A prompting method includes: sending, by a server, a navigation map requested to be outputted to a user device when receiving a map output request of the user device, the navigation map being outputted by the user device, wherein the navigation map is pre-generated according to each article shelf position, each shelf channel position and an article position of each article in a place; acquiring an article position of the pre-searching article in the place; acquiring a device position of the user device in the place; and generating a navigation prompt message according to a distance between the device position and an article position of each pre-searching commodity, and triggering the user device to output the navigation prompt message in the navigation map, the navigation prompt message being used for prompting the article position of each pre-searching article and a distance to the device position to a user.