What Data Should Your 3PL Send Back to Your Store? Stock, Tracking and Returns Feeds Explained

Your 3PL should send six kinds of data back to your store and ERP: available stock, despatch confirmations with tracking, back-order and exception updates, returns with reason codes, goods-in receipts against your ASN, and billable activity. These 3PL data feeds keep what you sell, what you promise customers and what you pay for in line with the warehouse floor.

A 3PL data feed is a scheduled or event-triggered transfer of warehouse records from the 3PL's system into your store, marketplace, ERP or BI tool, so nobody re-keys numbers by hand. Most brands specify the order feed into the warehouse and forget what comes back, which is where inventory accuracy drifts and customers lose track of parcels.

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A portal is the screen a person logs into (see what a fulfilment client portal should show you); feeds are what your systems read without anyone logging in. For how this is wired up at our Northampton site, see warehouse technology and integration set-up at Fulfil with Synergy.

The master reference guide: every feed your 3PL should send

Use the feed descriptions below as a checklist against your current contract or integration document.

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Available stock should flow from the 3PL to your store, marketplaces and ERP on every stock movement, with a full snapshot at least daily. The feed needs the SKU, quantity available to sell, allocated quantity, stock on hold or quarantined, batch and expiry details where relevant, warehouse ID and timestamp. Without it, overselling, cancelled orders and phantom website stock become likely.

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Stock adjustments should pass from the 3PL to the ERP as each adjustment happens. Each record needs the SKU, quantity change, reason code, user and timestamp. Missing records leave unexplained variances and month-end stock that will not reconcile.

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Order status should pass from the 3PL to your store on receipt and at every status change. It should include your order reference, the 3PL reference and the status, such as received, allocated, picked, packed or on hold. Without it, nobody can answer "Where is my order?" calls reliably, and lost orders can go unnoticed.

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Despatch confirmation and tracking should flow from the 3PL to your store and marketplaces when the parcel is manifested to the carrier. The feed needs the order reference, lines and quantities shipped, carrier, service, tracking number, parcel count and despatch timestamp. If it is missing, orders stay "unfulfilled", shipping emails are not sent, and marketplace late-despatch and tracking metrics fall.

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Back-order and exception updates should pass from the 3PL to your store whenever a line is short, held or split. Include the order reference, SKU, quantity short, reason, rule applied (hold or split) and expected resolution. Without these updates, delays remain silent, partial shipments can look complete, and refunds may be issued for the wrong items.

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Returns receipt and disposition updates should flow from the 3PL to your store, returns platform and ERP on arrival and again on grading. They need the order or RMA reference, SKU, quantity, reason code, condition grade, disposition (restock, hold or dispose) and timestamp. Missing updates lead to late or incorrect refunds, invisible resaleable units and no clear view of why products come back.

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Goods-in receipt against the ASN should pass from the 3PL to the ERP when receipt is complete for each delivery. Include the ASN or purchase order reference, SKU, expected versus received quantities, damages, batch and expiry details, confirmation that put-away is complete, and timestamp. Without this feed, you risk paying suppliers for stock that never arrived or launching products before stock is sellable.

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Billable activity should flow from the 3PL to finance daily or for each invoice period. Records need the activity type, units, order or ASN reference, rate code and date. Without them, invoices cannot be checked line by line, and disputes can surface months later.

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Orders and ASNs (pre-advice of inbound stock) travel the other way, from you to the 3PL. This article covers what the warehouse owes you in return.

Feeds that protect what you can sell

The stock feed protects revenue by telling every channel how many units it can promise right now. If it is slow, partial or sends the wrong number, inventory accuracy drops across channels even when the warehouse count is correct.

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The most common fault is sending "on hand" instead of "available to sell". On hand includes units allocated to open orders, quarantined and damaged, so pushing it to Shopify or Amazon sells stock that is already spoken for. A good 3PL inventory sync to Shopify sends available quantity per SKU and location, with a timestamp so a late message can't overwrite a newer one.

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Timing is the second fault. An hourly feed looks fine on a quiet Tuesday and fails during a flash sale, when three channels sell the same last units before the next update (we cover the mechanics in why near real-time stock updates matter for multichannel sellers). The rule: event-driven updates, plus a full daily snapshot that overwrites drift.

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The adjustment feed is the one most brands never ask for. Every count correction or damage write-off should arrive with a reason code and a user, or your ERP shows variances nobody can explain. For health, beauty and supplement brands, batch and expiry belong in the stock feed too, so you can plan promotions around short-dated batches.

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How Fulfil with Synergy handles stock data: our RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS holds real-time inventory down to unit, SKU, batch and location, and writes every movement to a time-stamped, user-tagged audit trail, so any adjustment can be traced to who moved what and why. FEFO and FIFO are applied automatically, and one stock pool serves every channel, with API feeds preferred so updates are event-driven.

Feeds that protect the customer promise

Despatch, tracking and back-order feeds protect the promise you made at checkout. When they fail, the parcel may leave on time but everyone downstream behaves as though it didn't.

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The shipment confirmation tracking feed is the trigger for most of what the customer sees. On Shopify, when an order is assigned to a third-party fulfilment service, Shopify's own help documentation states that "The fulfillment service controls the status", and the tracking number is displayed in the shipping confirmation and shipping update emails. If the 3PL doesn't post the confirmation back, the order stays unfulfilled and the customer never gets that email.

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Marketplaces are stricter. Amazon measures a Valid Tracking Rate on seller-fulfilled orders, and in a message to sellers posted on its European seller forum it said that from 15 January 2025 the measure would cover all shipping providers, not only those integrated with Amazon. Late or mistyped tracking counts against you even when the parcel arrives.

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A complete despatch confirmation carries the lines and quantities actually shipped, not just "order complete", so a split shipment shows as two fulfilments with two tracking numbers.

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Back-orders and exceptions need their own feed. When a line is short or an order is held, your store should hear the same day, with the reason and the rule applied (hold or split). Otherwise your team finds out from a complaint.

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How Fulfil with Synergy handles despatch data: orders are tracked live from pick to doorstep, with carrier updates from around 27 UK and international carriers including Royal Mail, Evri, DPD and DHL. Back-orders are held or split automatically by rules agreed with each client. The daily shipped orders report shows on-time despatch against the contracted SLA, courier split and exceptions, so you can check the feed against the warehouse's own record.

Feeds that protect your money

Returns, goods-in receipts and billing feeds protect cash. They decide if you refund the right amount, pay suppliers for the right stock and pay your 3PL for the right activity.

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Returns data feed. A returns feed should send two events: arrival (so you can refund) and grading (so you know if the unit is back on sale), each with a reason code and condition grade. Without disposition data, resaleable stock sits where your website can't see it, and you can't tell if a product, size guide or courier is driving returns. See returns handling at Fulfil with Synergy for the operational side.

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ASN receipt confirmation. When your supplier delivers, the 3PL should confirm what arrived against your ASN line by line: expected, received, damaged and the variance. Finance uses that record before paying the supplier, and it tells marketing when a launch is really sellable: when put-away is complete, not when the lorry arrives.

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Billable activity data. If your 3PL charges per activity, you should get the activity data in the same units, referenced to orders and ASNs, so invoices are checked by counting rather than trust.

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How Fulfil with Synergy handles money data: returns are processed within 48 hours of arrival, with reason codes, quality inspection and a disposition (return to stock, hold or disposal) reported daily. Goods-in discrepancies are flagged in real time, photographed and resolved jointly, and the pre-advised inbound report shows items receipted, exceptions and put-away completion against each delivery. Pricing is activity-based and itemised, so activity data lines up with the invoice.

How to audit your current 3PL's feeds in an afternoon

You can check most of this with a few test orders and exports.

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1. List what you actually receive. Ask your 3PL or developer for the integration document and mark each feed described above as present, partial or missing.
2. Compare available stock. Pick ten SKUs, including one fast seller and one with open orders, and compare the store figure, the ERP figure and the 3PL's available figure at the same moment.
3. Place a test order and time it. Record when the order shows as received, when it is despatched and when tracking appears in your store.
4. Force a split. Order one in-stock and one out-of-stock item, and check that your store shows the back-order and the reason.
5. Return a test item. Check when arrival shows, that a reason code and grade come through, and that restocked units reappear as available.
6. Match a recent delivery. Take your last ASN and compare it to the receipt your 3PL sent, line by line.
7. Check one invoice. Pick a single charge line and trace it to activity data you can see.

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If two or more steps fail, you have an integration problem, usually one of the common reasons fulfilment integrations fail: shallow connectors, untested edge cases or nobody owning the data after go-live.

How Fulfil with Synergy sets up your data feeds

Fulfil with Synergy specifies, builds and tests the feeds your systems need during onboarding, using its own in-house integration team rather than a generic connector. Fulfil with Synergy is a founder-led UK 3PL and growth partner for ambitious, fast-growing consumer brands, running a technology-led fulfilment centre in Northampton for health, wellness, beauty, supplement and lifestyle brands across D2C, marketplace, retail and wholesale.

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The approach is API-first, with flat-file SFTP and SOAP web services where your system needs them, covering Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Unleashed, Amazon, eBay and bespoke systems. Beyond the standard reports, the technology team builds bespoke reports on the WMS data and can feed it into your own BI tools.

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Feeds are confirmed in the first two weeks of a typical 8 to 10 week implementation, built in weeks three to five, then proven through joint integration, end-to-end and business acceptance testing before a Go/No-Go review. Hypercare runs four to six weeks after go-live, with daily summaries, and ends only once contracted KPIs are met for two consecutive weeks with zero critical issues.

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Boody scored four UK 3PLs and chose Fulfil with Synergy partly for the in-house team's NetSuite experience. You can read how Boody moved its UK fulfilment, including Gab Drake, Global Fulfilment Manager, saying: "Since moving to Fulfil with Synergy, it has become one of our top-performing markets operationally, and we're now fully equipped to scale with confidence!"

FAQ

What is the difference between an ASN and a receipt confirmation?

An ASN (advance shipping notice, often called pre-advice) is the message you or your supplier send the 3PL before a delivery, listing what should arrive. The receipt confirmation is the 3PL's reply once the delivery is counted, showing what actually arrived, any damage and the variance against the ASN. You need both. The ASN lets the warehouse plan labour and dock space, and the receipt confirmation is the evidence your finance team uses before paying the supplier and the signal that new stock is ready to sell.

Can my 3PL send data straight into my ERP rather than Shopify?

Yes. Most 3PLs that work with growing brands can send feeds to more than one destination, and the usual split is stock and tracking to the store and marketplaces, with receipts, adjustments, returns and billing data going to the ERP. Fulfil with Synergy integrates with NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Unleashed and bespoke systems. Agree early which system is the master for stock, because two systems both pushing quantities to your channels is a common cause of overselling and of stock figures that never quite agree.

What should happen when a 3PL integration fails?

A failed feed should be detected by the integration, not discovered by a customer. Ask your 3PL how failed messages are retried, who is alerted, and how quickly. You should also be able to see, for any order, whether the despatch confirmation was sent and accepted. While the issue is fixed, stock should be reconciled with a full snapshot once the feed is restored, and any orders despatched during the outage should have tracking posted back in bulk so customers still get their shipping emails.

Is a client portal enough without data feeds?

No. A portal is for people: it lets your team check stock, orders and returns on demand. Feeds are for systems: they keep your store, marketplaces and ERP correct without anyone logging in. A brand with a good portal but no feeds will still oversell, still miss shipping emails and still re-key returns. Fulfil with Synergy provides both, with a 24/7 portal over the WMS data and the same data available to your systems by API, SFTP or flat file.

The 3PL data feeds that matter are the ones that come back to you: available stock, despatch with tracking, back-orders, returns with reason codes, receipts against your ASN and billable activity. Specify each with a trigger and field list, and test them before go-live. Fulfil with Synergy builds and tests them on the WMS during onboarding, with an in-house team that stays with you afterwards.

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If you would like us to review your current feeds against this checklist, talk to the Fulfil with Synergy team about your 3PL data feeds.

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