Managing inventory across all your sales channels—marketplaces, retail outlets, socials—can feel like a full-time job. What if we told you there was a way to bring scattered inventory records from various channels into one platform?
With synced inventory, you get the ability to view and manage multichannel stock and make business decisions without the endless tab switching.
This article will explore multiple ways of syncing inventory across all your sales channels and how a tool like Prediko can help.
What Is Shopify Inventory Sync?
Shopify inventory sync is the process of managing stock levels across all your sales channels (Amazon, Walmart, and other physical/online stores) on one consolidated platform—Shopify.
This means your stock levels will be automatically adjusted in real-time whenever a product is sold on any channel, keeping your inventory information up-to-date and accurate.
By syncing your Shopify inventory with all other sales platforms, you get complete visibility to avoid issues like overstocking and stock outs.
And offer a frictionless shopping experience to your customers, no matter where they choose to make their purchases.
Hidden Costs of Not Syncing Inventory Across Channels
When you manage your inventory in silos, it can prove to be quite expensive for your business, leading to issues like
1. Poor inventory allocation
If stock levels aren’t synced in real-time, it creates an imbalance between supply and demand across different channels.
For example, a merchant may have a sold-out variant of running shoes in their Shopify store, while the same variant sits unsold in retail outlets due to a lack of unified visibility.
This misalignment results in missed sales opportunities as customers are turned away from the out-of-stock item online, while other channels are left with excess inventory. This leads to eventual markdowns/discounts of the excess products.
2. Cost inflation
Customer satisfaction is important for all e-commerce stores to increase retention and lifetime value (LTV). When customer relationships are at stake due to inventory issues, merchants often resort to quick yet costly solutions.
This can include paying high express shipping costs to move products between locations and placing small quantity purchase orders(POs) that ultimately reduce your profit margins.
For instance, a laptop ordered online gets shipped from a warehouse across the country, even though it's available in a local store, simply because the inventories aren't synced.
3. Misaligned marketing initiatives
If you plan marketing campaigns based on the inventory consumption of one channel, it can result in blunders and costly marketing missteps.
For example, you might offer coupons or run ads for a product that isn’t selling well online but is actually a big hit in your stores. This decreases your store's footfall and profits. Without a unified inventory view, you risk misaligning your promotions and wasting your marketing resources. All this can negatively impact customer trust and eventually sales.
4. Siloed inventory forecasting
When different sales channels operate with separate inventory data, it becomes challenging to forecast future demand. You might end up estimating a higher demand and placing bigger purchase orders for a product that’s not popular on other channels except for one.
For example, a toy retailer might underestimate the popularity of a new action figure because they’re only looking at Shopify sales data, not realizing it's selling out in physical stores. The result? Lost sales and disappointed customers.
Therefore, unsynced inventory hampers your decision-making about purchasing, promotions, and sales.
Does Shopify Provide Inventory Sync Across Channels?
No, Shopify does not provide a built-in feature for automatically syncing and updating stock levels across multiple sales channels.
If you sell on platforms other than your Shopify store like Amazon, eBay, or physical retail stores, you'll have to sync stocks manually.
While Shopify allows you to list and categorize products, update inventory in bulk, and view inventory history for the past 90 days, these features only apply to your Shopify store. This makes Shopify useful for only single-channel inventory management.
However, to automate the allocation and optimization of inventory across channels, you need to integrate with an inventory management tool like Prediko. Such a tool gives you consolidated control for executing multi-channel sales.
How to Sync Inventory in Shopify ?
Now, there are two ways to sync your Shopify inventory with other channels. You can either take the tedious route of manually updating it or use an inventory sync tool to automate the process.
Method 1: Manually update Shopify inventory
To manually update your inventory across channels, follow the steps.
- Log in to Shopify Admin, and go to Products > Inventory.
- Adjust the stock levels for each product or variant by manually entering the updated quantities based on sales across channels.
- Repeat this process every time a sale is made across other channels like Amazon or physical stores.
Pro Tip: Use the bulk editor for updating multiple products at once to save time. This process can be time-consuming and prone to errors, especially if you manage a large inventory or multiple sales channels.
Related Read: Shopify Variant Inventory Tracker: Automate to Reduce Manual Oversight
Method 2: Use an Inventory Sync Tool
A more productive method is to use an inventory sync tool like Prediko, which also brings in additional features to your Shopify storefront..
All you need do is:
- Download the app from the Shopify App Store and follow the setup instructions to connect all your sales channels.
- These apps automatically sync your inventory in real-time, meaning when a sale is made on one platform, stock levels across all channels are updated instantly.
- This way, you can save time and reduce overstocking or stock outs across all channels.
Kimaï, a jewelry brand struggled to predict sales efficiently for their three different Shopify stores. They set up their Prediko account with a single click, seamlessly integrating it with all their Shopify stores. The platform synced all their historical sales, revenue, and product data within just 30 minutes, saving them 10 hours/week on inventory management.
What are Shopify Inventory Sync Tools?
Shopify inventory sync tools are third-party apps designed to automate the process of syncing stock levels across multiple sales channels. These tools can be easily integrated with your Shopify store to give you a centralized interface for viewing and managing your multi-channel inventory.
Such tools are suitable for syncing inventory across sales channels, warehouses, and even separate Shopify stores.
Using a Shopify inventory sync tool like Prediko, you can avoid tedious inventory updates, as everything happens automatically in real-time. It also
- Speeds up order processing and fulfillment by letting you look at the holistic inventory
- Provides data-driven insights for smarter replenishment and purchase order decisions
- Reduces the chances of disappointing customers by preventing out-of-stock situations
- Prevents costly errors like emergency restocking and tied-up capital in excess inventory
- Makes it easy to reallocate inventory across locations
- Improves the accuracy of inventory forecasts with a full view of the stock performance
Key Features of a Shopify Inventory Sync Tool
Here are some common features that most Shopify inventory sync apps offer to unify inventory across multiple sales channels.
1. Real-time inventory control & sync
This is one of the core elements that ensures changes in stock levels are reflected automatically and instantly across all your sales channels whenever a sale is made or inventory is adjusted.
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Real-time sync prevents problems like manual updates and stockouts by providing a unified view of inventory, so you always know exactly how much stock you have available and on which channel. This way, you can maintain consistent and accurate stock levels based on customer demand.
Prediko consolidates all your sales and inventory data in one place, whether you operate across multiple stores, warehouses, bundles, or subscriptions. Plus, its customizable metrics provide a granular view of operations across every channel.
2. Inventory forecasting
Anticipating demand is important to adjust stock levels across all channels. This is why most inventory sync tools have dedicated features for inventory forecasting.
Using these, you can accurately plan and forecast your inventory needs and inform purchasing decisions. You can have the right amount of inventory at the right time on the right channel to meet customer demand without tying up your cash in unsold stock.
With tools like Prediko, inventory forecasting can be automated as it makes inventory plans for you. By analyzing historical sales data, seasonal trends, and customer behavior, such tools can forecast demand and suggest how much stock you'll need over the next few months.
3. Purchase order management
The same inventory won’t last forever, and you’ll need to create purchase orders to replenish it. Purchase order management is a popular feature in most tools that adds an extra layer of efficiency.
An inventory sync tool also automates the creation and management of purchase orders based on real-time inventory levels and forecasted demand.
This feature makes it easy to order new stock from suppliers by automatically generating orders, tracking suppliers, and handling communication within the app. This way, you can keep the right amount of inventory on all platforms.
Obsidian Piercing, an online body piercing retailer, struggled with time-consuming Google Sheets-oriented processes for purchase orders.
By switching to Prediko, they expedited their PO creation, gaining real-time suggestions based on inventory and sales data. This allowed them to place more accurate orders, saving them hours of manual error-prone work.
4. Replenishment alerts
Out-of-stock situations not only cost you lost revenue but can also drive customers to your competitors.
Replenishment alerts notify you when inventory levels fall below a predefined threshold. These alerts help you tackle potential stockouts by providing early warnings, so you can reorder products before they run out.
This proactive feature ensures that you never miss a sale on any channel due to out-of-stock items. And maintain a smooth shopping experience for your customers.
We Are Jolies (WAJ), a Frech underwear brand, faced challenges in manually managing inventory to meet seasonal demand. After deploying Prediko, they gained full visibility into sales and inventory of every channel. Its AI-driven forecasting and timely restocking alerts, aligned with suppliers' lead times helped WAJ restock on time and avoid costly stockouts.
5. Reporting and analytics
To make accurate inventory decisions, you need data and the reporting feature lets you do just that. With detailed reports, you get insights into inventory performance, sales trends, inventory value, and stock levels.
By studying these, you can identify patterns in customer demand, assess the forecast accuracy, replenish on time, and set reordering points.
Cloudsharks, an e-commerce brand failed to account for expected growth in sales, leading to insufficient stock levels.
Using Prediko’s analytics, they can now accurately forecast sales and optimize order quantities, helping them keep up with their growth.
How can Prediko Help with Shopify Inventory Sync?
Prediko is a complete inventory management ecosystem for your Shopify store which syncs your inventory across multiple sales channels in real time. It goes beyond standard inventory sync tools by providing advanced features.
- Its seamless integration with Shopify ensures that any inventory changes, whether from an online sale or a physical store, are immediately reflected.
- With its AI-driven forecasting, you can create inventory plans for the next 12 months by simply setting a revenue target. And Prediko will automatically allocate the necessary stock to meet your goals.
- The platform offers automated generation of purchase orders directly from its Buying Table with real-time suggestions. Prediko lets you track all POs in one view, communicate with suppliers, and sync real-time inventory with Shopify’s admin interface.
- Its reports and analytics allow you to track your inventory’s retail and total value, showing how much stock is tied up. Prediko also highlights top product performance, tracks due purchase orders, and offers insights for SKU management.
- The solution sends daily and weekly inventory alerts to your inbox, warning you about stockouts, at-risk items, and any excess stock. This lets you make critical inventory decisions without any delays.
Wanna see how Prediko takes the hassle out of inventory management? Start a free trial right away to see why over 100 Shopify brands trust Prediko for seamless inventory sync and management.
FAQs
1. Does Shopify sync inventory?
No, Shopify doesn't automatically sync inventory across multiple sales channels. You'll need third-party apps or manual updates to sync stock between platforms.
2. Why is my inventory not updating on Shopify?
Your inventory may not update due to settings set to manual tracking, unlinked sales channels, or issues with app integrations. Double-check your settings and ensure all channels are properly synced.
3. How to keep track of inventory on Shopify?
You can track inventory using Shopify's built-in features, which allow you to update stock levels, set inventory alerts, and view inventory history for the past 90 days. However, this only applies to your Shopify store and doesn't sync with other sales channels.
