Shopify inventory sync

Overview

If your Starshipit account is connected to a Shopify store, Starshipit WMS can write inventory changes back to Shopify automatically. This means your Shopify storefront stays in sync with your actual warehouse stock without manual updates.

There are two sync modes:

• Automatic writeback — runs after every WMS stock movement.
• Manual bulk sync — push selected products to Shopify on demand.

Both modes use the account-level Shopify settings and respect any per-product or per-store overrides you have configured.

How automatic writeback works

When a stock movement completes in WMS — such as a receipt, pick, adjustment, or stocktake variance — Shopify inventory is updated automatically:

1. WMS completes the stock movement transaction.
2. An inventory update is placed in the Shopify sync queue.
3. The queue processes asynchronously in the background.

This is non-blocking. If Shopify is temporarily unavailable or the update fails, the WMS transaction still completes — your warehouse operations are not paused waiting for Shopify to respond. Sync failures are logged to the process logs in WMS so you can review and investigate without them appearing as operational alerts.

This applies to all inbound and outbound movements including:

• Receiving purchase orders (direct, staged, or cross-dock)
• Picks and shipments
• Manual stock adjustments
• Stocktake variances

Running a manual bulk sync

You can push inventory for specific products to Shopify at any time from the inventory dashboard:

1. Go to the Inventory dashboard.
2. Select the products you want to sync.
3. Use the Sync to Shopify action.

A manual bulk sync pushes the absolute on-hand quantity for those products to Shopify, overwriting whatever Shopify currently shows. Use this:

• After a large stocktake to ensure Shopify reflects corrected levels
• When setting up WMS for the first time to initialise Shopify with accurate stock
• When you suspect Shopify and WMS have drifted and want to force alignment

Enabling Shopify inventory sync

Sync is controlled by account-level settings in the WMS product sync dialog:

1. Go to Products > Sync and select your Shopify store from the dropdown.
2. Enable Sync inventory back to Shopify.
3. A Run hard sync option forces a full inventory sync of all products immediately when used.

Individual products can also be excluded from Shopify sync by disabling the sync flag on the product record — useful for products that exist in WMS but should not have their Shopify inventory managed by WMS.

How WMS maps to Shopify

Before syncing, WMS checks the following for each product:

• The Shopify inventory item ID for the SKU
• The source store mapping (which Shopify store the product belongs to)
• The Shopify account location to update (falling back to the default if no specific location is mapped)

If a product does not have a matching Shopify inventory item ID, the sync for that product is skipped and logged.

Checking sync failures

Sync errors do not surface as blocking warehouse alerts. To review them:

1. Go to Dashboard > Process logs.
2. Filter or search for Shopify-related events.
3. Review any failures — the log shows which SKUs were affected and what error was returned by Shopify.

Common reasons for sync failure include:

• Shopify inventory sync is not enabled for the product or account
• The product's Shopify inventory item ID is missing or incorrect
• Shopify rate limiting during a large sync

FAQ