ShipStation's Inventory Sync feature lets you easily manage your inventory across multiple platforms, which eliminates the need for manual inventory updates and ensures your inventory levels are always up-to-date. Setting up inventory sync is easy, you just need to define which inventory source updates your selected targets.
What is a source, and what is a target?
Sources are the specific inventory locations used to calculate your total On Hand stock levels within ShipStation . Sources can be ShipStation Inventory, ShipStation 3PL, or a supported External Inventory source like Amazon and Shopify. Targets are where you want stock levels to be updated by ShipStation . You can select as many Sources and Targets as you'd like.
Subscription Plan Requirement
This feature is not available on all subscription plans. To access this feature, you may need to upgrade your plan. To learn which features are included with your plan, visit Learn About ShipStation Subscription Plans.
To upgrade your plan, go to Settings > Account > Payment & Subscription.
Inventory Sync can help you:
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Manage inventory across supported selling channels: ShipStation supports synchronizing inventory across many selling channels. See the Requirements for Inventory Sync section for currently supported channels.
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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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Reduce 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 costly mistakes from canceled orders for items that were incorrectly listed as being "in stock". Please note that inventory sync will not prevent overselling if any of your marketplaces have settings that allow you to sell when out of 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.
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Update ShipStation stock counts to current levels before enabling Inventory Sync.
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Inventory tracking enabled ShipStation must be aware of your initial inventory levels and whenever a restock takes place.
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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 with:
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BigCommerce (To use inventory sync, you must have a BigCommerce_v3 store connected, or migrate to the new BigCommerce integration. You may need to accept new inventory scopes)
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eBay (ShipStation recommends turning 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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Walmart (To use inventory sync, you will need to select FullAccess for the inventory scope, this is done in the Walmart dashboard - no reconnection is required)
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Walmart CA (To use inventory sync, you will need to select FullAccess for the inventory scope, this is done in the Walmart dashboard - no reconnection is required)
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WooCommerce (Requires plugin 4.7.4 or greater)
Before enabling Inventory Sync you'll want to prepare your account by enabling Internal Inventory and making sure your product stock levels are accurate. Once those steps are complete you can select your inventory Sources and Targets and turn on Inventory Sync.
Follow the steps below to enable Inventory Sync:
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Confirm Internal Inventory is enabled in your account.
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Check that your product stock levels are accurate.
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Go to Settings > Inventory Management > Inventory Sync.
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Click Edit to configure your inventory sources.
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Check the box next to the inventory Sources you would like to sync. You can select multiple Sources as needed. Click Save when you have finished configuring your inventory sources.
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Click the Edit button in the Inventory Sync section.
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Slide the Sync On toggle to view your Targets. Check the box next to any Target you need to sync.
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Click Save when you are ready to enable Inventory Sync.
While it can take up to an hour to complete the initial sync, you can leave this page while that sync completes. After the initial sync ShipStation will automatically sync updates every 10 minutes. You can also you can always push a sync by clicking on the Initiate Manual Sync button.
To continue with configuring your inventory sync settings to control how you set buffer stock to prevent overselling or define minimum or maximum quantities to display an item as available, visit Inventory Sync Settings.
When setting up or configuring Inventory Sync, you may encounter the following issues:
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Issue |
Troubleshooting Steps |
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Inventory Sources are not loading |
Check your Internal Inventory settings and confirm that you havee enabled Inventory Tracking. |
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Error Message: 401 Module Error…your credentials are missing the necessary scope to perform the operation… |
This error typically indicates that the store was connected before this type of sync was supported. You will need to reconfigure your store connection. |
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Mismatch Inventory Counts or Store not Syncing |
If the stores in your Inventory Sync configuration are not syncing properly, there are a few possible reasons why your inventory might not be syncing. You can download the latest sync report to get a specific error message as to what SKUs failed and why. Download your sync report by selecting the sync details in your Inventory Sync Configuration menu options Be sure to check that all of the following possibilities are not happening:
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Missing SKU 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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Overselling or Issues with eBay or Shopify Items Out of Stock |
If your Selling Channel allows you to sell more products than you have in stock, the marketplace setting will override ShipStation's settings. Inventory Sync will not prevent overselling if any of your marketplaces have settings that allow you to sell when out of stock. Inventory Sync is most effective when you have disabled the ability to sell products that are out of stock. Shopify Troubleshooting: there is a setting in Shopify to disable the sale of out-of-stock products. eBay Troubleshooting: you can turn on the Out of Stock Control setting to prevent products with no stock from being removed from your storefront. |
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Selling Channel Missing from Targets List |
If you don’t see a supported selling channel listed under the Targets section of your inventory sync configuration, you may need to troubleshoot that store connection. |
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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.
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For additional help with Inventory Sync, please check the Inventory Sync FAQs page.