How Inventory Sync Works Across Marketplaces

When you sell the same products on more than one marketplace, your stock count needs to stay correct everywhere at once. Indexync does this by keeping one stock count per product as the source of truth, and syncing it to every marketplace you connect. When an order comes in on any channel, Indexync lowers that count and pushes the new number to every other connected channel. That way, the same unit can't be sold twice.

Applies to: All plans.

Before you start: you need at least one connected marketplace store (Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, or Shopify). Inventory sync starts working as soon as a store is connected.

What do the inventory statuses mean?

Every unit of stock sits in exactly one status at any point in time. The table below covers all seven.

Status	Meaning
Available	Ready to sell. This is what each connected marketplace reads when it displays your stock level (minus Safety Stock if set).
Unpaid	Order placed but not yet paid or confirmed.
To Ship	Paid and ready to fulfil.
Shipped	Handed to the courier.
Completed	Delivered and the order is closed.
Return	In return process. Tracked but does not show in headline counts.
Failed	Delivery failed and the item is not coming back.

Two totals are worth knowing:

Total = Available + Safety Stock. This is what the Inventory page shows as Total Stock on Hand, and what you edit in the Stock Allocation window. In the screenshot below, Total 67 = Available 62 + Safety Stock 5.
Units sitting in Unpaid, To Ship, or Shipped are committed to open orders. They left Available (and Total) when the order came in, and they only come back if the order cancels or you confirm a return.

Inventory page showing Classic Cotton T-Shirt expanded with S, M, and L variant rows, each showing Available count and Safety Stock

How does an order move stock through statuses?

A typical order travels: Available → Unpaid → To Ship → Shipped → Completed. Pre-paid orders skip Unpaid and start at To Ship.

If an order is cancelled before fulfilment, its quantity returns to Available. If a buyer returns an item after delivery, it moves to Return. From there, it goes back to Available once you confirm receipt. Failed deliveries that cannot be reclaimed land in Failed and stay there.

Should every store see the same stock? (Shared vs Allocated mode)

Each SKU runs in one of two modes that determine how Available stock is distributed across your connected stores.

Shared mode (default). Your Available count is a single number visible to every connected marketplace. A sale on Shopee reduces the same shared pool that Lazada, TikTok, and Shopify all read. Use Shared when you want all channels to draw from the same stock without restriction.

Allocated mode. You split your Available across stores. Each store sees only the quantity you allocated to it. A sale on Shopee reduces only Shopee's allocation. Lazada keeps its full allocated portion. Use Allocated when you want to reserve specific stock for specific channels.

	Shared mode	Allocated mode
What each store sees	The same Available number	Its own allocated portion
Effect of a sale on one channel	Reduces every channel's visible stock	Reduces only that channel's allocation
When to use	One catalog, treat all channels equally	Reserve stock per channel, protect specific channels from depletion

Example: you have 100 units of a SKU and sell on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok. In Shared mode, all three marketplaces see 100. When Shopee sells 5, Lazada and TikTok immediately see 95. In Allocated mode you set Shopee to 50, Lazada to 30, TikTok to 20. When Shopee sells 5, Shopee now shows 45. Lazada and TikTok still show their full 30 and 20.

You switch between modes in the Stock Allocation window for each SKU. The window opens by clicking the edit icon next to any SKU's Available count on the Inventory page.

Stock Allocation window open for Classic Cotton T-Shirt size M, Shared mode selected, showing Total 67, Safety Stock 5, Available 62

Stock Allocation window with Allocated mode selected, showing per-store quantity inputs for Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, and Shopify

See Update Stock Quantities - individually or in bulk for the full walkthrough of the window.

Can separate products or pack sizes share one stock pool?

Shared and Allocated mode both operate within a single product. Link Stock, a type of sync rule, goes one step further: it lets SKUs in separate products or listings draw from one shared pool. Use it when the same physical stock is sold under more than one SKU. That could be the same item listed twice, or one item sold in several pack sizes or weights.

How a link works:

One SKU in the group is the base SKU and holds the shared pool. The others are members.
You edit stock only on the base SKU. Each member's Available follows it automatically.
A member's number = the shared pool divided by its units per pack, rounded down. At the default of one unit per pack, every linked SKU shows the same number.
Linked SKUs always run in Shared mode.

Example: you sell a coffee as 25g, 50g, and 100g packs. Make the 25g the base SKU with a pool of 100, set 50g to 2 units per pack and 100g to 4. The three listings show 100, 50, and 25. Sell one 100g and the pool drops by 4, so all three refresh together.

Bundle SKUs are the other kind of sync rule. A bundle is a set (a combo, gift set, or kit):

Its stock is calculated from the items it is made of, so you never count bundle stock separately.
A sale of the bundle lowers each component's stock.
A sale of any component on its own lowers the bundle's number too, because it is recalculated.

Example: a gift set contains one t-shirt and one mug. With 40 shirts and 25 mugs in stock, the gift set shows 25, because that is how many complete sets you can put together.

You create and manage both kinds of rule from the Sync Rules button on the Inventory page. See Sync Rules for the full walkthrough.

How do I keep a buffer so I don't oversell? (Safety Stock)

Safety Stock is a per-SKU buffer subtracted from what gets synced to your marketplaces.

If a SKU has Total 100 and Safety Stock 10, marketplaces see 90.
Use it for fast-selling SKUs where several orders can land at nearly the same time. The buffer absorbs those bursts instead of your last unit.
A buffer of 5 to 10% of your typical daily sales is a reasonable starting point.
Set it in the Stock Allocation window alongside Total.

What happens to stock when I first import a product?

When you import a product:

Indexync reads the current stock level from the product's source store: the store you import it from, or, when the same product is matched across several stores, the source you pick during import.
That number becomes your starting Available.
Your other connected channels are updated to match it.
Orders placed before the import do not deduct from Available. The marketplace already counted those sales in the stock figure it reported, so deducting them again would double-count.

Example: you import a product from Lazada on April 1 with 30 units in stock. On April 2 you notice an order from March 28 in your Orders list. Available stays at 30, not 29. Lazada already deducted that March 28 order before you imported, so Indexync does not deduct it again.

Why is my stock negative, and how do I fix it?

Available can go negative in a few situations:

Direct edits on a marketplace higher than Indexync's count. If you increase stock directly on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, or Shopify without updating Indexync, the marketplace shows more units than Indexync knows about. In this scenario, if more orders come in than the quantity shown in Indexync, stock goes negative. To prevent this, edit stock only on Indexync.

The Dashboard lists negative SKUs under Action Items as a Negative inventory row, which takes you straight to the affected SKUs. To fix a negative SKU, open it on the Inventory page and set a non-negative Total in the Stock Allocation window. See Why Doesn't My Stock Match Between Indexync and My Marketplace?.

Where do I view and edit inventory?

Inventory lives at the Inventory entry in the sidebar. The page lists every SKU with its current Available count and Safety Stock. Click the edit icon next to any SKU to open the Stock Allocation window. There, you can edit Total and Safety Stock, and switch between Shared and Allocated mode.

Settings that apply to all SKUs, such as auto-sync behaviour and low-stock thresholds, live under Settings → Inventory. See Inventory settings for details.

For manual edits to individual SKUs, or to update many SKUs at once, see Update Stock Quantities - individually or in bulk.

FAQ

Does Indexync update my stock on other marketplaces automatically?

Yes. As soon as an order comes in on any connected channel, Indexync lowers your stock count and pushes the new number to every other connected channel. You don't need to refresh or trigger anything manually.

What happens if the same item sells on two marketplaces at almost the same time?

Both orders deduct from the same stock count, so your Available number stays accurate across channels. Safety Stock exists for exactly this situation: it holds back a buffer so a burst of near-simultaneous orders is less likely to sell past zero.

Can I hide some stock from marketplaces?

Yes, with Safety Stock. Set a Safety Stock quantity on a SKU and Indexync subtracts it from the Available figure that marketplaces see, so that portion stays out of view and out of reach of buyers.

Does a cancelled order give me my stock back?

Yes. When an order is cancelled before fulfilment, its quantity returns to Available and syncs back out to your connected marketplaces.

Can two different listings sell from the same stock?

Yes, using Link Stock. Set one SKU as the base holding a shared pool, and add other SKUs as members that draw from it. See Sync Rules for how to set this up.

Need More Help?

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