Shop inventory represents the quantity of each product with multiple variants that are available for sale. The way you set up your products and shipping processes will affect stock levels. You can track and manage inventory levels in the inventory section of your SHOPLINE online store.
In this FAQ, you will learn how to set up inventory tracking, import or export inventory quantities, and manage inventory across multiple locations in SHOPLINE.
In this FAQ, you will find:
- Set up inventory tracking
- Checking inventory
- Export or import inventory using CSV files
- Inventory CSV files format
1. Set up inventory tracking
Accurate inventory quantities can help customers when placing orders. If you want to check or manage product inventory levels, you can track the product inventory quantity in SHOPLINE.
Steps:
1.1 Go to SHOPLINE Admin > [Product] > [Product Management].
1.2 Click [Product], enter the edit page and click on the [Toggle on tracking quantity]. If the item has multiple attributes, select the tracking quantity for each attribute you want to track. If you want to allow customers to continue to buy the item when it is sold out, please select [Continue selling when out of stock].
1.3 In the [Quantity] section, enter quantity information for each location. Click [Save].
Note: If you choose to track inventory quantities, you must select at least one location for the product. If you choose [Continue selling when out of stock], then you can continue to sell products when you have zero or negative quantities in stock.
2. View inventory in inventory management
If you have set stock levels for products in multiple locations, then you can view stock data for products in different locations in Inventory Management. If you have set up multi-location stock for a product, then you can switch between locations to check the situation. Note that if you do not have a corresponding stock level set for a product at a location, then when you switch to that location to view the stock data, the relevant product will not be displayed.
3. Using CSV files to export or import inventory
You can export an inventory CSV file containing the quantities you have in stock at each location, which can be used as a template to update stock quantities. Additionally, you can then import the CSV file to update the stock situation on the SHOPLINE platform to show the quantity of each product in stock at each location.
Note:
When multiple locations exist in your store, please do not use product CSV files to export or import inventory quantities. Instead, you will need to use an inventory CSV file.
Data for SKUs without choosing the 'Toggle on tracking quantity' will not be exported
3.1 Exporting inventory CSV files
Steps:
3.1.1 Click [Product] > [Inventory]
3.1.2 Clike [Export Inventory]
3.1.3 Select the export range in the pop-up window
- All variants
- Selected variants
- All results
3.1.4 Select the locations from which you need to export your inventory data. If you have more than one location, specify whether you want to export data for all locations or only for a specific location.
3.1.5 Click [Export]
3.2 Importing CSV files to update inventory quantities
If you wish to update stock levels via a CSV file, please export the CSV file for a template. The CSV file contains multiple columns to help you identify products. Please edit only the inventory quantities in the location column.
Steps:
3.2.1 Open the exported CSV file in a spreadsheet program. Please open the exported CSV file in WPS.
(Note: Opening CSV files in Office Excel may result in garbled codes. To solve the messy code problem, please see the Solutions to Garbled Characters in Exported Tables file)
3.2.2 If your CSV file contains columns of locations for which you do not want to update your inventory, please delete the entire column for those locations, including their titles.
3.2.3 Update the number in the remaining locations columns. The number you enter in each row can be positive, negative or 0. You can also leave it blank or enter Not stocked to indicate that the product has never been stocked at that location.
3.2.4 Save the CSV file.
3.2.5 Import the saved CSV file on the [Inventory] page
Before importing your inventory data, please ensure that your CSV file is in the correct format.
Incorrect line information in the CSV file will be skipped directly and no error message will be provided. Please fill in the information in the CSV file according to the specifications.
Note: Please do not use SHOPLINE product CSV files to import inventory quantities since the system will not recognise them. You must use the exported inventory CSV files.
The import process will only update the inventory quantity of SKUs that are currently available for 'Toggle on tracking quantity' and will not create new items or new SKU information.
Importing inventory quantities will cover your previous inventory data. To avoid data mismatches, it is recommended that inventory should be modified without other modifications to it (e.g. shop is open; someone else is changing the inventory information)
Inventory CSV File
Inventory CSV files contain the information that can uniquely identify the characteristic of multiple variants and quantity of a product or product at a specific location. It is similar to the other CSV files you would use in SHOPLINE but contains different columns.
|
Handle |
Handle is the unique identification value for each product. They can contain letters, dashes, and numbers, but not spaces. A handle is used in the URL of each product. Handle is the key field in the inventory CSV file to locate which item the row information belongs to, otherwise the row information will be invalid. |
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Title |
The title field is ancillary information used to help users understand which item the line information belongs to when exporting. Filling in it when importing will not affect the original title information of the product. Not required, but this column could not be deleted. |
|
Option1 name |
For products with multiple variants, each variant has its corresponding attribute name and attribute value information. Fill in the attribute name information for the first attribute of the variant here. Option Name and Option Value in the inventory CSV file are key fields to locate which variant the row information belongs to, otherwise the row information will be invalid. |
|
Option1 value |
For products with multiple variants, each variant has its corresponding attribute name, attribute value information. Fill in the attribute value information for the first attribute of the variant here. Option Name and Option Value in the inventory CSV file are key fields to locate which variant the row information belongs to, otherwise the row information will be invalid. |
|
Option2 name |
As described in Option1 name |
|
Option2 value |
As described in Option1 value |
|
Option3 name |
As described in Option1 name |
|
Option3 value |
As described in Option1 value |
|
Option4 name |
As described in Option1 name |
|
Option4 value |
As described in Option1 value |
|
Option5 name |
As described in Option1 name |
|
Option5 value |
As described in Option1 value |
|
SKU |
The SKU field is an auxiliary information used to help the user understand which variant the row information belongs to when exporting. Filling in it when importing the data will not affect the original title information of the product. Not required, but this column could not be deleted. |
|
Name of location |
The column headings represent the name of the location where you keep the inventory and the rows represent the number of products in stock at that location. If your online store is configured with multiple locations, there will be multiple location columns when you select to export all locations. |
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