📖 A pinned product keeps its position after it sells out, because Pin does not look at your stock. This article shows you how to move sold-out products down your list or take them off it, and when a merchandising rule can handle it for you instead.
⚠️ The steps in this article are for Boost AI Search & Discovery TURBO. To find out which version your store's current theme is installed with, follow Boost AI Search & Discovery app versions. These settings also exist on earlier versions, but they sit in different places. For those, follow How to customize the display of your filter trees and product list.
Why your sold-out product is still at the top
It depends on which merchandising strategy put it there.
Boost, Demote and Hide can all be built from conditions, and stock is one of the things you can set a condition on. A rule built that way does react when a product sells out.
Pin works differently, and it is the one that catches people out. When you pin, you choose specific products, or groups of products by tag, and fix them to positions. There are no conditions to evaluate, so nothing checks stock. A pinned product keeps its position after it sells out, with a Sold out badge on it.
That gives you two ways to deal with it:
Your storefront display settings, which apply to every product no matter how it got its position. Use these when you want one consistent behaviour across your store.
An inventory condition on a rule, when you only want to change one collection or one search term.
💡 Your merchandising rules do not need changing. You are adding a stock rule that sits on top of them, and your rules keep working exactly as before for every product that is in stock.
Search results and collection pages
In your Boost app admin, go to Filters > Display settings.
Open the Product list tab.
Tick Sort available products first.
In Out of stock display options, choose what should happen to your sold-out products.
Click Save settings.
Your choice | What your shoppers see |
Show out of stock products/variants | Products you can still sell come first. Sold-out products move to the bottom of the list but stay on the page, even the ones your merchandising rules pinned. When a product comes back in stock, it returns to the position your rule gives it. |
Hide out of stock products/variants | Sold-out products are removed from your search results and collection pages completely. Shoppers cannot see them at all, and your result count drops accordingly. |
⚠️ Run a manual sync after you save. Boost sorts on the stock levels it has already synced, so until your latest inventory comes across, sold-out products can keep their old position. To run one, follow How to use the Sync features.
⚠️ Hiding sold-out products turns off two other features. Shoppers cannot act on a product they cannot see, so they cannot sign up to be told when it returns, and they cannot pre-order it. If you use either of these, choose Show out of stock products/variants instead.
Instant search widget
Your instant search widget has its own setting, so changing your filter settings does not cover it.
Go to Search > AI Search > Instant Search Widget > Display settings.
Open the ISW with results tab.
Under Product information includes, tick or untick Out of stock products.
Save your settings.
Ticked shows sold-out products in your instant search results, unticked hides them. Hiding them here has the same effect on Back in Stock and Pre-order as hiding them on your collection pages.
💪 Set both to match. If your collection pages hide sold-out products but your instant search widget still shows them, shoppers see one thing as they type and something different on the results page.
Which one should you pick
Showing them keeps demand visible. Shoppers can still find a sold-out product, sign up for a back in stock alert, or pre-order it, and your merchandising rules pick the product back up the moment it returns. This suits most stores.
Hiding them gives a cleaner storefront where every product a shopper sees is one they can buy today. Choose it when you restock rarely or not at all, and when you are not using back in stock alerts or pre-orders.
Using an inventory condition instead
Both settings above apply to your whole store. If you only want to change one collection or one search term, build stock into the rule itself.
Boost, Demote and Hide can all be built from conditions, and three of the attributes you can choose relate to stock:
Attribute | What it matches |
Inventory | Stock status, either In stock or Out of stock, or a stock quantity. |
Variants with stock | How many of a product's variants you can still sell. |
Variants with stock ratio | The share of a product's variants still in stock. Useful for demoting products that are nearly gone rather than fully sold out. |
For example, a Demote rule with Inventory set to Out of stock pushes sold-out products down one collection page and leaves the rest of your store alone.
⚠️ Pin does not support inventory conditions. Pin places products by product item or by product tag only. If you need a pinned product to move when it sells out, use the display settings above.
For the full list of attributes you can build a rule from, follow Attributes and metrics for merchandising rules.
Feel free to reach out to our dedicated support team via chat if you have any questions or require additional assistance.