Selling on four channels from one warehouse, a consumer electronics brand oversold about 30 orders a month — refunds, penalties, angry reviews. We built near-real-time stock sync across every channel, with automatic reorder drafts, and oversells hit zero.
Typical results
0
Oversells once live
5 min
Cross-channel sync lag
4
Channels on one stock truth
$2,800
Monthly penalties avoided
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Stock levels lived in the warehouse system, but the webstore and three marketplaces each held their own copy — updated by a nightly export and ten hours a week of manual edits. Fast-moving SKUs oversold roughly 30 times a month, triggering cancellations, marketplace penalties around $2,800 monthly, and seller-rating damage that throttled visibility.
Before and after
Oversold orders
−100%Stock sync lag
−99%Manual stock updates
−100%The automation
We made the warehouse system the single source of truth, with Make propagating every stock movement — sales, returns, deliveries — to the webstore and all three marketplaces within five minutes. Low-stock thresholds now generate supplier reorder drafts with lead times factored in, and discontinuing a SKU delists it from every channel in one action. A safety-buffer rule holds back the last units of volatile SKUs during flash-sale spikes.
How it works
- 01
One source of truth
The warehouse system holds the real number; every channel reads from it instead of keeping its own copy.
- 02
Every movement propagates
Sales, returns and incoming deliveries update the webstore and all three marketplaces within five minutes.
- 03
Buffers absorb the spikes
Volatile SKUs keep a safety buffer during promotions, so a flash sale on one channel can't oversell another.
- 04
Reorders draft themselves
Low-stock thresholds create supplier reorder drafts with lead times factored in — purchasing just reviews and sends.
- 05
Delist once, everywhere
Discontinued SKUs come down from all four channels with a single action.
Starts from
- Warehouse stock levels
- Orders from four channels
Delivers
- Webstore & marketplaces updated
- Supplier reorder drafts
- One-click SKU delisting
The impact
Oversells fell from about 30 a month to zero and have stayed there, ending roughly $2,800 in monthly marketplace penalties and refunds. Sync lag dropped from a nightly batch to five minutes, ten weekly hours of manual stock edits disappeared, and seller ratings recovered across every marketplace.
Questions about this automation
How fast do stock changes reach every channel?
The warehouse system is the single source of truth. Every movement, whether a sale, a return or an incoming delivery, is pushed to the webstore and each marketplace within about five minutes through Make. Channels stop keeping their own counts, so the nightly export and manual edits are no longer needed.
How does it prevent oversells during promotions?
Fast-moving SKUs can carry a safety buffer that holds back the last few units from listings during flash sales and spikes. When stock reaches the buffer, channels show the item as out of stock even though a few units remain, which covers orders that arrive in the seconds before a sync completes.
Does it handle reorders and discontinued products?
Yes. When a SKU drops below its low-stock threshold, a supplier reorder draft is created with lead time factored in, and purchasing reviews and sends it. Discontinuing a SKU removes it from every channel in one action. It is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages, starting with stock sync to the webstore.