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Possibly—but a single sold-out size between available sizes is not the same as several sizes left stranded around a gap. In Walker Brown’s 2026 scan of 298 Shopify catalogues, 10.3% of buyable styles had at least one interior size gap under the broad definition; the more conservative stranded-stock definition applied to 2.8% of buyable styles. These are findings from the author’s sample, not estimates for every Shopify store.
What counts as a size run with a hole?
A size run is a product’s ordered sequence of sizes, such as XS, S, M, L and XL. Brown counted a run as broken when a size was sold out while sizes on both sides were still available. A style sold out at one end of its size range did not qualify: that can be ordinary sell-through rather than an interior gap.
The study also used a stricter definition intended to avoid treating a nearly sold-through style as a serious stock problem. It counted a run only when two or more sizes remained stranded beside the gap. That operational measure indicates a pattern in listed availability; it does not show that a customer wanted to buy a missing size or that a sale was actually lost.
What did the 298-catalogue scan find?
Brown’s reported rates depend on whether a single interior sold-out size counts or whether multiple sizes must remain stranded:
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| Measure | Broad definition | Conservative definition |
|---|---|---|
| Share of buyable styles with a qualifying gap | 10.3% | 2.8% |
| Analyzed stores with at least one qualifying run | 78.5% (234 of 298) | 63.8% (190 of 298) |
Under the broad definition, 72.6% of broken styles were missing exactly one size. Brown therefore presents the 2.8% style-level and 63.8% store-level results as the more conservative indicators of stranded stock, rather than treating every isolated gap as equally meaningful.
Large catalogues showed gaps more consistently
Among the 101 largest catalogues in the sample, 100% had at least one broad-definition gap and 94.1% had at least one conservative-definition gap. Brown suggests that a small catalogue’s lone gap may reflect near-complete sell-through, while larger catalogues accumulate more gaps. That is the author’s interpretation of the pattern, not a demonstrated cause.
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How the author assembled the sample
Brown attempted to contact 438 stores. Of those, 354 responded and contained 122,425 products. The size-run analysis covered 298 stores that returned readable runs: those stores held 111,774 products and contributed 64,268 analyzed runs. The 354-store response set and the 298-store analysis set are different groups.
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Why interpreting size options matters
Shopify variant options are free text, so a size can appear in different capitalization, languages, abbreviations, numeric forms or waist-and-inseam formats. Brown normalized variant labels and treated a product as a size run only when its variants differed along exactly one ordered axis. One-size products were excluded. Where variants combined colour and size, the analysis split the runs by colour rather than treating the colour-size combinations as one long sequence.
Brown says the size grammar initially failed to recognize spelled-out size names. The author corrected it and reran the analysis on the same cached catalogues; the reported figures rose by a few tenths. An earlier, smaller pass had a slightly lower conservative result. The article points to a page containing both passes and per-catalogue rows, but those details could not be independently verified here. The correction matters because the rates depend partly on how free-text options are recognized and ordered.
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How to check whether your own store has a gap
The sample rates can’t tell you whether your store has this pattern. Check the actual size availability in your own catalogue, using a consistent size order for each style and separating colour variants.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →- Choose a style and a single colour. Treat each colour’s size options as its own run so colour variants do not interrupt the size sequence.
- Put sizes in their real order. Normalize labels such as abbreviations or numeric sizes before comparing availability; do not rely on alphabetical sorting.
- Look for an interior sold-out size. A gap requires an unavailable size with available sizes on both sides. A sold-out size at the beginning or end is not an interior gap.
- Separate isolated gaps from stranded runs. Record a single missing size as a broad-definition gap. For the more conservative check, count only runs where at least two sizes remain stranded beside the gap.
- Review the result in context. The check describes listed availability at the time you inspect it. It does not, by itself, establish customer demand, why stock ran out or whether a sale was lost.
What the findings can—and cannot—tell you
This is an observational scan of public catalogues the author could reach and parse, not a representative estimate for all apparel ecommerce or all Shopify merchants. Its results depend on the sample, variant normalization and definitions of a broken run. The figures describe how often the defined availability pattern appeared; they do not establish why it happened, how much revenue it affected or how prevalent it is across every Shopify apparel store.
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