How a Yarn Shop Solved Variant & Bundle Tracking with Sumtracker

• Industry: eCommerce – Yarn, Knitting Supplies & Accessories
• Sales Platform: Shopify
• Location: Australia
• Products: Premium natural fiber yarns, knitting tools, accessories, and patterns
• Specialties: Multi-color, multi-weight yarn inventory with split-weight sales
• Reach: Serving knitters and fiber artists across Australia and internationally

About the Brand

This Australia-based online yarn store has built a loyal following among knitters, crocheters, and fiber artists who value quality, variety, and inspiration.

Specializing in high-grade natural fibers and unique blends, they stock an extensive range of yarns in multiple weights, colors, and textures from soft cottons to luxurious wools and cashmeres.

Their catalog is designed to cater to every kind of project, whether it’s a delicate lace shawl, a chunky winter scarf, or a custom machine-knitted garment.

Beyond yarn, they offer a curated selection of knitting tools, accessories, and patterns to help makers bring their creative visions to life.

By combining premium materials with a seamless online shopping experience, the brand has become a go-to destination for crafters across Australia and beyond, serving both hobbyists and professionals who want to create with confidence.

The Challenge

Managing inventory accuracy was a constant struggle for this Australian-based online yarn retailer. They purchased yarn in bulk often in 5kg lots but sold it in smaller units like 50g and 100g. They required a weight-based inventory system for Shopify.

To create a more visually appealing shopping experience, each yarn color had its own dedicated Shopify product page. While great for customers, this setup split the same physical stock across dozens of separate listings.

The problem escalated when Shopify failed to deduct the correct amount of stock from the bulk inventory or sync updates across related listings.

This caused:

• Stock mismatches between product pages
• Overselling of popular colors and weights
• Time-consuming manual updates to multiple listings
• Difficulty linking SKUs that differed between certain listings
• Multiple listings shared the same SKU, but Shopify didn’t keep them in sync automatically

Previous attempts to fix the issue with other inventory apps made things worse.

The tools were unintuitive, required unnecessary draft product creation in Shopify, and still didn’t solve the core sync problem.

The team needed a system that could track products by weight, centralize bulk stock, automatically deduct the right quantities for each sale, link multiple listings to the same base product, and keep Shopify inventory accurate without extra manual work.

The Sumtracker Solution

Sumtracker became the inventory control layer while Shopify stayed fully customer-facing. The storefront (separate color pages, 50g/100g options) didn’t change only how stock is managed, but also.

1) Centralize bulk stock with base products (grams)

• Created hidden base products in Sumtracker for each yarn+color (e.g., 5,000g = 5kg on hand).
• Base products do not exist in Shopify; they represent the true physical stock.

2) Map sale units via bundles

• Linked storefront variants to their base so a 50g sale deducts 50g and a 100g sale deducts 100g, every time, across every listing.
• Availability for each variant is auto-calculated from the base (no manual edits).

3) Auto-link duplicates by SKU

• Where the same SKU appears on multiple color pages/listings, Sumtracker automatically ties them to the same base.
• A sale on any listing updates all related listings instantly.

4) Master sync model (Shopify stays the UI)

• One-time onboarding copied current Shopify quantities into Sumtracker.
• From then on, Sumtracker is the source of truth: it continuously reads orders and pushes accurate availability back to Shopify on schedule.

5) Safeguards & planning

• Set low-stock thresholds (e.g., alert when <1,000g) for proactive reordering.
• Used Days of Inventory Remaining to plan purchasing based on sales velocity.
• (Optional) POs & costs: incoming stock and item costs flow into reports without spreadsheets.

Results

After implementing Sumtracker, the retailer saw immediate gains in weight-based accuracy and day-to-day efficiency without changing the storefront.

Here’s what improved within the first few weeks of rollout:

• Duplicate Listings Synced 99.8% of the Time
  All 8 duplicate listings per SKU updated automatically after every sale.

• Manual Stock Edits Reduced to Zero
  No more page-by-page quantity updates across color and weight variants.

• Inventory Updated Every ~10 Minutes
  Sales and adjustments reflected across all linked listings within minutes.

• Exact Weight Deductions Every Time
  50g and 100g sales deducted precisely from a single bulk stock record.

• Faster, More Accurate Reordering
  Low-stock alerts and Days of Inventory Remaining reports guided timely replenishment.

• Scalable to Hundreds of Linked Listings
  Supports up to 700+ listings per SKU without adding operational complexity.

What the Team Says

“Sumtracker’s base-in-grams plus bundles is exactly what we needed. Our duplicate color pages stay perfectly in sync after every sale and we didn’t have to change a thing in Shopify. It’s far more intuitive than the other tools we tried.”

— Owner, Online Yarn Retailer (AU)

Sumtracker Impact at a Glance

Conclusion

For this Australian yarn retailer, Sumtracker transformed inventory management from a daily frustration into a streamlined, reliable process.

By centralizing stock into hidden base products, automating weight deductions, and keeping duplicate listings perfectly in sync, they eliminated manual updates and cut the risk of overselling.

With accurate, real-time data and proactive restocking tools, the team can now focus on expanding their catalog and serving customers confident that every color, weight, and page reflects the true stock on hand.

Sumtracker didn’t just fix an inventory problem, it created a foundation for smooth growth.

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