Update Inventory
Update Inventory asks your suppliers for the current stock of every variant on the selected products and writes those numbers to Shopify. Use it when you want the quantity column on a product to match what the supplier can actually ship today.
When to Use It
- A supplier just sent a restock notification, or an apparel drop is about to land.
- A customer reports a product is showing in stock on your storefront when it shouldn’t be.
- You’re about to run a paid campaign and want clean inventory numbers before the traffic arrives.
- After a long weekend or a holiday, when supplier stock has shifted.
PromoSync also runs scheduled inventory syncs in the background for products with active syncing. Update Inventory is the on-demand version for when you don’t want to wait for the next scheduled run.
Before You Run It
Each product needs a supplier link, the hidden tags PromoSync attaches at import time so it knows which supplier and supplier product the Shopify product came from. (Internally, these are the psrestful.supplier_code and psrestful.product_id metafields.)
| Source of the product | Will this action work? |
|---|---|
| Imported through PromoSync’s Product Search | Yes |
| Imported through Onboard to PromoSync or Link to PromoSync | Yes |
| Created by hand in Shopify, never touched by PromoSync | No, the product is skipped |
The supplier must also expose an inventory service through PSRESTful. Most major suppliers do; a handful of smaller ones don’t, and their products will simply be reported as skipped.
How to Run It
- In Shopify Admin, go to Products.
- Tick the checkboxes next to the products you want fresh stock for. You can also filter by vendor or tag and “Select all” to cover a whole supplier in one go.
- Click the
...button, then Apps > Bulk Product Sync. - In the dropdown, pick Update Inventory.
- Click Submit.
The dialog closes after a couple of seconds. The job runs in the background and writes the new quantities to your configured Shopify location.
Stock numbers are written to the Shopify location you have selected as the PromoSync sync location in your shop settings. If you stock from multiple locations, only that one location is updated.
What Happens Next
You’ll get an email titled “Inventory Update Results” when the job finishes. It includes:
- Total attempted, how many products PromoSync looked at.
- Updated, how many products had at least one variant’s quantity changed.
- Skipped, products PromoSync couldn’t process (no supplier link, or the supplier doesn’t offer inventory).
- Failed, products that hit an error during the supplier call or the Shopify write. Each one is listed with a direct link to it in Shopify Admin.
- Processing time, how long the job took.
The email goes to the notification contacts configured in your shop settings.
Why Something Might Be Skipped
| What the email says | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ”No supplier link” | The product is missing psrestful.supplier_code and/or psrestful.product_id. | Run Onboard to PromoSync on the product first. |
| ”Supplier inventory not available” | The supplier doesn’t expose an inventory service. | Manage stock for that supplier’s products manually, or check whether the supplier has been added to PSRESTful’s inventory list. |
| ”Variant discontinued” | The supplier no longer carries that color/size. | Decide whether to keep the variant at 0 or remove it from Shopify. |
| ”Variant not found” | The supplier doesn’t recognize the variant’s part ID or SKU. | Check the variant’s psrestful.part_id metafield and SKU against the supplier’s catalog. |
Common Questions
Will this oversell or undersell what I’ve reserved?
Update Inventory writes the supplier’s available quantity to Shopify. If you reserve stock for in-progress orders inside Shopify’s own inventory system, those reservations are handled by Shopify, not by PromoSync.
What if the supplier is rate-limiting my requests?
If PSRESTful hits a supplier or quota limit mid-batch, the job stops and you’ll get a failure email explaining what was reached. Wait for the limit to reset (usually a few minutes to a few hours), then re-run on the products that didn’t finish.
Does this update prices too?
No. Use Update Prices for that.
Does this update the hidden PromoSync data behind tier pricing?
No. Use Update Metafields when you’ve changed pricing settings and want the tier pricing block on your product pages to reflect them.
Can I schedule this instead of running it manually?
PromoSync runs scheduled inventory syncs automatically for products with syncing enabled. The bulk action is the on-demand version for when you need an immediate refresh on a specific selection.