Articles on: Synchronization

📦 Inventory/stock synchronization : how does it work?

You can synchronize your Inventory with Airtable thanks to SyncBase. This topic explains how it works.


Overview


  • Inventory data is available in your Variants table.
  • Each Shopify location is represented by a dedicated column, named Location: {your location name}.


SyncBase syncs any column in the Variants table whose name starts with Stock available in:. If you add your own custom (non-synced) column to this table, make sure its name does not start with Stock available in:, otherwise SyncBase may try to sync it as an inventory location.


Updating inventory from Airtable (Variants tab)


Each location you create can be found within the Variants tab call Stock available in {name of your location}


To update stock levels directly in Airtable:


  1. Check your Shopify settings.


Make sure Inventory tracking is enabled for each Variant, and that the location is activated. This only needs to be done once in Shopify.




  1. Go to your Variants tab. Find the variant and the column for the location you want to update.
  2. Update the value.


✅ That’s it—SyncBase will push the new stock level to Shopify instantly.



Updating inventory from Shopify


Inventory changes made in Shopify (via manual update, sales, or transfers) are instantly reflected in your Airtable base.


No manual refresh needed — SyncBase keeps it up to date in real time.



Adding a new location


To add a new inventory location and sync it:


  1. In your Shopify Admin, go to Settings > Locations.
  2. Click Add location and complete the setup.
  3. Open any product in Shopify and add a quantity at this new location.
  4. SyncBase will automatically detect it and create a new column in Airtable.


✅ Done! You can now track and edit stock levels for this location directly from Airtable.



⚠️ If a location's columns in the Variants tab are completely empty (no value at all, not even 0s), this means no inventory has ever been synced for that location. In most cases, the location has not been activated for that product in Shopify yet.



Special Case: New products created from Airtable and inventory tracking in multiple locations



If your Shopify store has several locations and you create a new product from Airtable's Products table, Shopify does not automatically activate inventory tracking on all your locations for that product. By default, only the first location will sync — the others won't receive stock updates until they're manually activated. This is a known limitation of the Shopify API. We're working on a workaround.


How to activate the inventory tracking in multiple locations:


  1. In Shopify, open the product that was just created from Airtable.
  2. Click Edit locations (in the Inventory section of the product page).




  1. Toggle on / activate each location where this product should track stock.





  1. Save.


Once the locations are activated in Shopify, inventory will sync normally for all of them from Airtable going forward.


👉 How to create a new product from Airtable with SyncBase



Your Inventory is not syncing as expected?


Good to know: SyncBase only reflects changes made in Airtable or Shopify. It never modifies inventory by itself.


Why are the inventory numbers not correct? A common cause: a change was made in Airtable but never actually synced to Shopify due to an error in the stock adjustment workflow. When a later Shopify update (order, return, manual change) syncs back to Airtable correctly, it appears to "overwrite" the never synced Airtable edit — but SyncBase was working correctly the whole time. This is how you can debug:



1. Test a manual change

Edit a Stock available in {location} value directly in the Variants table in Airtable (no automation). Check if it updates in Shopify within a few seconds.


2. Check the Last Successful Update column

This timestamp shows when SyncBase last pushed a change for that record. Did it update?



3. Fix the root cause

  • Manual edit worked → the issue is in your Airtable Automation or workflow. Review and correct it.
  • Manual edit did not sync → contact us via the in-app live chat and we'll investigate directly.

Updated on: 09/07/2026

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