Managing inventory after product merging

This article provides guidance on maintaining accurate inventory tracking and management after merging products, particularly when using a third-party fulfillment service.

Understanding the merging process

When Merges combines your products, it creates a new Shopify Product with new Variants. This process results in new Product IDs and Variant IDs. It's important to note that these changes can affect how your inventory is tracked and managed.

Third-party fulfillment services and inventory management

If your stock is managed by a third-party fulfillment service, please be aware that Merges doesn't have direct access to inventory items and cannot update stock levels automatically. This limitation is due to the creation of new product and variant IDs during the merging process.

Printful users

For users utilizing Printful as their third-party fulfillment service, we have created a detailed tutorial to guide you through the process of merging Printful products in Shopify and synchronizing stock and fulfillment seamlessly. You can find this tutorial at: https://www.merges.io/docs/tutorial-merge-printful-products-in-shopify-synchronize-stock-and-fulfillment-easily

Steps to resolve inventory syncing issues

Check with your fulfillment provider

Contact your fulfillment service provider to determine if it's possible to reallocate the products from the supplier to the new variants. This step is crucial for re-establishing the sync between your Shopify store and the fulfillment service.

SKU-based inventory tracking

If your third-party fulfillment service references products by SKU rather than by Product ID or Variant ID, you may not need to take additional action. In this case, stock levels should update automatically during the next sync from your supplier.

Manual inventory update

If automatic syncing isn't working, you may need to manually update stock levels for the merged product through your Shopify admin or your fulfillment service's interface.

Verify API connections

Ensure that the API connection between your Shopify store and the fulfillment service is still intact and functioning correctly after the merge.

Additional considerations

Inventory audit

Conduct a thorough inventory audit to compare stock levels in your Shopify store with those in your fulfillment center's system.

Fulfillment center communication

Inform your fulfillment center about the product merging and any changes in product structure to ensure they can accurately track and fulfill orders for the merged product.

If you need further assistance after following these steps, please don't hesitate to contact our support team. We're here to help ensure a smooth transition after merging your products.