Stock reserve for chat sales: free vs reserved for small shops

Selling from Instagram Direct or Telegram without a reserve rule is how two buyers get the same last unit. A stock reserve for chat sales is simple: when you promise an item, free stock drops and reserved rises — until you ship, hand over, or cancel.

This is deeper than “have a warehouse module.” It is the daily discipline for shops that quote availability in chat. Overview of the broader stack: warehouse for a Telegram shop.

Free stock vs reserved (one sentence each)

• Free — what you can still promise to a new buyer.
• Reserved — promised to an open order; not free for the next DM.
• Write-off — leaves the warehouse when you hand over or ship (reserved clears into sold).

In a correct ledger, “remains” you sell from are already free. Do not mentally subtract reserved twice.

When to reserve in chat commerce

Good triggers:

1. Buyer says “беру” / pays / confirms size-color in Direct or Mini App.
2. You create the order on the board — reserve happens with that order.
3. Staff must check free stock before typing “yes, available.”

Bad triggers: “maybe interested,” long unpaid holds with no expiry, reserving from memory without an order card.

A week in a small shop

• Monday: 3 units free of a hoodie. Two Directs ask. First confirmed order reserves 1 → free=2. Second sees free=2, not “still 3.”
• Tuesday: unpaid soft hold expires → reserve releases → free back up.
• Wednesday: Mini App order auto-reserves on submit.
• Friday: handoff → write-off; reserved clears.

Without that loop, Friday’s “last one” was already promised twice on Monday.

Chat scripts that protect stock

• “Checking free stock… yes, one left — I’ll create the order and reserve it for you.”
• “Reserved for 2 hours / until payment — after that it returns to free.”
• “Order is on the board; Mini App buyers see the same free number.”

How this differs from a full warehouse article

Our warehouse guide covers the whole Telegram shop + stock system. This post is the narrow skill: reserve on promise so chat and Mini App share one free number. Same product truth; different search intent (“резерв товара”, oversell in Direct).

Day-one setup

1. Enter real free quantities per SKU (and variants).
2. Turn on reserve-on-order for Mini App and manual orders.
3. Rule for staff: no “available” in chat without looking at free stock.
4. Set a release policy for unpaid reserves (hours, not weeks).

Catalog + warehouse + Telegram shop in one Basic plan. Fashion variants: /en/fashion/.