Can APIs integrate with wholesale warehouses for real-time inventory?

[kellyquigley]

Can you integrate with wholesale warehouses in real time for inventory needs?

[kingstore]

You can certainly connect with a wholesale warehouse to get available inventory. To do this you need one of two options to be available:

1. The wholesaler who is dropshipping on your behalf must offer a Shopify app which enables them to receive the orders and the sync inventory levels 
2. You would need to make a custom Shopify app which communicates to the wholesaler. 

Another option, though it is not automated is to setup custom order fulfillment and enter the information for your wholesale contact here. This option only send the order to fulfill to the wholesaler and will not update inventory in real-time. 

You can check out this everything guide to Shopify inventory management from other options and tips.

[kellyquigley]

So the ideal process I am envisioning is the following:

1) Customer orders an item from our site

2) Shopify is able to cross reference the item's stock ssactivewear's, sanmar's or "x" wholesaler's live (accurate) inventory 

3) Our fulfillment partner receives a notification from Shopify to order said product

4) The order gets fulfilled by our fulfillment/shipping partner with customers information

In your previous solution would this be bullet one or two? Appreciate your insight!