Can my shop tills and online store use the same stock?

Yes. There are two ways to do it. Run the tills and the website on one system, so there's only one stock number for each product and a sale in either place changes it. Or keep two systems and join them with a sync, a connector that copies stock changes from one to the other every few minutes. One system is simpler and harder to get wrong. A sync can work well, but it's a second thing to watch.

We build the first kind: Sirat Retail OS, an online store and a point of sale on one stock count. Below is how both setups work and where each one breaks, so you can judge for yourself.

Why does this matter?

Because the two numbers drift apart, and customers find out before you do.

A customer buys the last size 8 on the website at 9pm. At 10am the next day, someone in the shop sells the same pair off the shelf, because the till still says there's one. Now you have a paid online order you can't fill, an apology to write and a refund to process.

It goes the other way too. You receive 40 units at the shop, and the website keeps showing "out of stock" until someone remembers to update it. Those are sales you never knew you missed.

The more products you carry, and the more they come in sizes and colours, the more often this happens.

What are the options?

Update the website by hand

Plenty of shops start here. Someone checks the shelves and updates the online store once a day or once a week. It costs nothing but time, and it works when you sell a handful of items online.

It stops working when the website sells more than a few orders a day, or when the person who does it goes on leave.

Two systems, joined by a sync

The shop runs one POS, the website runs on something like Shopify or WooCommerce, and a connector passes stock changes between them. Some POS providers sell this as part of a plan. BigPlus, a South African retail POS, includes a Shopify link on its Standard plan at R1 695 a month per location, or R1 555 a month billed yearly (checked September 2026). Your online store then has its own subscription on top.

A sync can be reliable. The things to ask about before you commit:

• How often does it run? Every few minutes is common. A busy Saturday can still sell the same item twice inside that gap.
• What happens when it fails? If the connection drops overnight, does anyone get told, or do the numbers quietly go stale?
• Do sizes and colours match up? Each variant has to be linked to its twin on the other side. A new product added in one place and not the other won't sync at all.
• Where does a return go? A website return dropped off at the shop has to put stock back in one place, and only once.
• Who do you call? When the POS company and the online store company each say the other is at fault, you're in the middle.

One system for both

The till and the website read and write the same stock number. There's nothing to sync, because there's nothing to copy.

The trade-off is that you choose one company for both. If you like your current POS and your current online store, a sync lets you keep both. If you're starting fresh, or one of the two is already a headache, one system is the cleaner answer.

How does it work in our system?

Every product has one stock count, and the shop and the website share it. A sale on the till takes it down. A paid order on the website takes it down. Neither side has its own copy.

Stock only changes through a record: a sale, a return, stock received from a supplier, a transfer between branches or a counted adjustment. So when a number looks wrong, you can see every change that led to it and who made it.

What that looks like day to day:

• Receiving stock. Suppliers and purchase orders are on every plan. When the boxes arrive, you receive them against the order and the new stock is on the shelf and the website at the same moment.
• Branches. Starter has one branch, Growth three and Pro five. On every plan, staff see only their own branch while you see all of them and the transfers between them.
• Layby. On Pro, stock put on layby is held, so it can't be sold twice while the customer pays it off.
• Loading products. On Growth and up, spreadsheet import brings in products, prices and stock levels in one go, so you don't type in a catalogue by hand.

Cell Trader, a cellphone dealer, has its online store on our system, with stock shared between the shop and the website. You can see it in our portfolio.

What about card payments in the shop?

You keep the card machine you have. The cashier rings up the sale on our till, which runs on a tablet with receipts, cash-ups and shift reports, and takes the card payment on the machine as usual. Your card provider charges its normal fee. We add 0% to sales.

What does it cost?

Our prices for the store and the tills together:

Item	Price
Setup, once-off	Quoted after a 20-minute call, because it depends on the design and what the store needs. It covers design in your brand, the store build, payments, domain and staff training
Starter	R400 a month: 1 branch, 2 staff logins
Growth	R900 a month: 3 branches, 5 staff logins
Pro	R1 500 a month: 5 branches, 10 staff logins
Till	Pro only, with one till included. More tills are priced with you on an Enterprise plan
More branches	Move up a plan. Past Pro's five, we price an Enterprise plan with you

Yearly billing is 10 months' fee. Online payments go through Bob Pay, Paystack, Payfast, Payflex, PayJustNow and EFT, and you pay only the payment provider's fee.

One shop with a website and a till in the shop is on Pro, at R1 500 a month to us. Two shops, each with its own till, need a second till, and that we price with you as an Enterprise plan on Pro.

For how that compares with card machines and standalone POS software, see How much does a POS system cost in South Africa?

When is one stock count not worth it?

• You sell very little online. If the website takes two orders a week, updating it by hand is cheaper than any system.
• Online and shop stock are kept apart on purpose. Some shops keep web stock in a back room and never sell it over the counter. Two counts is then the truth, and you don't need them joined.
• You're happy with your POS and your online store. Ask your providers about a sync first. Switching both to fix one problem is a big move.

If you don't have an online store yet and you're wondering where to start, read How to start an online store when you already have a shop.

The short version

If your shop and website sell the same things, they should count the same stock. You can get there with a sync between two systems, or with one system that does both. We build the second, and we'll tell you if the first suits you better.

To see how it would work with your stock, look at Sirat Retail OS, get an estimate, or WhatsApp us on +27 73 453 8352.