BigCommerce Inventory Sync: Stop Overselling [2026]

A storefront can say a product is available long after the warehouse knows it is not. That gap creates the most frustrating kind of order: one the customer has already paid for, but you cannot actually ship.

BigCommerce does a good job of running a storefront. VNDLY is built to run the operational side: stock across locations, purchase orders, receiving, fulfillment, and the decisions around what is truly available to sell. The BigCommerce inventory sync connects those two jobs without making a team keep a second spreadsheet or update quantities by hand.

This is a practical guide to how the VNDLY + BigCommerce connection works today, including what moves in each direction, the real buttons you will see, and the boundaries worth knowing before you switch it on.

Why BigCommerce inventory gets messy as a business grows

At the beginning, a single inventory number in the BigCommerce control panel can feel sufficient. Then the business changes. You add a second storage location. A wholesale order reserves units before they leave the building. A purchase order arrives in two deliveries. Someone needs to know what is on hand, what is committed, and what can still be sold.

The dangerous answer is often "whatever the storefront says." That number is easy to see, but it does not always reflect pending sales orders or stock split across locations.

VNDLY treats inventory as an operational record rather than a catalogue field. When it pushes inventory to BigCommerce, it totals the selected VNDLY locations and subtracts quantities on open, unfulfilled sales-order lines. The value sent to the storefront is never below zero. In plain English: the store is given an available-to-sell quantity, not a hopeful count from a shelf.

That matters even more when BigCommerce is one channel in a wider operation. If you also sell elsewhere, read our guide to the VNDLY multi-store ecommerce hub and our practical walkthrough for stopping overselling before customers notice.

What VNDLY syncs with BigCommerce

The connection is deliberately not an everything-goes, two-way mirror. VNDLY is the source of truth for ongoing product and inventory operations. BigCommerce is the source of incoming web orders. That separation prevents a late catalogue edit in one system from silently overwriting the work in the other.

From BigCommerce into VNDLY: orders and an optional starting catalogue import

When a BigCommerce order is created or updated, VNDLY can receive it through a webhook. BigCommerce documents webhooks as notifications for store events, including order creation and order updates. VNDLY also has a Sync All flow that checks orders created since the store was connected. BigCommerce's webhook overview explains the event model behind this approach.

For each new order, VNDLY creates a sales order with the configured Web Order Prefix. The default BigCommerce prefix is BC-. It brings in the customer, order date, currency, subtotal, discount, tax, shipping, grand total, line quantities, SKU, item name, unit price, and tax information. VNDLY avoids creating the same order twice by keeping an external order mapping.

There is an important operational detail here. Importing an order does not deduct stock automatically. The order arrives as a confirmed sales order, and the warehouse completes fulfillment in VNDLY. That keeps inventory deduction in one place and avoids double-counting when a picker ships an order.

New to VNDLY with an established BigCommerce catalogue? Use Sync catalog from BigCommerce. It imports new products and refreshes metadata on products that were previously imported, including name, description, brand, barcode, HS code, country of origin, tags, images, variant attributes, dimensions, and weight.

It intentionally skips prices and stock levels. Set those in VNDLY after import, where they can be governed by your price lists and inventory workflow. The catalogue importer also avoids overwriting images that your team has manually added in VNDLY.

From VNDLY into BigCommerce: products, images, and sellable inventory

After setup, Sync All runs in a clear order: orders first, then products, then images, then inventory. There are separate Sync Inventory and Sync Images buttons when you only need one part of that process.

VNDLY pushes product information to BigCommerce, including product name, SKU, description, visibility, price, weight, dimensions, and product availability. For variants, it creates or updates the product options and variant option values needed to represent choices such as size or colour. Variant SKUs, prices, dimensions, weight, and barcodes can also be sent.

Product tags, HS codes, and country of origin are managed as BigCommerce custom fields. VNDLY updates the custom fields it owns but leaves other custom fields created manually in BigCommerce alone.

Images are a separate outbound step. This is useful because a big image catalogue should not hold up an inventory update. VNDLY sends product images to the BigCommerce catalogue and skips images already hosted on the BigCommerce CDN or the connected store domain.

Inventory is also outbound. VNDLY calculates stock from the locations selected for the store, subtracts unfulfilled quantities on non-cancelled sales orders, and pushes the remaining available quantity for each mapped product or variant. BigCommerce does not push ongoing inventory back into VNDLY.

Finally, when a sales order that came from BigCommerce is fulfilled in VNDLY, the integration updates that linked BigCommerce order to shipped status. It does not claim to create carrier labels or send tracking details in this flow.

Set up the VNDLY BigCommerce integration

You need an active BigCommerce store API account before connecting. BigCommerce's current admin API documentation says access tokens are created from the store control panel under Settings → API → API Accounts. Keep the credentials private, just as you would a password. BigCommerce's API Accounts documentation is the best reference if your BigCommerce screen looks different from the steps below.

1. In VNDLY, open Settings → Integrations.
2. Find the BigCommerce card. Its description reads: "Sync orders, customers, products, and inventory with your BigCommerce store."
3. Enter your Store Hash and Access Token. Client ID (Optional) is available if your account uses one.
4. Select Connect BigCommerce. VNDLY validates the credentials against your store before saving the connection.
5. Give the store a useful label if you operate more than one storefront. A label such as "US Store" or "EU Store" makes the connection clearer for the whole team.
6. Set the Web Order Prefix if BC- is not right for your order numbering.
7. Under Inventory Locations, tick the locations that should feed this store. Leave all unticked only if the storefront should sell stock from every VNDLY location.
8. Choose a default sales price list and, if you sell in more than one currency, set up the currency-to-price-list mappings.
9. If you are moving an existing catalogue into VNDLY, choose Sync catalog from BigCommerce and confirm Yes, sync catalog. Remember that this imports catalogue metadata, not prices or stock.
10. Click Sync All. Watch the on-screen progress as VNDLY imports orders, pushes products, syncs images, and then updates inventory.

Once you trust the flow, turn on Auto-sync via webhooks. The toggle is off by default, which is sensible. Your first manual sync is the moment to catch missing SKUs, unexpected store labels, or a location selection that does not match how your warehouse actually works.

From the Founder: pick one owner for each job

That principle is why this integration does not pretend every field should be edited everywhere. BigCommerce remains where customers browse and place orders. VNDLY becomes where your team receives stock, manages locations, sees commitments, and fulfills the work.

If you want to see how the same operating model works across other ecommerce platforms, compare the Shopify inventory integration and the WooCommerce inventory sync guide. For the wider operational picture, our ecommerce inventory software page explains the workflows VNDLY is designed to support.

Limits to understand before you go live

The honest version is better than a broad promise.

• Ongoing product changes flow from VNDLY to BigCommerce. Product webhooks from BigCommerce are ignored so a storefront edit cannot overwrite the VNDLY catalogue. Use the one-time Sync catalog from BigCommerce action for onboarding or metadata refreshes.
• Ongoing inventory sync is VNDLY to BigCommerce only. If a quantity changes directly in BigCommerce, it will not become a VNDLY inventory event.
• Catalogue import skips prices and stock levels. This is intentional. Prices belong in VNDLY price lists, and stock needs an auditable operational record.
• Fulfilling a linked order marks the BigCommerce order shipped. The current flow does not create labels or pass carrier tracking details to BigCommerce.
• Store capacity depends on your plan. Starter includes 2 connected ecommerce stores, Professional includes 10, and Enterprise is unlimited. Every plan includes API and integration access. See the current options on VNDLY pricing.

For a reliable go-live, check that every sellable item has a SKU, choose your fulfillment location rules, run a controlled manual sync, and only then enable the webhook toggle. If you are also receiving inventory from suppliers, our purchase-order receiving guide is a useful next step.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does VNDLY sync BigCommerce inventory both ways?

No. Ongoing inventory is pushed from VNDLY to BigCommerce. VNDLY calculates available stock from its inventory record and selected locations, then sends that quantity to the storefront. Changes made directly to a BigCommerce stock count do not sync back as VNDLY inventory events.

Can I import my existing BigCommerce products into VNDLY?

Yes. Select Sync catalog from BigCommerce in the connected store card. It imports new products and refreshes supported metadata for products that VNDLY already imported. Prices and stock levels are deliberately skipped, so you can set them in VNDLY after the import.

What happens when a customer places a BigCommerce order?

VNDLY imports it as a sales order with the configured web-order prefix, along with the customer, line items, totals, tax, shipping, currency, and available SKU mapping. Your team fulfills the sales order in VNDLY, which keeps stock deduction in one operational workflow.

Can I connect more than one BigCommerce store?

Yes, subject to your VNDLY plan's connected-store limit. The integration screen supports adding another BigCommerce store, and each connection can have its own label, inventory-location selection, order prefix, and price-list settings.

Does the integration send shipping labels or tracking numbers to BigCommerce?

Not in the current BigCommerce fulfillment flow. When a BigCommerce-linked sales order is fulfilled in VNDLY, the integration marks the associated BigCommerce order shipped. Label generation and tracking updates are outside this specific connection today.