Real Time Order and Inventory Sync: How to Stop Selling From One System and Shipping From Another

When order data and inventory data do not move together, your business becomes two businesses. One business is selling, confirming, and promising delivery. The other business is trying to pick, pack, and ship with a different version of reality. Real time order and inventory sync is what keeps those two worlds aligned, so customers do not end up paying for your system gaps with cancellations, delays, and wrong shipments.

Most brands think they have sync because systems are connected. A connection is not the same as sync. If inventory updates lag, orders get released before inventory is truly available. If order updates lag, the warehouse picks the wrong priorities, and customer service cannot answer basic questions. Real time sync means the same events show up across systems quickly enough that your storefront, your WMS, and your customer-facing tools are all looking at the same truth.

Why order and inventory data drift apart

Drift happens because systems operate at different speeds and with different assumptions. An ecommerce platform confirms an order instantly. A warehouse confirms inventory through physical work, and physical work takes time. If the system does not capture that work in real time, the gap grows.

Drift also happens because inventory is not a single number. Inventory has location and status. A unit can be on the dock, in staging, in quarantine, allocated to a retailer PO, or being picked for another order. If your systems treat all of that as the same inventory, sync becomes a fantasy. You are syncing a simplified number that does not match operational reality.

The solution is event-driven, status-aware sync. That means systems share not only counts, but also allocations, reservations, picks, packs, shipments, and returns. When those events flow in real time, drift becomes rare and manageable.

The warehouse must generate real time truth first

It is tempting to focus on the integration layer first. Integrations matter, but the warehouse system has to produce accurate events. If the WMS is not tracking inventory through every touchpoint, the sync will just spread incorrect information faster.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, described the standard for warehouse truth: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." Real time sync depends on that level of tracking. If receipts, moves, replenishment, and returns are not recorded consistently, order promises will outrun inventory reality.

Bryan also explained how deep that real time visibility can go when tracking includes movement, not only storage: "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now, and if I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10." That is what it looks like when inventory is not just counted, but locatable. Sync is much easier when inventory is not disappearing into the building between checkpoints.

Scan-based execution is the engine of real time sync

Real time sync is only possible when warehouse work is captured in real time. That means scan discipline. If people do work on paper, or they plan to scan later, the system cannot publish accurate events quickly enough to keep the storefront aligned.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, described the baseline rule: "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." That is the operational requirement behind real time sync. Scans create transactions. Transactions create events. Events keep systems aligned.

Connor also described what customers experience when accuracy is weak. They were "losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Those errors create downstream sync problems too, because returns, replacements, credits, and adjustments have to be propagated across platforms. Scan-based accuracy reduces the amount of corrective syncing you have to do later.

What real time order and inventory sync should include

Good sync includes more than orders flowing into the warehouse. It includes reservations and allocations flowing back to the storefront, so the storefront stops selling inventory that is already committed. It includes pick and pack events flowing to customer service tools, so customers can see order progression. It includes shipment confirmation flowing back to the ecommerce platform and marketplaces, so tracking is accurate and performance metrics stay healthy.

It also includes returns and disposition updates. Returns can create inventory, destroy inventory, or change inventory status. If returns updates do not sync, your on-hand count becomes noisy, and you either oversell returns inventory or underuse it.

Status awareness matters across all of this. Inventory in receiving should not always be sellable. Inventory allocated to B2B orders should not be treated as available for D2C. Inventory in quarantine should not be exposed as available. Sync that ignores status is how you end up with a store that sells inventory the warehouse cannot ship.

Why real time sync reduces oversells and backorders

Oversells and backorders are usually treated as demand problems, but they are often sync problems. If allocations do not sync quickly, two channels can sell the same units. If receipts do not sync quickly, marketing pauses campaigns even though inventory is physically in the building. If picks do not sync quickly, the storefront still shows inventory available even though it is being depleted.

Real time sync tightens those gaps. It makes inventory availability reflect what is truly available after commitments and in-process work. It also gives your team a more predictable fulfillment operation, because the warehouse is not constantly trying to fulfill orders that should not have been released yet.

Omnichannel makes sync non-negotiable

As you add channels, the cost of drift rises. A small delay that is survivable in a single channel becomes destructive when multiple channels pull from one pool.

Jen Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at G10 Fulfillment, described the multi-system reality: "You want to make sure your inventory is tracked across those two different systems, to make sure that there's enough inventory." Real time sync is how you do that. When orders and inventory events move in both directions, channels stop fighting over the same units, and your team stops making allocation decisions based on stale numbers.

Customer visibility reduces the ticket noise that creates errors

When order status is unclear, customers ask questions. Those questions become tickets. Tickets interrupt warehouse work, and interruptions lead to missed scans and rushed processes, which damages accuracy and creates more sync drift.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, described what customer-facing access provides: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." She also described what that enables: "They can actually watch those progressions going on." When customers can self-serve status, the warehouse stays focused on execution, and real time sync stays cleaner because events are captured consistently.

Ship accuracy is the downstream proof systems are aligned

Real time sync should lead to better outcomes, not just prettier dashboards. When systems are aligned, the warehouse is less likely to improvise, and improvisation is where errors happen. When picks and packs are scan-verified and events flow cleanly, ship accuracy improves.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10 Fulfillment, described an outcome that reflects disciplined execution: "We have over 99.9% ship accuracy of these orders." High ship accuracy reduces the number of corrective events that have to be synced across systems, which keeps your inventory truth cleaner over time.

How to evaluate a 3PL on real time order and inventory sync

Ask how quickly inventory allocations and reservations are reflected back to your storefront. Ask how quickly order progression events update. Ask whether the warehouse is scan-based across internal moves and replenishment, not only receiving and shipping. Ask whether transaction history is accessible when something is disputed.

Bryan described the traceability you should expect from a strong system: "We have portals that show you the data. We have history that shows you all of that tracking." When a provider can show that history, it is easier to keep your systems aligned because discrepancies can be diagnosed and corrected quickly.

How G10 supports real time order and inventory sync

G10 focuses on scan-based execution, transaction-level tracking, and customer-facing visibility so orders and inventory events stay aligned across systems. Connor summarized the baseline: "Having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." Bryan described the tracking foundation behind accurate events: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." Maureen connected visibility to fewer interruptions and cleaner data: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility."

If you are tired of selling from one system and shipping from another, real time order and inventory sync is the standard to insist on. When scans capture every touch, when statuses and allocations are respected, and when events flow quickly between platforms, your storefront stops making promises your warehouse cannot keep. That is when growth feels smoother, not more stressful.