Custom app for a marketplace integration with your stock
Appfront builds apps that connect your stock to bol.com, Amazon and other marketplaces: stock levels per item go to every marketplace as soon as they change, orders come in automatically into your own system, and shipments and returns flow back. So you don't sell an item that's no longer there, and you never re-key an order.
What is an app that connects marketplaces to your stock?
A marketplace integration for your stock does two things at once. It sends the available stock per item to every marketplace you sell on, as soon as that stock changes through a sale, a goods receipt or a correction. And it pulls orders from each marketplace and places them in your own system, with the customer, the lines and the chosen delivery. When you ship, the track-and-trace number goes back; when a return comes in, it goes back into stock.
Without such an integration, someone logs in to each marketplace, adjusts the stock when they remember to, and re-keys the orders. An item sold on your own webshop is still listed as available on bol.com until the next login, and the customer who buys it there receives a cancellation. Marketplaces hold that against you: too many cancellations cost you visibility and, eventually, your account.
We build custom because your stock lives somewhere specific: in an ERP, a WMS, a webshop or a spreadsheet that is the source of truth. The integration should connect to that and follow your business rules: which part of the stock goes to which marketplace, what you reserve for your own webshop, and which items should never appear on a marketplace. A off-the-shelf integration doesn't know those rules.
Stock per marketplace
Available stock per item sent to every marketplace, with rules: a buffer for your own webshop, a maximum per platform, and items excluded altogether.
Orders in automatically
Orders from every marketplace placed in your own system, with customer, lines, shipping method and commission included, ready to pick.
Shipping and returns sent back
The shipment number sent to the marketplace as soon as the parcel leaves, and a return put back into stock with the reason recorded.
How we build your app that integrates marketplaces with your inventory
We start where your inventory is the source of truth and where you sell on marketplaces. The integration follows from there.
Where the stock is held, which marketplaces you use, how items are listed there, and which rules you currently apply by hand. We also look at cancellations over the past few months.
Per item, the link between your article number and the item on each marketplace, with the stock rules per platform and the feed updated as soon as inventory changes.
Fetching orders and placing them in your system, sending shipment confirmations back, and processing returns. With a list of exceptions: an order for an item that no longer exists, an address that does not check out.
A screen for your team to link items, adjust rules and handle exceptions. After that we take over the app and keep up with the marketplaces' interfaces.
What a marketplace-to-inventory integration app actually does
The components below come up with almost every marketplace seller. Which ones you need depends on the number of platforms and on how your stock is kept.
Item linking
Your article number linked to the item on each marketplace, with variants in size and colour, and a list of items not yet linked.
Stock rules
Set a buffer, a maximum or an exclusion per marketplace, and a reservation for your own webshop. Changes are passed on immediately.
Order import
Orders from each marketplace into your ERP or WMS, with customer, lines, shipping method and commission, in the format your system expects.
Shipping confirmation
The tracking number goes back to the marketplace as soon as the label is created, within the deadline the platform requires.
Returns
Return notifications from the marketplace into your system, and the item back into stock after inspection, with the reason recorded.
Exceptions list
Orders that could not be processed, items without a link and stock that was not accepted, with the reason and a button to resolve it.
Who we build a marketplace-to-inventory integration app for
The app is built for sellers for whom marketplaces are a significant part of revenue, and for whom cancellations and manual errors are now costing money and visibility.
Webshops selling on multiple marketplaces
Your own webshop plus bol.com and Amazon, all with the same stock. The rules per platform and the buffer for your own shop are the core.
Brands selling direct
Your own items on marketplaces alongside sales through retailers. The integration keeps the stock you release for marketplaces separate.
Wholesalers with a marketplace channel
Large inventory, many items, orders that need to land in the WMS. The integration makes marketplaces one channel among the others.
Sellers with variants
Sizes, colours and sets registered differently per marketplace. Item linking per variant prevents the wrong size being sold.
Technology and integrations
This page is about the integration between your inventory and the marketplaces. For synchronising stock across all your channels, including your own webshop and store, see our page on multichannel inventory synchronisation, and for the integration with bol.com specifically, our page on the bol.com seller API integration. You can read about how we work under custom software development.
If you want to see on the shop floor what is in stock per channel, have a look at our multichannel stock synchronisation app.
Why choose Appfront for your marketplace-to-inventory integration app?
A marketplace integration is only as good as the stock it passes on. That is where our work lies, not in fetching orders.
Your stock as the source
The integration reads where your stock actually sits and only passes on what is available under your rules. No second inventory in a middle layer.
Your business rules
Buffer for your own shop, maximum per platform, excluded items: these are your choices, and the app enforces them.
Deviations visible
What the marketplace rejects or what cannot be processed appears on a list with the reason. An integration that fails silently costs more than no integration.
Security and privacy for a marketplace-to-inventory integration app
The integration works with the access keys of your marketplace accounts and with customer data from orders. Keys are stored encrypted and can be revoked per marketplace; customer data goes only to your own systems and is not kept longer than the order and the return period require.
Every stock change and every order is logged with time and source, so that in the event of a cancellation or a dispute with a marketplace you can check which stock was passed on when.
Frequently asked questions about a marketplace-to-inventory integration app
Questions marketplace sellers ask before getting started with this.
For each item, it sends the available stock to every marketplace as soon as it changes, retrieves the orders and enters them into your own system, returns shipping numbers and handles returns. With rules per marketplace: a buffer for your own webshop, a maximum per platform, and items that are excluded.
With any marketplace that offers a seller interface, such as bol.com and Amazon. Each platform has its own rules for stock, shipping deadlines and returns; we build those per marketplace. The platforms you use determine the order.
As soon as your system registers the change, the app passes it on, within the limits the marketplace sets on the number of calls. A sale in your own webshop is therefore visible on bol.com almost immediately. Exactly how quickly depends on your system and the platform.
Yes, that is one of the rules: a buffer per item or per group that is not sent to marketplaces. A maximum per platform and an exclusion of certain items are also rules you set yourself in the admin screen.
It goes on the exceptions list with the reason, and you decide: deliver anyway, cancel or replace. The integration is designed to prevent this, but a difference between system and warehouse can always arise. That it is visible is what sets it apart from an integration that fails silently.
Yes. Orders land in the system where you pick and invoice, in the format that system expects, and the stock is drawn from there. We connect to the package you use; the app does not become a second stock administration.
Ask that first. Webshop platforms often have a marketplace integration for the standard set-up. Custom work makes sense when your stock isn't held in the webshop platform, when you need rules per marketplace that the standard integration doesn't cover, or when variants and bundles are registered differently on each platform.
Your stock automatically on every marketplace?
Tell us where your stock is held, which marketplaces you sell on and how many cancellations you've had over the past few months. We'll show you what the integration would look like and what the per-platform rules would do for you.