When you launch an eCommerce store, you want your customer experience to be smooth —from the moment they land on your product page to when they receive their order. But beneath the surface of every successful eCmmerce business is something less glamorous but absolutely essential: inventory management. This article will detail what you need to know before you build your Shopify store!

If you’re thinking about launching your eCommerce store on Shopify, you’re in good company. Shopify is one of the most trusted and user-friendly eCommerce platforms available. But like any system, it has its limits—especially when it comes to managing complex inventory. That’s where expert help and third-party integrations come in. At Confetti Design, our team of Shopify web builders have helped hundreds of small business clients navigate the choices to avoid costly mistakes and to scale with confidence.

What Shopify Offers Out-of-the-Box

Shopify offers a solid foundation for inventory management—especially for smaller stores or those just starting out. The built-in tools are designed to make life easier, and here’s how Shopify does it:

• Real-time inventory tracking: As soon as an order is placed or stock is updated, Shopify will adjust your inventory count. This greatly reduces human error and helps avoid overselling.
• Product variants: Shopify allows you to create multiple product variations including size or colour. The great benefit of Shopify is that each variant can have its own price. This is called a “stock keeping unit” (SKU) and each SKU has an inventory count. This is gives online store owners detailed product control.
• Low stock alerts: Shopify enables you to set notifications when inventory levels are running low, giving you time to reorder and avoid running out of stock.
• Inventory history: Every change to stock levels is logged. This is really helpful when you are reconciling your stock and in particular, wanting to check past sales performance.
• Multi-location inventory: Shopify enables you to manage inventory that could be located in different locations. It is not uncommon to have warehouses in each state. If you stock products in more than one place, or more simply in a warehouse and also a retail store, Shopify can track your inventory by location.

These features are great if your operations are relatively straightforward. But as your business grows—more products, more warehouses, multiple sales channels—you’ll need more flexibility and power.

When to Consider a Third-Party Inventory Management System

For online businesses in Australia that need more complex logistics or scaling needs, Shopify’s native tools may not be enough. That’s where third-party inventory management platforms come into play.

There are multiple inventory management platforms like Cin7 Core (formerly DEAR Systems), Unleashed, NetSuite and Zoho Inventory offer a much deeper level of control over your stock and more importantly, your supply chain. Here are examples:

• Barcode and Batch Tracking: These systems support scanning stock in and out of warehouses, tracking expiry dates and managing product batches—something essential for food, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals.
• Automated Purchase Orders: Based on your reorder levels or sales history, these systems can automatically generate purchase orders to suppliers, saving time and avoiding human error.
• Multi-Channel Syncing: If you’re selling through your Shopify store, Amazon, and in-store POS, third-party platforms help you maintain consistent stock levels across all channels in real time.
• Advanced Reporting & Forecasting: You get better data about stock turnover, seasonal trends, and profitability, helping you make smarter decisions.

The challenge is that with more features comes more complexity—especially when it comes to integration with Shopify.

Shopify Third Party Inventory Management Recommendations

So what does the team at Confetti Design recommend when it comes to third party Shopify Inventory Management. The following is pick of our favourite rated inventory management systems for Australian Shopify eCommerce businesses:-

Retail Express
Retail Express is a powerful point-of-sale (POS) and inventory management system designed specifically for multi-store retailers. When integrated with Shopify, it offers seamless real-time syncing between your physical stores and online presence, allowing you to manage stock, pricing, promotions and customer data across all channels in one centralised system.

This is particularly valuable for businesses juggling both in-store and online sales, as it reduces double-handling and improves customer satisfaction by ensuring consistent stock availability.

Unleashed
Unleashed is a robust inventory management platform built for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors. Its integration with Shopify allows businesses to track raw materials, finished goods and complex inventory movements with precision.

Unleashed supports batch and serial number tracking, multi-warehouse management and advanced reporting, helping Shopify businesses achieve tighter control over production processes, improve order accuracy and make smarter purchasing decisions.

NetSuite
NetSuite is an enterprise-grade ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that includes powerful inventory, financial, CRM and supply chain management tools. For Shopify merchants scaling up into mid-market or enterprise size, integrating NetSuite provides a single source of truth across finance, inventory, and ecommerce operations.

The result is improved forecasting, real-time reporting, and automated workflows that reduce manual effort and drive profitability, especially for complex, high-volume businesses.

Uphance (apparel-specific)
Uphance is a specialised inventory and operations platform designed for fashion and apparel brands. Integrated with Shopify, it helps manage product variations like size, colour, and style while also streamlining wholesale orders, production planning, and seasonal collections.

For Shopify apparel merchants, Uphance provides tailored workflows that reduce manual admin, improve order fulfilment, and make it easier to scale collections across both DTC (direct-to-consumer) and wholesale channels.

syncX
SyncX is a highly popular Shopify app that automates stock updates across your store by connecting to supplier feeds, CSV/Excel files, Google Sheets, or FTP locations. It’s ideal for merchants who rely on dropshipping or manage multiple supplier relationships.

With Stock Sync, Shopify users can avoid overselling, reduce manual stock updates, and ensure product availability is always accurate, helping to improve customer trust and reduce costly order cancellations.

Integration Is Powerful—But Also Complex

One of the biggest misconceptions is that connecting a third-party inventory system to Shopify is a simple plug-and-play. The reality is that every inventory management system has its quirks and peculiarities, and that poor configuration can cause massive headaches when your eCommerce business is firing.

Let’s look at a few common issues we’ve helped clients solve:

• Mismatch of data structures: Shopify can handle product variants differently to inventory platforms. A mismatch between product variants can lead to duplicated products or stock levels that don’t sync properly.
• Latency in stock updates: Some integrations only sync every few hours unless you upgrade to a higher-tier plan or use a premium connector. This delay can cause overselling or confusion between online and warehouse stock.
• One-way vs two-way sync: Some apps only pull stock from your inventory platform into Shopify, but won’t push Shopify sales back to the inventory system. This creates a dangerous blind spot in reporting and inventory management.
• Warehouse mapping Issues: If your Shopify locations don’t match the warehouse setup in your inventory platform, it’s easy to misattribute stock, leading to failed fulfilments or shipping delays.

These issues can result in unhappy customers, lost revenue, and stressed-out operations teams. And fixing them post-launch is much harder than building it right from the start.

Why Working with Shopify Experts Matters

This is where Confetti Design comes in. We’re not just web designers—we’re Shopify experts who understand ecommerce businesses from the inside out.

Here’s how we help our clients avoid inventory nightmares:

1. Discovery-led planning

We begin every Shopify project by deeply understanding your product catalogue, logistics, warehouse operations and future business goals. This lets us recommend the right systems from the outset—not just what’s popular, but what fits your needs. Our Clarity Process has proven to support businesses with better planning and detail your online success!

2. Tailored integration

We’ve worked with APIs, middleware (like Zapier or Make) and direct app integrations across a wide range of platforms. Whether your inventory platform is cloud-based or on-premise, we’ll find the smartest and most stable way to connect it to your Shopify store.

3. Hands-on testing

Before your store goes live, we simulate real orders and inventory changes to test the sync between systems. This ensures smooth operations from day one and gives your team confidence.

4. Ongoing support & training

Once your eCommerce store launches, we’re here to support you. We offer training for your staff and provide backup when integration tools fail or need adjustment due to growth or supplier changes.

Real-world results

A fashion wholesaler we worked with was struggling to keep inventory accurate between Shopify and Unleashed. Their orders were being delayed and customer trust was slipping. After a full audit, we redesigned their integration approach, realigned their SKU structure, and implemented new sync rules. The result? A 90% drop in order errors and the confidence to expand into international markets.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Build Blind

If your eCommerce business relies on efficient stock handling, don’t assume Shopify’s default tools will carry you forever. And don’t go it alone when integrating third-party systems.

Confetti Design brings years of experience in building Shopify stores that look beautiful, function smoothly, and integrate powerfully with advanced inventory platforms.

Talk to our Shopify experts today to get the back end of your store working just as hard as the front.