Stock sync
Topic: Stock, data and integrations
- Keeping the stock levels shown on your website, on marketplaces and in your own stock or accounts system automatically in step with each other.
- Without it, a sale in one place does not update the others, and you can easily sell the same last item twice, which means a disappointed customer and a refund. Syncing can run both ways: your website tells the stock system about a sale, and the stock system tells your website when a delivery arrives.
Example Stock sync cut out the overselling that used to happen after a busy weekend.
Where overselling comes from
Selling on your own website, on eBay and over a shop counter gives you three places where the same stock can be bought. If each one keeps its own count, a sale in one does not reach the others until someone types it in, and in the gap the last item sells twice.
Ways to sync
At the simple end is a regular import: a stock file from your warehouse or accounts system is read into the shop every few minutes or every night. At the capable end is real-time sync, where the systems talk through an API so that a sale updates everywhere as it happens. Real-time costs more to build and is worth it for fast-moving stock or small quantities; a nightly file is often enough for slow lines with plenty in hand. Linking to marketplaces works in the same way.
What can go wrong
The usual trouble is mismatched identifiers, where the website knows an item by one name and the stock system by another, which is why a consistent SKU matters. Decide up front which system is the master record, because two systems that both think they are in charge will overwrite each other. And hold back a small safety buffer on lines with only a few left.
See also API Marketplace integration SKU