How to consolidate inventory across multiple platforms? (Shopify, Amazon, EBay, and my inventory spreadsheet)
Hello! I have been selling on Shopify for years, but also sell on Amazon(I fullfill my shipments on Amazon, not them), and EBay. I have a master spreadsheet that contains all my products, along with all pertinent information (Has all my products, inventory,…
Hello! I have been selling on Shopify for years, but also sell on Amazon(I fullfill my shipments on Amazon, not them), and EBay. I have a master spreadsheet that contains all my products, along with all pertinent information (Has all my products, inventory, prices, my purchase prices from vendors, expiration dates ect.) I’m trying to simplify my inventory removal process, as currently I have to manually remove items sold from all three platforms each morning. Is there some sort of software that can simplify this process, adjusting the quantities across the 3 platforms as the orders come in? It is truly time consuming process, and as the holidays are less than 6 months away and I really want to have an “unified “ inventory system across all platforms. Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps a program that will simplify remove sold items out of all these sites with one click of the mouse. Is this possible? Any ideas would be appreciated, thank you!
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Look at a multi-channel listing tool instead of the spreadsheet. Sellbrite, Linnworks, and Ecomdash all sit on top of Shopify, Amazon, and eBay and push inventory changes across all three the second an order comes in on any of them. No more manual removal each morning. The catch is your spreadsheet also carries purchase prices, vendor info, and expiration dates, and none of those tools touch that side. You'll probably end up keeping the spreadsheet as your source of truth for costs and vendor data, and using the sync tool just for stock counts across channels. Check each one has an API or CSV import so you're still updating from your master sheet instead of typing into two systems. Most run $20 to $100 a month depending on order volume. With the holidays six months out, even the cheapest tier is worth it if it means you're not babysitting three tabs every morning.
Thanks for the recommendations. Yes, my spreadsheet contains all those extra listings to it, it’s basically the backbone of my inventory. I don’t need those other values (price paid, expiration dates ect) to change, I can do those manually, but would I be able to have it change just the inventory value on the spreadsheet? Or would that just still have to be manual? Also, how difficult are the systems you listed to integrate into my system? During the slow periods, doing everything manually takes me about an hour each morning, but where we struggle is the holidays, when we’re getting hundreds of orders a day.
Once you're selling on multiple marketplaces, manually updating inventory becomes a ticking time bomb. One missed update and you end up overselling something you don't actually have. I'd definitely move toward having one system as the source of truth instead of the spreadsheet driving everything. It'll save a lot of stress once holiday volume picks up.
I know managing inventory across multiple sales channels and manually updating stock in each one can be a real pain. Most multichannel inventory tools can help with this. We’re have built ChannelBay for exactly these kinds of situations. It’s currently free while we continue adding more features, and it could be a useful addition to your store. Once you connect channels like Shopify and Amazon, (with eBay coming soon), matching SKUs are synced across them. Sales and orders automatically reduce stock, and inventory levels usually update within two minutes. You can also map the custom information you mentioned to each SKU. Hopefully, this helps you get the workflow set up properly before the holiday season hits.
Full disclosure, I'm the CTO of TruSync and this is exactly the problem we built it for, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. You connect your channels (Shopify, Amazon seller-fulfilled, and eBay all work, and it also does BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Wix if you ever expand) and every order that comes in on any of them syncs into QuickBooks Online as it happens. QBO keeps the master stock count, the order knocks it down, and the new quantity gets pushed back out to the other channels automatically. So the hour you're spending each morning removing sold items goes away, and it doesn't fall behind at holiday volume since it's per-order, not a daily batch. Two things though: QuickBooks becomes your source of truth for stock counts, not the spreadsheet. It won't write into Excel. The good news is most of what's in your sheet already has a home in QBO, purchase prices and vendor info are standard item fields there, so about the only thing left for the spreadsheet is expiration dates. Side benefit is your orders, marketplace fees and payouts all get booked in QBO from the same pipeline, so your books stay clean too. If you don't use QuickBooks and have no interest in starting, we're not a fit. Shopify and the marketplace integrations are in early release right now. If you want in, DM me and I'll set you up in the early release program with plenty of runway before the holidays.
A sync can watch orders on all three channels and drop the count automatically from one source of truth. then just push the stock out to Shopify, Amazon and eBay through their APIs
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