How to automate inventory management across your ecommerce tools

Key takeways: 

• An inventory management app works best when it's connected to the other tools your business runs on: your store, accounting software, shipping carrier, payment gateway, and CRM.
• Without these connections, your team ends up moving data between apps manually, which leads to errors, delays, and lost visibility across your operations.
• Automating these workflows means stock counts, invoices, shipments, and customer records stay accurate across all your tools without anyone stepping in to update them.

Inventory management doesn’t happen in a single app. Your inventory system may track what’s in stock, but orders, payments, invoices, shipments, and customer details are often handled by different tools. For the entire process to run smoothly, those tools need to stay in sync.

A customer places an order in Shopify, but the stock count in your inventory app doesn't update until someone checks. An invoice is created, but the finance team only finds out when someone forwards it. Your teams tend to spend more time on admin work and don't have much visibility into the data in multiple places.

Inventory automation handles this by connecting your inventory app to the other tools your business runs on. When something changes in one app, the relevant update happens in the next without anyone stepping in to move the data.

This article walks through practical inventory automation workflows, organized by the tools your inventory app needs to work with: your store, accounting software, shipping carrier, payment gateway, and CRM.

How does automated inventory management actually work?

Automated inventory management works by setting up triggers and actions between your apps. A trigger is an event in one app, like a new order, a low stock alert, or a payment received. An action is what happens next in another app, like when a record gets created, a notification goes out, or a field gets updated.

When a new order is placed on Shopify, Zoho Inventory automatically creates a sales order and adjusts the stock count. At the same time, your accounting app logs the transaction.

With Zoho Flow, you connect your inventory app to the other tools in your stack and define these trigger-action sequences. Zoho Flow supports inventory management tools like Zoho Inventory, Cin7 Core, Linnworks, Unleashed Software, and Veeqo, alongside the ecommerce, accounting, shipping, and payment apps they need to connect with.

eCommerce inventory workflows worth automating

Here are some practical workflows you can use to automate each stage of the ecommerce order process. 

Connect your online store to your inventory app

When an order comes in, your store and inventory app need to update each other immediately. Without automation, that's done by hand. Connecting your store and inventory app through Zoho Flow means these updates happen on their own as orders come in.

Stock counts stay accurate

Every order placed on your ecommerce platform like WooCommerce updates the stock count in your inventory management software, like Cin7 Core. Your inventory stays accurate without anyone having to log in and adjust it. If you sell across more than one channel, like a WooCommerce store and a physical outlet, you can run the same flow for each so all channels always reflect the same available stock.

Sales orders get created without manual entry

Zoho Flow creates a sales order in your inventory app like Zoho Inventory the moment a purchase is made on the ecommerce platform like Shopify. Item details, quantities, customer information, and shipping addresses all carry over without anyone re-entering them.

Customer records stay consistent across tools

Each time a new customer completes a purchase on BigCommerce, their details are added as a contact in your inventory platform, like Unleashed Software. If an existing customer updates their details on your store, Zoho Flow updates their record in your inventory app as well. This means your customer data stays consistent across both tools without anyone maintaining two separate lists.

Send tracking details back to your store after dispatch

Once an order is packed and shipped in your inventory management software Linnworks, the tracking number is pushed back to your e-commerce platform Squarespace instantly so the customer can track their delivery.

Keep your accounting in sync with your inventory app

Accounting in an ecommerce business depends almost entirely on data that lives in your inventory app: invoices, customer records, credit notes, and vendor bills. Here is how connecting your inventory and accounting tools through Zoho Flow keeps that data in sync.

Invoices get created automatically

The moment an invoice is created in your inventory management software, like Cin7 Core, a corresponding invoice is generated in your accounting software, like QuickBooks. For businesses processing a high number of invoices daily, this removes a significant amount of back-and-forth between teams.

Customers get added in real time

Each time a new customer is created in your inventory platform Veeqo, the same contact is created in your accounting software Xero. This way your accounting records stay up to date without anyone maintaining two separate customer lists.

Credit notes reflect in both systems

Returns are one of the more tedious things to track one by one. A credit note raised in SalesBinder for a returned item creates a matching credit memo in Zoho Books. 

Vendor bills stay accurate 

Bills raised against vendors in Zoho Inventory are created in Freshbooks as soon as they're logged.

Automate shipment tracking across your inventory and shipping tools

Once an order leaves your warehouse, two things need to happen quickly: your inventory app needs to know it shipped, and your customer needs a way to track it. Here is how integrating your inventory and shipping tools through Zoho Flow keeps shipment data moving without delays.

Orders reach your shipping tool without anyone stepping in

Whenever a new sales order gets created in your inventory platform, like Zoho Inventory, a corresponding order is created in your shipping app, like ShipStation. Your shipping teams get to know about the new sales order the moment it is created.

Shipment updates are recorded as soon as they happen

Once an order is dispatched in your shipping app, like Shiprocket, the shipment status updates in Zoho Inventory on its own.

Tracking details get to the right place

A new shipment created in Starshipit passes the tracking information back to Veeqo. From there it can update the order status or be sent to the customer directly, without anyone copying it across between systems.

Delivery tasks get created without a separate step

When a new sales order is created in Zoho Inventory, a delivery task is created right away in delivery management platform Tookan and assigned to the relevant driver or team. Your logistics team can start planning the delivery on time.

Connect your payment gateway to your inventory app

Payments are a crucial part of your business, and every transaction needs to be reflected across the tools you use. Connecting your payment gateway to your inventory app means those updates happen on their own, without anyone logging in to record them. 

A new payment triggers an order update

Each time a payment is received in your payment gateway, like Stripe, the corresponding order is updated in your inventory management tool Moysklad to reflect the transaction.

Payment disputes are flagged in your inventory app

When a customer raises a dispute on a PayPal transaction, the relevant order in Zoho inventory is flagged automatically.

New customers are added to your inventory app at the point of payment

The first time a customer completes a payment in Razorpay, their details are added as a new contact in Shipwire. Thus, your inventory and fulfilment records stay updated.

Refunds are recorded without a separate entry

When a refund is processed in payment processing software Square, the order status is updated in Zoho inventory. 

Give your sales team visibility into inventory activity

Most sales teams only see what's in their CRM. If order activity stays inside your inventory app and never reaches the CRM, your reps are making decisions without the full picture of what customers are actually buying. Connecting your inventory app to your CRM turns order activity into sales context, without anyone having to pull reports or switch between tools.

Every new order becomes a contact in CRM 

When a new sales order is created in Zoho Inventory, a corresponding contact is created or updated in Zoho CRM. Your sales team can see a customer's order history directly in the CRM, so they have the right context before a call or follow-up. 

High-value orders show up in your sales pipeline

Each time a new purchase order is created in Zoho Inventory, a deal is created in HubSpot CRM. This way significant orders get the sales team's visibility as they come in.

Repeat buyers get flagged before they go quiet

When a customer places another order in Cin7 Core, an activity is created in Pipedrive to prompt a follow-up. As repeat buyers are your most valuable customers, this workflow makes sure your sales team knows who they are and reaches out at the right time.

A cancelled order becomes a reason to reach out

When an order is cancelled in Linnworks, a task is created in Freshsales and assigned to the relevant sales rep. Instead of a cancellation disappearing into the system unnoticed, your team has a prompt to follow up, understand what went wrong, and potentially recover the sale.

A connected inventory stack runs itself. The workflows in this article are a starting point, pick the ones relevant to your tools and build from there.

Zoho Flow supports all the apps covered here, with pre-built templates to get you started quickly. If an app you use isn't in the gallery, you can still connect it using webhooks. For on-premise tools like SAP Business One or SAP S/4HANA, Zoho Flow supports on-premise integrations as well.

And if you're not sure where to begin, Flow's AI-powered prompt-based flow generation lets you describe the workflow you need in plain language and builds it for you, no technical setup required. Get started with Zoho Flow and see how it works.

Related reading

• Ecommerce automation: Tools and workflows for every part of your business    
• 8 workflow automation ideas for your ecommerce business
• How to integrate Shopify and QuickBooks to automatically create invoices for new orders
• How to integrate WooCommerce with other applications using Zoho Flow
   

Frequently asked questions

1. How do I connect my inventory app to my ecommerce store?

You can connect your inventory app to your store using an integration platform like Zoho Flow. When a new order comes in, Zoho Flow triggers an update in your inventory app like creating a sales order, adjusting stock, and syncing customer details.

2. Can I automate inventory updates across multiple sales channels?

Yes. With Zoho Flow, you can set up separate flows for each sales channel such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Commerce and more. 

3. Do I need technical knowledge to set up inventory automation workflows?

No. Zoho Flow offers pre-built templates for common inventory workflows that you can set up without writing any code. If you're not sure where to start, Flow's AI-powered prompt-based flow generation lets you describe the workflow you need in plain language and builds it for you.

4. What if the app I use isn't supported by Zoho Flow?

You can still connect it using webhooks. Zoho Flow supports incoming and outgoing webhooks, so most apps that aren't in the gallery can still be integrated into your workflows.

5. Does Zoho Flow have a free plan?

Yes. Zoho Flow offers a 15-day free trial where you can explore all features, including inventory automation workflows, without any commitment.

6. How is Zoho Flow priced?

Zoho Flow offers three plans. The Standard plan starts at $25/month (billed annually) for 5,000 tasks/month, and the Professional plan starts at $41/month (billed annually) for 10,000 tasks/month. For ecommerce businesses running multiple inventory workflows across several apps, the task count scales with your order volume. You can view the full pricing breakdown here.

The article was originally published in November 2023 and was recently updated.