ShipStation's Inventory Sync feature eliminates the need for manual inventory updates, ensuring your inventory levels are always accurate and up-to-date. Once you have activated Inventory Sync in the Add-On section of your account settings, you can easily manage your inventory across multiple platforms, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
Inventory Sync is included in the Standard plan or higher, or as an add-on to all other plans.
ShipStation supports synchronizing inventory across these supported selling channels: Acenda Amazon, BigCommerce, eBay, Etsy, Faire, Magento (requires plugin 2.5.6 or greater), Shopify, Squarespace, Temu, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Walmart CA, Wix, and WooCommerce. More channels coming soon!
When syncing available inventory counts, you can select which sources to sync inventory from and determine which target stores should receive updates.
Sources are inventory sources that are used to calculate your In Stock level in ShipStation. Sources can be ShipStation Inventory or ShipStation 3PL.
Shopify Inventory Settings
For inventory sync to be more effective, you will want to disable the ability to sell products that are out of stock. Shopify has a specific setting to enable or disable the sale of out-of-stock products.
Targets are where you want stock levels to be updated from the source. You can select as many Sources and Targets as you'd like.
Inventory Sync Settings control how ShipStation updates and shares your stock levels with your selling channels. Use them to set buffer stock to prevent overselling, define minimum or maximum quantities to control what displays as available, and apply percentage-based sync to limit how much inventory is shared. To learn more, visit Inventory Sync Settings.
Accurate, up-to-date inventory is essential to keeping your business running smoothly. Inventory Sync can help you:
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Save time: Remove the need to manually upload inventory CSVs and inventory levels by letting ShipStation automatically sync your inventory levels from your selected sources.
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Reduced risk of errors: Reduce the chance of errors by eliminating the need to manually update inventory levels on each sales channel.
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Stop underselling and overselling: Never miss out on a sale because a product is incorrectly listed as “out of stock” at a store or marketplace. Underselling directly leads to missed revenue in the short term and lost customers. Conversely, avoid costly mistakes from canceled orders by incorrectly listing an item as being "in stock".
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Stay in good standing with marketplaces: Inventory Sync ensures your inventory is always up-to-date and accurate across all your sales channels. This means you won’t upset customers with unfulfillable canceled orders and won’t risk being suspended by marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
Inventory Sync Will Not Prevent Overselling
Note that inventory sync will not prevent overselling if any of your marketplaces have settings that allow you to sell when out of stock.
For example, If your Selling Channel allows you to sell more products than you have in stock, the marketplace setting will override ShipStation's settings.
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Inventory tracking enabled ShipStation must be aware of your initial inventory levels and whenever a restock takes place.
Update ShipStation Stock Counts Before Enabling
Before setting up Inventory Sync, ensure your stock counts in ShipStation are up to date. Initially, the first sync may take longer to process.
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Products must have matching SKUs for Inventory Sync to update correctly. Stock counts will only sync to products that have an exact SKU match in your Targets.
Inventory sync supports Product Aliases and Bundles.
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A supported selling channel connected to ShipStation. Inventory Sync is currently supported for:
If you don’t see your selling channel listed under the Targets section of your inventory sync configuration, you may need to troubleshoot that store connection.
Channel-Specific Requirements
The following selling channels have specific requirements or recommendations:
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eBay: Turn on the Out of Stock Control setting to prevent products with no stock from being removed from your storefront.
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Magento: Requires plugin 2.5.6 or greater.
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WooCommerce: Requires plugin 4.7.4 or greater.
Inventory sync is available for free in the High Volume plan, or as an add-on to all other plans. First, you'll want to prepare your account by making sure your product counts are accurate. Once that is complete you can enable the add-on feature and set up your Inventory Sync configuration.
To adjust the stock level for a single product:
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On this screen, you'll see all the existing stock levels for products that have configured inventory. (Be sure you've set up your initial stock levels already.)
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Change the stock values by clicking the Add, Subtract, or Equals icon for the product under the Actions column in the Inventory grid:
Next, you can proceed with enabling Inventory Sync:
To activate an add-on:
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Go to Add-Ons in the side navigation.
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Go to Account Settings > Add-Ons.
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Click the View Details or Try for Free button for the add-on you'd like to activate.
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Review the details in the pop-up and confirm you'd like to activate the add-on.
The add-on will now appear in the Active section of the page. If your subscription includes any add-ons by default, they will already be in the Active section.
Most Add-Ons require additional configuration before you can use them. To configure the Add-On settings, click the Configure Settings button for the add-on. You can then configure the add-on and start using it.
To configure
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Go to Settings > Inventory Management > Inventory Sync.
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Click the Setup Inventory Sync button.
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Select the Sources and Targets you would like to update via Inventory Sync. You may select as many as you'd like.
Product SKU Must Be in ShipStation and Store
For syncing to work, the same SKU must be used within ShipStation and each of your stores.
Product Aliases and Product Bundles are supported and will sync properly!
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Click Save Configuration.
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Check the box I understand and agree to these terms, then click Save Configuration.
Inventory Sync is now enabled. While it can take up to an hour to complete the sync, you may continue working in ShipStation.
When setting up or configuring Inventory Sync, you may encounter the following issues:
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Store not syncing? If the stores in your Inventory Sync configuration are not syncing properly, follow these steps to reconfigure your store connection.
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Missing SKUs in Sync Report? If SKUs are missing from your report, it’s likely because your stock counts haven’t changed since the last sync job. Therefore, you may not see all SKUs listed in your report.
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Products not syncing? If the products are not syncing correctly, you can download a report of your last sync to review potential errors. Follow the steps below to download your latest sync report.
To download your latest sync report:
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Go to your Account Settings.
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Select Inventory Management > Inventory Sync from the side navigation.
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Click the action menu (
) to the side of your desired sync target and select Sync Details from the menu.
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Review the latest Sync Details pop-up modal with your sync results.
For additional help with Inventory Sync, please check the Inventory Sync FAQs page.