Ops & Supply

How to sync shopify inventory across channels as CPG Founders

Ops & SupplyFor CPG Founders2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

You're selling DTC on Shopify, wholesale through Faire and KeHE, and maybe Amazon too. Every channel has its own inventory number, and none of them talk to each other. When a Shopify flash sale clears 200 units of your top SKU, Faire still thinks those units are available — and your wholesale buyer places an order you can't fill. You're manually exporting CSVs, updating spreadsheets, and emailing your 3PL to ask what's actually on hand. This takes 3-5 hours a week and still breaks down. The downstream cost is worse: canceled wholesale orders damage retailer relationships that took 18 months to build.

Build this on Starch → See the apps used

Ops & SupplyFor CPG Founders2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

Outcome

What you'll set up

A single real-time inventory dashboard showing stock levels across your co-packer, 3PL, and every sales channel — so you always know what's available to promise before you commit to an order

Automatic inventory decrements across Shopify and your wholesale marketplaces the moment a sale happens, with SKU matching and tracking sync so no channel oversells a unit you don't have

Reorder alerts and shelf-life rotation logic baked into the same system, so product approaching expiration ships first and FBA replenishment accounts for lead time and lot dates

The Starch recipe

Apps, data, and prompts

The combination of Starch apps, the data sources they pull from, and the prompts you use to drive them.

Apps used

Marketplace Sync Inventory Planner

Data sources & config

Shopify connects from Starch's integration catalog — the agent queries inventory and order data live when the sync runs. Faire and KeHE are automated through your browser — no direct API required — so Starch can push inventory updates and pull order confirmations the same way you would if you logged in yourself. Your 3PL's WMS portal, if it lacks a direct API, is also handled through browser automation. Starch syncs your Slack data on a schedule to route reorder alerts to the right channel.

Prompts to copy

Connect my Shopify store and sync inventory to Faire and KeHE. When a unit sells on any channel, decrement available quantity everywhere else immediately. Alert me if any SKU drops below 50 units across all channels combined.

Show me a single dashboard of stock on hand at my 3PL in Ohio, my co-packer in Wisconsin, and FBA. Group by SKU, show lot date, days until expiration, and current velocity. Flag anything expiring within 60 days that isn't already allocated to a channel.

Set a reorder point for each SKU based on 30-day rolling velocity plus 14-day lead time from my co-packer. When stock on hand hits the reorder point, draft a purchase order and Slack me to approve it.

Run these in Starch → or paste them into your favorite agent

Walkthrough

Step-by-step

1 Connect Shopify from Starch's integration catalog. The agent queries your product catalog, current inventory levels, and open orders live. This becomes your source of truth for available-to-promise quantity.

2 Set up browser automation for Faire and KeHE. Starch logs into each marketplace the way you would, reads current listings and inventory counts, and maps your Shopify SKUs to their corresponding marketplace SKUs — even when the SKU codes don't match exactly.

3 Tell Starch how to handle SKU discrepancies. CPG brands often have different UPCs, case pack sizes, or item names across channels. Describe the mapping rules in plain language: 'My Shopify SKU CHOC-12 is the same as Faire CHOC-CASE-12 and KeHE item 884729.'

4 Activate the Marketplace Sync app (currently in development — request beta access). Once live, every sale on any channel triggers an immediate inventory decrement across all connected channels, with no manual step required.

5 Layer in the Inventory Planner app (also currently in development — request beta access) to pull stock levels from your 3PL, co-packer, and FBA into one view. Starch automates log-ins to your 3PL's portal through your browser if they don't have a direct API.

6 Define shelf-life parameters per SKU. Tell Starch: 'Our granola bars have a 12-month shelf code. Prioritize lot dates expiring soonest for DTC shipments, and only send FBA replenishment with at least 6 months remaining.' Starch builds the FEFO rotation logic from that description.

7 Set reorder triggers based on velocity and lead time. Starch tracks 30-day rolling sell-through per SKU per channel and drafts a purchase order when projected stock hits zero before your co-packer lead time is up.

8 Wire reorder alerts to Slack. Starch syncs your Slack workspace and posts draft POs to a channel you specify — you approve with one click, Starch logs into your co-packer's order portal and submits through browser automation.

9 Set up a weekly inventory reconciliation automation. Every Monday, Starch pulls channel-reported inventory, compares it to your internal count, and flags discrepancies above a threshold you define (e.g., more than 5 units difference per SKU).

10 Add expiration alerts. Starch flags any lot within 60 days of expiration that isn't already allocated to an order, and surfaces options: markdown on DTC, donate, or accelerate shipment to a channel with higher velocity.

11 Build a channel P&L view on top of the inventory data. Ask Starch to show gross margin per SKU per channel after backing out estimated fulfillment costs — so you know whether the Faire velocity is actually profitable relative to DTC before you negotiate next season's terms.

12 Review the single inventory dashboard before every weekly ops call. No more pre-meeting scramble to reconcile three CSVs — one view shows what's on hand, what's allocated, what's in transit, and what's at risk.

See this running on Starch

Connect your tools, describe what you want, and the agent builds it. Closed beta is free.

Try it on Starch →

Worked example

February 2026 Valentine's Week Sell-Through — Oat Bar Brand, 4 SKUs

Sample numbers from a real run

Shopify DTC units sold (Mon–Wed)	340
Faire wholesale units sold (same window)	180
Units incorrectly still listed as available on Faire pre-sync	180
Canceled wholesale orders avoided	3
Hours saved vs. manual CSV reconciliation (weekly)	4
Dark Chocolate Oat Bar units flagged expiring within 45 days	95
Those units redirected to DTC flash sale, recovered value ($4.20/unit)	399

Going into Valentine's week, the brand ran a 20%-off Shopify flash sale on their Dark Chocolate Oat Bar. By Wednesday morning, 340 DTC units had shipped. Under the old spreadsheet workflow, Faire wouldn't have known until Thursday when someone remembered to update the portal — meaning a regional grocery buyer who placed a 180-unit order on Wednesday would have gotten a cancellation notice on Friday. With Marketplace Sync running (in beta), every Shopify sale decremented Faire inventory in real time. The buyer's order processed cleanly against actual available stock. Separately, Inventory Planner flagged 95 units of the same SKU sitting at the 3PL with a lot date expiring in 43 days — below the 45-day FBA minimum. Instead of letting those units age out, the team added them to the flash sale at a $1 discount, recovered $399, and avoided a disposal fee. The whole reconciliation that used to consume a Thursday afternoon ran automatically.

Measurement

How you'll know it's working

Oversell rate per channel (target: zero canceled orders due to inventory error)

Inventory shrink from expiration as a percentage of units produced per lot

Available-to-promise accuracy: variance between Starch-reported and 3PL-reported on-hand units

Weeks of supply per SKU per channel, updated weekly against current velocity

Reorder cycle time: days from reorder trigger to purchase order submitted to co-packer

Comparison

What this replaces

The other ways teams handle this today, and how the Starch version compares.

Manual Shopify + Faire CSV exports into Google Sheets

Zero software cost but 3-5 hours of reconciliation per week, guaranteed to break the moment you run a sale on more than one channel simultaneously.

Linnworks or Skubana (Extensiv)

Purpose-built for multichannel inventory but priced for brands doing $5M+, requires dedicated onboarding, and doesn't handle CPG-specific shelf-life or FEFO rotation without custom configuration.

Cin7

Strong inventory management with B2B order management built in, but the learning curve is steep for a two-person ops team and it won't automate marketplace portals that lack a direct API the way Starch's browser automation can.

Faire's native inventory sync

Only syncs Shopify to Faire — leaves KeHE, Amazon, and your 3PL completely disconnected, so you're still reconciling across multiple systems manually.

On Starch RECOMMENDED

One platform — shopify marketplace sync, inventory planner all running on connected data. Setup in plain English; numbers stay current via scheduled syncs and live agent queries.

Try it on Starch →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The Marketplace Sync and Inventory Planner apps both say 'currently in development.' Can I use Starch for this workflow right now?

The pre-built apps are in development — you can request beta access to get notified when they launch. In the meantime, you can describe what you want directly to Starch and the agent will build a custom app for your specific channels, SKUs, and fulfillment setup. The App Store templates are the starting line, not the ceiling. Tell Starch what you need and it builds it.

Faire and KeHE don't have public APIs. How does Starch actually connect to them?

Starch automates both portals through your browser — no API needed. The same way you'd log in, navigate to inventory, and update a number yourself, Starch does it automatically. This means it works even for portals that actively avoid third-party integrations.

My 3PL uses a WMS system I've never heard of. Can Starch pull stock levels from it?

If your 3PL has a web portal you can log into, Starch can automate it through your browser. If they send you inventory reports via email, Starch can read Gmail and parse those too — Starch syncs your Gmail data on a schedule. If they have a direct API, Starch can query it live from the integration catalog. Most small 3PLs fall into the first or second category and both work.

Will this work if my Shopify SKUs don't match my Faire item numbers or my KeHE UPCs?

Yes. You describe the mapping rules to Starch in plain language — 'my Shopify SKU CHOC-12 corresponds to Faire listing CHOC-CASE-12 and KeHE item 884729' — and the agent builds the matching logic from that. You don't need your SKUs to be consistent across every channel for this to work.

Is Starch SOC 2 Type II certified? We're being asked about data security by a potential retail partner.

Not yet — Starch is not currently SOC 2 Type II certified. If your retail partner requires SOC 2 Type II as a hard vendor requirement, that's worth knowing upfront. It's on the roadmap.

Can Starch also handle FBA replenishment timing given shelf-life constraints?

Yes, and this is one of the harder problems for food and beverage brands specifically. You tell Starch your Amazon FBA minimum shelf-life requirement (Amazon typically requires 90+ days for grocery), your co-packer lead time, and your current lot dates, and the agent calculates which lots are eligible for FBA replenishment and when to ship them. The Amazon Channel Manager app (currently in development — request beta access) will handle this end-to-end including Buy Box monitoring and per-SKU profitability.

What happens if inventory gets out of sync between what Starch shows and what's actually at my 3PL?

Starch runs a weekly reconciliation automation that compares channel-reported inventory to 3PL-reported inventory and flags any SKU where the numbers diverge beyond a threshold you set. It won't silently drift — you get a Slack alert with the specific SKUs and quantities that don't match so you can investigate the root cause.