Enabling Shared Inventory

When you sell the same products both in SHOPLINE and other channels like Amazon, eBay, Shopee, Lazada, and Zalora, you can maintain separate inventories for SHOPLINE and other channels, or share the same inventory among all your sales channels to reduce the risk of overselling and drive efficiency.

Connecting SKUs

It's important to connect SHOPLINE SKUs and channel SKUs before enabling shared inventory. View the connected SKUs between SHOPLINE and channels in the Inventory module of Multichannel Connect.

Learn how to connect SHOPLINE SKU and Channel SKU(s).

Enabling the Shared Inventory Feature

If you have connected the SKUs and would like to share your SHOPLINE inventory with other channels, you can enable the Shared Inventory feature. 

Setting up Rules

1. Go to SHOPLINE App Store, find and install the Multichannel Connect app if you haven’t. 
2. In your SHOPLINE admin panel, Multichannel Connect becomes one of the Channels. Open it and go to the Settings tab > Product settings.
   
3. In the Shared inventory section, click the Rule Settings button. 
   
4. In the Stores where rules apply section, select the scope of channel stores where you want to share inventory (all channels, selected channels, or selected channel stores). In the Shared inventory update rules section, specify the SHOPLINE locations that will share inventory with each channel store.
   
5. Advanced Setup - Inventory Sync Strategies: To help you manage your operations more precisely, Multichannel Connect supports a variety of inventory synchronization strategies. Within each rule—including the General rule and Custom rules— you can customize inventory buffers, upper limits, and lower limits to control channel stock visibility, allowing you to avoid overselling and run better marketing campaigns.
   • Inventory Buffer (Reserve Safety Stock): To prevent overselling during sales spikes or system sync delays, you can set an Inventory Buffer. The system will automatically withhold this specific quantity from the stock level synced to your channels.
     • Example: If you set a buffer of 5 and have 100 units in actual inventory, the system will display 95 units on your sales channels.
     • Benefit: Acts as a "safety cushion" to accommodate sudden fluctuations in orders or reserve stock for exchanges. 
   • Inventory Upper Limit (Maximum Display Quantity): You can define a maximum stock level to be displayed on sales channels. Even if your actual inventory exceeds this number, the channel will never show more than the limit you set.
     • Example: If you set an upper limit of 50 but have 1,000 units in stock, the channel will only display 50 available units.
     • Benefit: Ideal for "scarcity marketing" tactics to create urgency and drive conversion, or to limit your sales exposure on specific channels.
   • Inventory Lower Limit (Minimum Display Quantity): To prevent product listings from being hidden or penalized by channels due to temporary stockouts, you can set a minimum display quantity. The system will maintain this stock level on the channel even if your actual available inventory falls below it.
     • Example: If you set a lower limit of 5, the channel will continue to show 5 units available even if your actual stock hits 0.
     • Benefit: Keeps your product listings active and visible, preventing the traffic drop-off often caused by stockouts.
     • Warning: As this feature allows orders to be placed even when products are out of stock, this may lead to overselling. Hence, please ensure you can restock quickly before enabling this feature.

Turning on This Feature

1. After setting up the rules, go back to the Product settings page, turn on the Shared inventory toggle, and confirm to enable this feature. 
2. Once enabled, a prompt asks whether you want to run a full inventory update right away: "Your shared inventory rules are now in effect. Do you want to perform a full inventory update now? If you skip this, inventory will sync automatically the next time your SHOPLINE inventory changes." 
   • Click Update Now to sync inventory to all eligible stores based on your current shared inventory rules.
   • Click Cancel to skip syncing for now — channel inventory will then only update automatically when your SHOPLINE inventory changes.

Turning off This Feature

If you no longer want to share inventory, turn off the toggle to disable it. Please note when you turn off the feature, it cannot be turned on within 30 mins.

Manually Syncing Full Inventory to a Channel Store

In addition to automatic real-time syncing, you can manually trigger an inventory sync from the Inventory page in Multichannel Connect, which is useful when you need to check or update channel inventory right away.

1. Go to the Inventory page in Multichannel Connect and click Update to Channel.
2. In the Select Channels box that appears, select the channel store(s) you want to sync:
   • Only stores with sync enabled can be selected. Stores that don't have sync enabled are grayed out.
   • You can select multiple stores, but you must select at least one before clicking Confirm.
   • If you see the message “Only stores with sync enabled can be selected,” click Go to Settings to jump to the shared inventory rules page.
3. Click Confirm to start a full inventory sync task for the selected store(s).

Bulk-Selecting SKUs to Sync Inventory to a Channel

If only some products need their inventory synced, you don't need to run a full sync. Instead, you can update specific SHOPLINE SKUs in bulk instead:

1. Go to the Inventory page in Multichannel Connect and select the products you want to sync from the SHOPLINE SKU list (you can select up to 100 products at a time; cross-page selection isn't supported).
2. Click the Update Channel Inventory button that appears above the list.

3. In the Select Channel Store dialog, choose one channel store. This step only supports selecting a single store, unlike Update to Channel, which allows multiple.
4. Click Confirm, and the system will check whether the selected SKUs are connected to a channel SKU under that store.

5. Once the check passes, the sync task starts, and you'll see the message "Updating inventory to the channel. Check the Task Center or the inventory list shortly for the result."

Checking Inventory Sync Task Progress and Results

Whether you started a sync using Update to Channel or the bulk SKU selection, you can check its progress and results in the Task Center:

1. In the Inventory page of Multichannel Connect, click Task Center.
2. Inventory sync tasks are listed by channel store, showing the task's progress, start and end time, and the sync result (the number of products that succeeded and failed).
3. If any products failed to sync, click View Failed Products in the result. The SHOPLINE SKU list will automatically filter by Update Status: Update Failed, so you can review the failed products or retry the sync.

Reasons for Changes in the Available Inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs

Shared inventory is based on the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs maintained by the merchant in the SHOPLINE store. When the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs changes, it is automatically updated to that of the associated channel SKU. There are two reasons why the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs changes:

You Manually modify the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs

You can manually modify the available inventory of SHOPLINE products from either of the following places:

• Products > Inventory
  
• Multichannel Connect > Inventory from your SHOPLINE admin panel.
  

SHOPLINE Orders lead to inventory changes

When generating/updating/canceling SHOPLINE orders or performing returns or refunds, the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs will be affected accordingly. For example, the inventory may be deducted when customers place an new order in your SHOPLINE store or the system imports orders from other channels into SHOPLINE. On the other hand, canceling an order may replenish the inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How long does it take for product information in my SHOPLINE store to be automatically updated to the Multichannel Connect app?

• When you install the app for the first time, SHOPLINE store products will be automatically synced to the app.
• If you add/delete/update products in the SHOPLINE store, the system will update the SHOPLINE products in the app in real time.

Q2: How long does it take for product information in my channel store to be automatically updated to the Multichannel Connect app?

• When you authorize the channel store to SHOPLINE for the first time, the products in the channel store will be automatically synchronized to the app.
• If you add/delete/update products in the Amazon store, the system will update the products in the app in real time. But for eBay/Shopee stores, since the platforms’ API doesn't push Webhook messages, you need to sync channel products manually.
• You can manually synchronize the latest product information at any time.

Q3: Will inventory changes of channel products affect the inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs?

No, it will not.

Q4: After the channel generates an order, will the available inventory of the associated SHOPLINE SKU be changed?

If you have turned on the Automatically import channel orders to SHOPLINE feature, then when Multichannel Connect successfully retrieves a new channel order and imports it into SHOPLINE, the available inventory of SHOPLINE SKUs may be automatically updated based on the inventory strategy you specified.

Q5: After enabling Shared Inventory, if I click Cancel in the popup, when will my inventory sync to the channel?

Your inventory will still sync to the channel automatically the next time your SHOPLINE inventory changes, whether from a manual edit or a new order. If you need it synced right away, you can go to the Inventory page at any time and click Update to Channel to sync manually. 

Q6: What's the difference between a full sync and the bulk SKU sync?

Update to Channel re-syncs the inventory of every connected SKU under the selected store(s), which is useful for periodically double-checking inventory. Bulk SKU sync only updates the products you manually select, which is better for fixing individual sync failures or updating specific products right away, and it only lets you choose one channel store at a time.