How do we handle inventory data for products that are discontinued on the old platform but still have open backorders that need fulfilling post-migration?

Why must a discontinued SKU with an open backorder migrate?

A discontinued stock keeping unit (SKU) with an open backorder must migrate because Shopify ties stock counts and app-based fulfillment to the variant on each order line. The usual advice, don't migrate products you no longer sell, is sound and incomplete: a product with an open backorder is an outstanding obligation shaped like a product.

Shopify's order import accepts a line with only a title and a price (Shopify developer docs, October 2026). Shopify treats such a line as a custom item, one that "doesn't exist in your Shopify admin as a regular product". Custom items "aren't tracked as inventory and don't affect your stock levels", and "You can't use custom items with automated fulfillment or shipping apps" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). So without the variant, replacement stock can't be counted against the order, and a warehouse app can't pick it. Shopify also builds fulfillment orders itself when an order is created (Shopify developer docs, October 2026); what that means for imported shipment history has its own answer.

Which product status and inventory settings carry the backlog?

Four stages carry a discontinued stock keeping unit (SKU) from import to archive, and it stays off sale throughout because it's never published.

Products with an Active status "aren't automatically published to sales channels" (Shopify developer docs, October 2026), so keeping the SKU off every channel is what keeps it off sale. Don't use Unlisted instead: "Customers can add unlisted products to their cart from a product's direct URL" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). Draft and Archived also keep a product from customers, but Shopify's status descriptions say nothing about open orders, so we keep the variant Active until the backlog clears.

How does Continue selling when out of stock behave for a discontinued SKU?

Continue selling when out of stock lets customers buy an item at zero or below wherever it's published, so a discontinued stock keeping unit (SKU) should leave it off. By default, Shopify says, customers "can't purchase an item" that's out of stock until stock is added, and "You can select the Continue selling when out of stock option only when you turn on the Inventory tracked setting" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026).

• Imports don't need the setting. An order import set to DECREMENT_IGNORING_POLICY will "Ignore the product's inventory policy and claim inventory" (Shopify developer docs, October 2026), so the backlog lands whatever the setting says.
• Shopify's point of sale (POS) ignores it. "Continue selling when out of stock doesn't apply to orders placed from Shopify POS", and staff can keep selling at zero and below (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). A store that still lists the SKU can sell it, so keep it off the Point of Sale channel and tell the store teams.

Shopify's out-of-stock display protects a SKU only while the setting is off, because the setting exists to "let customers buy out of stock items" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026).

How do you reconcile the stock count with the backlog?

Reconcile the stock count by importing the physical count as on hand and then the open backorders, set to claim inventory, which makes Shopify show the obligation as Committed. Shopify defines Committed as units "set aside and can't be sold, such as units in an unfulfilled order", and On hand as "the total of your Committed, Unavailable, and Available inventory" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026).

The import's setting decides whether that happens. Shopify's order import defaults to bypass, "Do not claim inventory" (Shopify developer docs, October 2026), and Matrixify, a bulk import app, also defaults to bypass (Matrixify, October 2026). With Continue selling when out of stock turned off, set the import to ignore the product's inventory policy (DECREMENT_IGNORING_POLICY), because the option that obeys the policy claims inventory only "if possible" (Shopify developer docs, October 2026). Left at the default, the backlog is invisible to Shopify's counts, so replacement stock lands as Available as if nobody were waiting for it.

Don't import an available-to-sell number with the backorders already netted out of it. Once the orders claim inventory, that number counts the obligation twice: it looks right on day one and is wrong when the first replacement stock lands. Stock received from a purchase order or transfer turns Available automatically (Shopify Help Center, October 2026), and where the old platform's purchase orders go has its own answer.

When should a discontinued SKU stay off Shopify?

A discontinued stock keeping unit (SKU) should stay off Shopify when its backorder will be cancelled, filled by a substitute or can't be kept, because then no order needs the variant.