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Shopify replaced Redis with MySQL for inventory reservations–and it scaled (opens in a new tab)

Shopify replaced Redis with MySQL for inventory reservations and achieved better scalability.

Hacker News· Aug 8, 2026· 9/10

From the article

During checkout, when a buyer clicks "Complete purchase," we need to guarantee the items they're buying are still available. If we get this wrong in one direction, two buyers purchase the same last unit: the merchant has to cancel an order, send an apology email, and eat the support cost. If we get it wrong in the other direction, we tell a buyer something is sold out when it isn't, and the merchant loses a sale they should have made. At Shopify's scale, either failure compounds fast. On Black…

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