Inventory tracking across multiple sales channels
Selling in more than one place multiplies the reach of a store and the ways stock can go wrong. The same item is listed on your website, on a marketplace and in a feed for a comparison site. Stock changes at the supplier, an order comes in on one channel, and the other channels still show the old quantity. The result is orders you cannot fulfil.
One source of truth for stock
The basic rule of multichannel selling is that stock is calculated in one place and sent from there to every channel. If each channel is updated separately, by hand or by different tools, they will drift apart within days.
For a store that sells supplier products, that central place has to combine:
- stock from each supplier's price list or API;
- stock in your own warehouse, if you have one;
- rules about which suppliers to use first.
Decide how much to show on each channel
You do not have to show the same quantity everywhere.
On channels that update slowly, show a few units less than you actually have, so a delay does not turn into an oversold order. When stock is limited, keep it for the channel with the best margin. And treat one or two units at a supplier as "out of stock": quantities that small are often already sold.
Update often enough
How often to sync depends on how fast your products move and how often suppliers update their data. Many suppliers publish new stock once or twice a day, so syncing every few minutes gives no advantage. Align your schedule with theirs: shortly after the supplier's update, and again before your busiest hours.
How YfiFX handles multichannel stock
YfiFX combines stock from several suppliers and warehouses in one catalog. From there, it exports to each channel with its own settings: your website, Prom.ua, a YML or XML feed, or a store on Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, Horoshop and other platforms. Each channel can have its own price type and stock rules, and you can choose to show only products that are actually available.
Import, recalculation and export run as one scheduled chain, so every channel receives the same up-to-date figures.
Check the weak points
- Compare stock in the store with the supplier's data for a few popular products each week.
- Look at cancelled orders: if the reason is "out of stock", find which channel showed outdated data.
- Review the sync schedule whenever you add a supplier with a different update time.
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