-host n8n in an Australian cloud region and choose providers with clear data handling terms. The cron schedule runs in Australia/Sydney time and still fires on public holidays, so adjust it for your state and for suppliers in other timezones; Queensland and Western Australia do not observe daylight saving. Many Australian suppliers quote prices excluding GST, so confirm pricing and GST in their reply rather than relying on anything in the draft.
Tools in this workflow
n8n
Free plan + paidAutomation
A workflow automation platform that combines a visual node editor with code when you need it. It connects hundreds of apps and APIs and includes AI agent nodes that can call language models, tools and memory. Teams can self-host the free Community Edition on their own servers or use n8n's hosted cloud.
Best for: Australian organisations that need automation data to stay onshore
n8n review →Shopify Magic
FreeEcommerce
Shopify's suite of AI tools built into the store admin. It writes product descriptions, blog posts and email copy, edits product photos, generates theme sections, and includes Sidekick, an assistant that can analyse store data and carry out admin tasks from plain-language requests.
Best for: Small Shopify retailers without an in-house copywriter
Shopify Magic review →ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Free plan + paidGeneral Assistant
OpenAI's general-purpose AI assistant. It handles writing, coding, file and image analysis, data analysis and web research through a chat interface, with an API for building it into your own systems.
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams wanting one general assistant for everyday writing and analysis
ChatGPT review →Claude (Anthropic)
Free plan + paidGeneral Assistant
Anthropic's AI assistant, known for careful reasoning, long-document analysis, writing and coding. It can work through large documents and codebases in a single conversation, paid plans include the Claude Code agentic coding tool, and it is available through an API and major cloud platforms.
Best for: Legal, policy and consulting teams reviewing long documents
Claude review →
Frequently asked questions
Can n8n send low stock alerts from Shopify?
Yes. n8n's Shopify node can fetch every product with its variant inventory quantities, and a Code node can compare those with your thresholds. This template runs on a schedule and posts the low-stock list to Slack with reorder drafts in Gmail.
Does it email suppliers automatically?
No. The Gmail node creates drafts, not sent emails, so you can check quantities, add pricing or delivery notes and send when ready. Change the Gmail operation to send only once you trust the thresholds and supplier list.
Does it work with multiple Shopify locations?
The variant inventory quantity is the total across all locations. If you reorder per warehouse, use the Shopify inventory levels endpoint through an HTTP Request node to get stock for each location before applying thresholds.
Will the Shopify node keep working with Shopify's API changes?
Shopify has marked its REST Admin API as legacy and steers new apps to GraphQL. The n8n Shopify node uses REST. If it stops returning the fields you need, replace Get Products with an HTTP Request to the GraphQL Admin API.
Can I use a Shopify trigger instead of a schedule?
Yes. A Shopify Trigger on inventory level updates gives near real-time alerts, but it fires for every stock change. A daily schedule produces one tidy list per supplier, which suits reordering better for most stores.
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Want this running in your business?
AI Lab Australia sets up n8n workflows end to end: hosting in Australia, connecting your systems, testing with real data and handing over documentation.