Note: This article describes the stock logic without locations. If you can manage multiple locations in the Pickware Admin under Warehousing → Locations, see Locations and fulfillment orders with Pickware instead.
With Pickware, you manage the stock of your Shopify shop centrally, control purchasing, run stocktakes, and value your inventory. Stock changes are automatically transferred in real time from Pickware to the connected Shopify location.
This article shows you where to configure the stock sync and how to perform a one-time stock reconciliation between Shopify and Pickware when you activate it — for example, to import your stock from Shopify into Pickware initially. You can find more background information on how it works here: How does the stock sync between Pickware and Shopify work?
Before first use
When you start with Pickware, all your products are automatically imported into Pickware. The stock maintained in Shopify at that time is imported as well. Therefore, make sure your stock in Shopify is correct. Of course, you can also correct errors later.
Once you have transferred stock to Pickware, it is best to make changes to your stock only in Pickware. All stock changes are then automatically transferred to Shopify in real time.
Configuring the stock sync in Pickware
In your Pickware Admin, click in the main menu on the left, in the Sales Channels section, on your connected Shopify shop for which you want to configure the stock sync. Then select the Stock sync tab.
If you work with locations, the switch for the stock export is no longer located on the Sales Channel. You can find it under Warehousing → Locations on the detail page of the respective location in the Shopify location mappings card. Learn more in How do I assign Shopify locations to my Pickware locations?.
Connected Shopify location
This is the Shopify location to which all stock from Pickware is exported. The total of all stock available online from Pickware forms the stock at this Shopify location. You can find additional information about the connected location here:
Automatic stock export (Pickware → Shopify)
The automatic stock export transfers the stock available online from Pickware to the connected Shopify location in real time. As soon as the available stock of a product changes in Pickware — for example, through orders, goods receipts, stock transfers, stocktakes, or manual stock corrections — the change is automatically synced to Shopify.
When you activate the automatic stock export, a guided process leads you through a one-time initial stock reconciliation (see next section).
Initial stock reconciliation on activation
When you activate the stock export, a guided process leads you through the setup. Depending on whether you have maintained your stock in Shopify or in Pickware so far, you have two options:
Import stock from Shopify and continue
Imports the current stock from Shopify into Pickware once. This import overwrites the existing stock in Pickware. The imported quantities are assigned to the default warehouse if one exists; otherwise, they are assigned to the bin location "Unknown". This option is suitable if you have maintained your stock in Shopify so far and have changed it there since the initial product import.
Transfer current stock to Shopify and continue
Transfers the current stock of all products from Pickware to Shopify once. Make sure the stock maintained in Pickware is correct before you start the export. After the start, the stock of all products is updated in the background; this process can take a few minutes. This option is suitable if you already use Pickware to manage your stock.
The stock export overwrites the stock of your products in Shopify with the stock values from Pickware. Therefore, make sure you have the correct stock maintained in Pickware before you choose this option.
After activation, changes to the available stock are synced with your Shopify shop in real time.
Attention: As long as the stock export is active, Pickware is the leading system for stock. Stock that you change manually in Shopify is overwritten by Pickware again. In that case, change your stock only in Pickware.
Turning the stock export back on
If the stock export was turned off in the meantime, goods receipts, stocktakes, and other stock changes during that time were not transferred to Shopify. Therefore, when you turn it back on, select Transfer current stock to Shopify and continue once.
Importing open orders from Shopify into Pickware
So that you can process and ship orders in Pickware, the relevant open orders from Shopify should be imported into Pickware. For the pure stock calculation for Shopify, it is no longer strictly necessary for every open order to already exist in Pickware, since Pickware takes reservations into account directly from Shopify for the stock calculation.
If the automatic order import is activated, all new incoming orders from Shopify are automatically imported into Pickware. You can import existing open orders manually. You can find detailed instructions here: How do I trigger the order import manually?
Stock changes during order import
If the order import is activated in the Pickware Admin for the Shopify Sales Channel, stock for the open order items is automatically reserved in both Shopify and Pickware when a new order comes in.
When you ship orders in Pickware or Shopify, the stock is automatically booked out and the stock reservation is released in both Pickware and Shopify. A manual stock export is not necessary.