Real time stock sync across multiple channels

Last update November 12, 2023

Sync stock on multiple channels

Nembol is a cloud-based bulk-listing tool and inventory sync software. Meaning that it keeps your inventory synced in real-time across e-commerce channels and marketplaces.

This automatic function has various features you can take advantage of: Nembol allows you to sync stock in real-time upon sales, automatically align inventories, and bulk-restock single products or groups of items.

In this article, after explaining in detail how these features work, we will show you how to correctly set up Nembol to sync your inventory. The last part of the article is dedicated to solving common issues that can occur when syncing inventory across multiple channels.

Real-time Stock Sync

Every time you receive an order in a connected channel, Nembol will adjust the quantity accordingly in connected channels where the Quantity Sync function is active.

This process is really fast: it lasts from a split second, up to a minute, depending on the specific channel and the current traffic on it (the slowest one is Amazon).

Example: let’s say you have an inventory count of:

• 10 on Nembol
• 10 on eBay
• 10 on Shopify

When you complete a sale in any of those channels – e.g. you sell 1 item on eBay – Nembol will diminish the quantity in all other channels. The end result will be:

• 9 on Nembol
• 9 on eBay
• 9 on Shopify

Inventory Adjustment

Nembol also aligns the stock levels across your channels, giving you a way to bring order to messed-up inventories. This is useful, for example, when you use the Link Function to connect existing listings on different channels. Sometimes, the quantities are misaligned and the numbers need to be fixed.

Nembol automatically aligns quantities based on the inventory count you have in your Nembol account.

Example: for some reason, you have an inventory count of:

• 10 on Nembol
• 13 on Shopify
• 7 on eBay

You sell – say – 1 item on eBay. Nembol will reduce by 1 the quantity in its inventory, and subsequently push that given quantity to all channels. Meaning that your final quantities will be:

• 9 on Nembol
• 9 on Shopify
• 9 on eBay

Perfectly aligned inventories!

Bulk Inventory Restock

Nembol can be used to restock your items on multiple channels at once, or manually correct misaligned inventories.

You can restock product-by-product: just open a product in Nembol, change quantity and save. Nembol will push the new quantity to every channel where this item is listed, automatically aligning the inventories.

This can also be done in bulk for multiple products: use our Quantity Bulk Edit function to change the inventory count of multiple products at the same time.

Example: let’s say you have an inventory count of:

• 0 on Nembol
• 0 on eBay
• 1 on Shopify

If you change the product’s available stock in Nembol (but also in Shopify) to – say – 5, Nembol will update the quantity on all connected channels:

• 5 on Nembol
• 5 on eBay
• 5 on Shopify

Available Channels

Nembol can sync the inventory on the following channels:

• Amazon
• eBay
• Shopify
• Etsy
• WooCommerce
• TikTok Shop

How to use Nembol’s Sync Stock function

How to turn the inventory sync ON or OFF

You can access the channel sync settings by going to your Channel Tab.

Here, for each channel, you can configure the Sync stock from a channel setting. This controls how Nembol keeps its inventory up to date when stock changes happen in that channel.

Two trigger options are available:

When an order is received — Available for all channels. Every time a sale is completed in the connected channel, Nembol automatically reduces the quantity in its inventory and pushes the updated stock to all other connected channels.

When stock is edited — Available for Shopify and WooCommerce only. In addition to order-based sync, Nembol will also pick up manual stock edits made directly in Shopify or WooCommerce and update the inventory across all connected channels accordingly.

This means that, for example, if you configure your channels as follows:

• Shopify: sync enabled with both triggers — “when an order is received” and “when stock is edited”
• eBay: sync enabled with “when an order is received” only

Then:

• If you sell 1 item on Shopify, Nembol will reduce the quantity by 1 and push the updated stock to all connected channels, including eBay;
• If you manually edit the stock of a product directly in Shopify (e.g. you restock from 3 to 10), Nembol will pick up that change and update all connected channels accordingly;
• If you manually edit the stock of the same product directly in eBay, this change will not be transmitted to Nembol nor to other channels — because eBay currently only supports the “when an order is received” trigger.

How to sync inventory across Shopify, Etsy and eBay

Have a look at our video tutorial and see an example of how to activate the stock sync from Etsy to Shopify, eBay, Amazon, and WooCommerce.

Click to watch video ->

Important points about Stock Sync in Nembol

Products must be listed or linked via Nembol

Nembol can keep in sync only products imported in Nembol from a channel and/or exported from Nembol to a channel.

This means that it is not enough to connect a channel to Nembol and activate the sync to have items’ quantity synced: the items have to be published via Nembol (or imported in Nembol) for the system to work.

Channels must stay connected all the time

Inventory sync across channels works only when they are actually connected to Nembol. This means that when you are not logged in, sync does not happen and cannot be updated even if you log-in later: sales sync is lost forever and will require a manual update.

Inventory sync is for stock quantity only

Inventory sync — whether triggered by a sale or a manual stock edit — only affects item quantity.
Nembol will not sync title or description edits nor other edits.

If you need to update product content across your channels, you have a few options:

• Edit directly in Nembol — with Product update from Nembol turned ON, any change saved in Nembol will be pushed to all connected channels.
• Use the CSV Bulk Editor — update multiple products at once by importing a CSV file into Nembol.
• Edit directly in a channel — currently supported for Shopify and WooCommerce only. With Product update from channel turned ON, edits made in those platforms will be picked up by Nembol and propagated to all other connected channels.

How to restock items

If you need to restock items, do it either in Shopify (if you are a Shopify user), or in Nembol.