How does the Multiple Store Inventory Sync work?

Shift4Shop's Multiple Store Inventory Sync Add On allows merchants to run multiple stores on the Shift4Shop platform and share inventory across each. As items are sold in each of your Shift4Shop stores, automated scripting updates all stores to have the same inventory for their shared products. This can be useful for merchants who have the same products across each of their stores, but perhaps they market individual subsets of the products to each store individually.

For example, a merchant selling fitness and exercise equipment may have the same products to sell to the public. However, one site is geared towards women's exercise items while another site is geared towards men's fitness and yet another store is geared towards a particular type of fitness genre such as yoga. All three stores may contain the same items, and the Multiple Store Inventory Sync add on ensures all three have the same items in stock.

How to Set it Up

When you order the Multiple Store Inventory Sync Add On, you will be asked to provide which of your stores will act as the Master (Parent) Site and which of the remaining stores will act as the Child stores. With this information, Shift4Shop will make alterations to each store's database to commit the relationships.

As merchant, you will then set up each store to contain the shared items. Just make sure the shared items all have the same Part Number (ID/SKU) and Advanced Option Part number (if using advanced options). This will ensure that the automated updating is shared across parent to child stores.

How it Works

Let's say you have 3 stores with Multiple Inventory Sync (1 Parent and 2 Child stores). You have 10 units of a shared item on all 3 stores. As the product is sold on the Master (Parent) site, its inventory on the item is reduced to 9 units on hand. At the same time, an update is made (in real-time) to the 2 Child stores updating their stock of the item to 9.

Now, let's say the item sells on one of the Child stores. As the item sells, the child store's Quantity on Hand (QoH) for the item is now reduced by 1. At the same time, the Child store then tells the Parent store of this update and the parent reduces its inventory by 1 unit as well.

The Parent store - being the Master inventory store - will automatically run a script every 15 minutes to ensure the rest of the Child stores all share the same inventory thereafter.

FAQs

The following are some frequently asked questions about the Multiple Store Inventory Sync add on.

• Q: What matches the products between the connected stores?
  A: As mentioned, the item SKU/ID information and - if using advanced options - the Advanced Option part numbers are what the stores will use to synchronize inventory. This means that you can have shared products on each store with different names. As long as their ID/SKU information is the same, synchronization will work!
• Q: How often does the Master Sync script run?
  A: The script from the Parent store that updates inventory on the remaining Child stores will run automatically every 15 minutes.
• Q: Does the Parent store update all stock or just the items that have sold?
  A: The script that runs every 15 minutes performs a FULL stock/inventory update, so it will update all shared items. Not just the ones that have sold.
• Q: How is synchronization affected by RMAs or Cancellations on the Child stores?
  A: RMA re-stocking or canceled orders will update the Master Parent store in real-time.
• Q: Do I have to share all my inventory across each store?
  A: Not at all. You can have items on your Parent store that are not shared with the Child stores, and you can have items on the child stores that aren't shared with the Master. The sharing is all dependent on the ID/SKU value of the items, so each store can have its own non-shared and unique items as well.
• Q: What if I change a shared item's name, price, category or descriptions? Do those update to the other stores?
  A: No. The multiple store inventory sync only updates the STOCK of the items. All other item information such as price, descriptions, images, etc are independent to each store.
• Q: Is there a way for me to check the last time the script ran?
  A: Absolutely! By going to Modules (in your Online Store Manager), you can view all of your store's scheduled scripts by searching for the Schedule Scripts" module and clicking on its +Icon to expand the selection. From there, you can click on the "Manage Scheduled Scripts" link to view the script's status, when it last ran, as well as set it to email you whenever it runs.

If you're interested in purchasing the Multiple Store Sync Add On, please contact your Sales Representative or click here for more details and ordering information.