Inventory in ShipStation

ShipStation provides two options for inventory:

If you use both internal and external options simultaneously or multiple external inventory sources, you can view the aggregate inventory in ShipStation as well.

How External Inventory Works

For selling channels like Shopify and RithumShipStation can display inventory counts directly in a specific order's shipping sidebar and the Order Details window. This way you always know what your available stock is for those items. These counts display next to an order's line items to help you decide if it is okay to ship the order.

Order Details screen with the Available and On Hand fields showing in the Stock column for the ordered items

ShipStation serves as a window into your external inventory counts. 

The Stock count field will show the name of the Inventory source selected for the ShipFrom locations.

How you connect your inventory solution to ShipStation will depend on which platform(s) you use. For some (like Rithum), you first connect your marketplaces or store to the inventory management platform, then connect the inventory management platform to ShipStation as a single selling channel. When your orders ship, ShipStation notifies the connected channel of the shipment. The inventory management platform then notifies the connected store or marketplace that the order has shipped and reduces the stock count accordingly.

Store orders flow into Rithum, then into ShipStation. Notifications flow back to Rithum, then stores.

However, if you use one of our API partners, like Finale Inventory, the connection process is different. In this case, you connect your marketplaces and selling channels to both the inventory platform and ShipStation. ShipStation imports orders from your selling channels as usual and notifies those channels when the order ships. In this case, the selling channel then notifies the inventory platform of the shipment so the inventory platform can reduce the stock count as needed.

Woo Commerce Orders flow to ShipStation, Order data & Notifications to Finale. They send Inventory data to Station, who sends notifications back to Woo Commerce.

In either situation, ShipStation makes a special API call to the inventory management system to request stock counts only when you view the order in ShipStation.

Store Integrations with Inventory Capabilities

This table lists which selling channels ShipStation integrates with that also provide inventory capabilities. The table indicates if the store also can send stock counts to ShipStation.

External Inventory Solutions

This table lists external inventory solutions that you can integrate with ShipStation and indicates whether that integration also sends stock counts to view in ShipStation.

Fulfillment Partners with Inventory Views

This table lists integrated fulfillment partners that have inventory capabilities and whether they send stock counts to view in ShipStation.

ShipStation's Internal Inventory Solution

ShipStation's internal inventory management solution has the following main features:

  1. Track and manage your stock levels

    The Inventory section of your Products tab displays your stock levels. Set up your initial stock levels with a CSV import and ShipStation will deduct stock as you ship out your orders. Replenish your stock with a few clicks in the interface or with a CSV update.

  2. Alert you when your stock levels hit or fall below certain thresholds

    Set account-wide or SKU-specific thresholds. When stock levels reach those amounts, the Inventory grid will show alert icons indicating that it's time for you to reorder.

  3. Apply available stock to higher priority orders first

    ShipStation reserves available stock for your Awaiting Shipment orders using a process called Allocation. Adjust how the allocation process works by defining your own Allocation Strategy to include tasks that match your fulfillment priorities.

  4. Prevent shipping 'out-of-stock' orders

    It's frustrating to create shipping labels for orders when you don't have the stock to ship them out. You can set ShipStation to warn or block whenever there’s an attempt to ship an order with insufficient or unknown stock.

  5. Inventory Sync across multiple platforms

    ShipStation's Inventory Sync feature supports synchronizing inventory across a variety of stores including Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Walmart, WooCommerce and BigCommerce with more integrations coming soon. To enable Inventory Sync, navigate to the Add-Ons marketplace in your ShipStation account.

If you're looking to solve these problems, then our internal Inventory Management solution is right for you! To learn how to set up inventory in ShipStation, review our inventory setup guide.

Limitations of ShipStation's Internal Inventory

ShipStation's Internal Inventory Management does NOT send purchase orders to vendors.

Several of our Inventory Management partners offer advanced Inventory Management features. If you need inventory management beyond ShipStation's inventory capabilities, please contact one of our partners.