# Putaway

> Putaway is moving stock from the receiving area onto the shelf it will be picked from, and recording where it went.

- Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/putaway/
- Updated: 2026-08-14
- Author: Tom Beckwith, Engineer, Store Standards

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It is the step everybody forgets is a step. [Receiving](https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving/)
ends when the count is agreed. Putaway ends when the goods are findable.

## Why the gap matters

Between those two moments the stock is sellable on your website and invisible
in your stockroom. A customer buys it, a picker cannot find it, and the order
is refunded as out of stock.

That is a phantom stockout, and the cause is almost always a pallet still
sitting by the door.

## Keeping it short

- Put away the same day, before the boxes are stacked two deep
- Scan the [bin location](https://storestandards.com/glossary/bin-location/) as you go, not afterwards
- Do the fast sellers first, whatever order the boxes came off the van
- Never leave a part-emptied pallet unlabelled overnight

## Where it goes wrong

Two people put the same delivery away in two places. Half the run goes to
A-03, the rest goes wherever there was room, and nobody writes down the
second spot. The [pick list](https://storestandards.com/glossary/pick-list/) sends a picker to A-03,
they find eight of the twelve, and the shortfall gets recorded as missing
stock that is actually forty feet away.

One person owns a delivery from door to shelf. The whole method for the step
before this one is in
[how to receive a purchase order in Shopify](https://storestandards.com/blog/receive-a-purchase-order-in-shopify/).

## Related terms

- [Bin location](https://storestandards.com/glossary/bin-location/): A bin location is the address of a place in your stockroom, so anyone can be told where to find a product without being shown.
- [Receiving](https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving/): Receiving is checking a delivery against what you ordered, then telling your system what actually arrived.
- [Pick list](https://storestandards.com/glossary/pick-list/): A pick list is the sheet or screen that tells someone which products to collect for an order, and where each one is.