Updating Channel Listings with Inventory

Maintaining accurate stock levels is essential for all channel integrations. When inventory is received, Goflow automatically updates stock levels across all stores where the product is listed. Similarly, when a sale is made on one store, reducing the available inventory, Goflow promptly updates the inventory availability on all other stores.

Enabling Store Inventory Updates

To enable inventory updates for a store, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Stores and select the store.
2. On the Inventory Allocation card, click Add Inventory Allocation Settings.
3. Choose the inventory sources.
4. Select the store location targets.
5. Set the quantity thresholds.
6. Click the Save button to apply your settings.

Goflow will send an update to the store within a few minutes.

Choosing Inventory Sources

The inventory source determines where the inventory originates. You can select one or more sources, or if you intend to send a fixed amount, leave all sources empty. Available inventory sources include:

• Inventory stocked in your own warehouse
• Inventory stocked in a 3PL warehouse
• Vendor inventory

Warehouse Inventory

To use inventory from your own warehouses, enter the relevant warehouses in the From Warehouses field. You can select multiple warehouses as sources, and their combined available inventory is sent to the store.

If a warehouse has negative inventory, it will reduce the inventory total. For example, if you select the East and West warehouses as sources, where East has 1 and West has -1, the total sent to the store will be 0. To prevent negative inventory from affecting the total, enable the Ignore Negative Inventory option. This setting treats negative values as zero, ensuring that negatives in one warehouse do not offset available stock in another.

3PL Inventory

To use inventory stored at Amazon FBA or at another 3PL warehouse, enter the relevant warehouses in the From Warehouses field, just as you would for your own warehouses.

For FBA warehouse sources, Goflow relies on the Amazon reported inventory rather than its internal inventory calculations. If multiple FBA listings are mapped to the same product, the available inventory from all relevant listings is combined into a single total.

Open FBA orders are not deducted, as they are already reflected in Amazon’s reported availability. However, Goflow does deduct inventory reservations that Amazon has not yet accounted for, such as open FBA return transfers or MCF orders that have not yet been sent to Amazon.

For 3PL warehouse sources, you can choose to rely on either the 3PL-reported inventory or Goflow’s internal inventory calculations as the source for inventory sent to the store.

Vendor Inventory

You can update channels with inventory that you neither own nor stock, but which can source from a vendor on demand. Review Vendor Products for guidance on managing vendor-reported available inventory.

To use vendor inventory as a source, select an option under From Vendors:

• All Vendors – Use available inventory from all vendors.
• Specific Vendors – Use available inventory from selected vendors only.
• Vendor-Stocked Only – Choose whether to use vendor inventory for all products or only for products where the fulfillment method is PTO or Dropship.

If multiple vendors carry the same product, the available inventory from all relevant vendors is combined into a single total. Expired vendor inventory is considered unavailable.

To account for sales made against vendor inventory, add the order fulfillment warehouse as a warehouse inventory source. Even if the warehouse does not stock inventory, including it as a source ensures that open orders correctly reduce the total available vendor inventory.

After an order is shipped and the reserve lifted, available vendor inventory will increase and revert to its original levels.

Vendor reported inventory is a manual process. To keep vendor inventory accurate and up to date, regularly upload updated vendor inventory sheets.

Selecting the Store Target

The store target defines the channel warehouse location to which inventory is sent. To add a target, select an option under Warehouse Code:

• Existing Code – Select a previously created warehouse code from the Warehouse Code dropdown.
• Multiple Targets – Click the plus (+) sign to add additional targets.
• New Target – Click the New Warehouse Code button to create and assign a new warehouse code as a target.

Some channels support separate inventory tracking for multiple warehouse locations. For these channels, assign distinct inventory sources to each target. For example, set NJ and PA warehouses as sources for the East target, and CA as the source for the West target.

For channels that do not support multiple targets, all relevant warehouses should be combined into a single inventory source. The total inventory from all selected warehouses will be sent to the store without specifying targets.

Inventory allocation targets do not determine which warehouse is assigned to orders. Pairing an inventory source with a target in allocation does not guarantee that orders for that target will be fulfilled by the same source. Order fulfillment warehouses are managed separately.

When you update allocation settings and remove a target, Goflow automatically sends a one-time feed to reset the inventory to zero for the deleted channel target.

Setting Quantity Thresholds

Quantity thresholds determine the final inventory sent to the store. Adjust the following settings:

• Percent – Allocate the full 100% of available inventory or hold back a portion. Fractional quantities are rounded down to the nearest whole number.
• Minimum – Set a low threshold to present listings as in stock even when the source is out of inventory.
• Maximum – Set the high inventory level that can be displayed for listings. This is useful for maintaining low listed stock levels.
• Safety Level – Set the minimum available inventory required for a product to be listed. When inventory falls to this level, Goflow will send a quantity of 0. Safety level helps prevent overselling that can occur when multiple orders are placed in quick succession. High-demand products should get a higher safety level.

The safety level takes priority over the minimum threshold. The minimum is honored only for as long as inventory remains above the safety level. For example, if the minimum is set to 5 and the safety level to 3, the listing will continue to show 5 while inventory is at 4. Once inventory reaches 3, however, the minimum is no longer applied, and the quantity listed will become 0.

To set different quantity percentages for different inventory sources or targets, refer to Advanced Allocation Settings.

Setting the Lead Time

Lead time refers to the number of business days from when an order is placed to when it is handed over to the carrier. It is expressed as a single number. For example, if the lead time is a range of 2–3 days, set it to 3 days.

The lead-time setting is applicable to Amazon Marketplace channels only.

Lead-time updates provided through inventory feeds will only take effect if they align with the shipping templates applied to the listing on Seller Central.

To set different lead times for different inventory sources or targets, refer to Advanced Allocation Settings.

Enabling Advanced Allocation Settings

The Advanced Allocation page offers greater flexibility and granular control over each store target or inventory source. To enable it, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Stores and select the store.
2. On the Inventory Allocation card, click Add Inventory Allocation Settings.
3. Click Advanced Allocation, and confirm you wish to enable it.
4. For channels that support target warehouses, select the Store Warehouse Code.
5. For each store target, add warehouse sources or vendor sources.
6. Set the quantity percentages for each source.
7. For Amazon Marketplace channels, make your selections for vendor lead time and for handling of multiple lead times.
8. Click Save to apply your settings.

Vendor Lead Time

Lead time is the number of business days from when an order is placed to when it is handed over to the carrier. Products sourced from vendor inventory generally have a longer lead time than those sourced from your own warehouse to account for the time required for vendor delivery.

Choose from the following lead time options for vendor-sourced products using the PTO fulfillment method:

• Vendor Lead Time – Use the lead time set at the vendor level or, for greater precision, the lead time configured per vendor product. Vendor lead time is the number of days it takes the vendor to deliver inventory to your warehouse. Select this option if orders can be fulfilled as soon as inventory arrives.
• Vendor Lead Time + Base Lead Time – Add an additional base lead time to the vendor lead time. Select this option if orders cannot be fulfilled on the same day inventory is received in your warehouse.
• Same for All – Set a fixed lead time for all vendor inventory, regardless of vendor-specific lead times.

Products using the Dropship fulfillment method, where the vendor ships orders directly to the customer, always follow the dropship lead time set at the vendor or vendor product and are not affected by this setting.

Handling Multiple Lead Times

When multiple inventory sources have different lead times, choose how to present the lead time to Amazon, since it only accepts a single number. The challenge is balancing the shortest lead time with maximum inventory availability, as both factors can influence sales potential. Select between these two options:

• Short Lead Time, Less Quantity - Use only the inventory from the source with the shortest lead time.
• Long Lead Time, More Quantity - Combine inventory from all sources and apply the longest lead time.

To illustrate, consider the inventory sources in the table below.

Source	Lead Time	Quantity
Warehouse	1	4
Vendor A	2	5
Vendor B	3	6

• With Long Lead Time, a total of 15 units can be fulfilled, but with a 3 day lead time.
• With Short Lead Time, only 4 units can be fulfilled within 1 day. As sales are made and inventory levels change, the lead time dynamics will shift. Once the 4 warehouse units are sold out, the available inventory will increase to 5 and use a 2 day lead time.

Disabling Store Inventory Updates

To stop sending inventory updates to a store, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Stores and select the store.
2. On the Inventory Allocation card, click the pencil icon to edit.
3. Uncheck Send Inventory Updates to Store.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

Setting the percentage to zero does not disable inventory updates. Goflow will continue sending updates of zero inventory to the store.

Related Topics

• Lising custom allocation settings
• Vacation Mode

Understanding Inventory Updates Sent to the Store

For inventory updates to be sent to a channel, products, listings, and sources must meet all criteria indicating that inventory is available for sale and ready for fulfillment. Refer to the linked topics for details on the following constraints:

Listings

• Active – Listings must be active.
• Merchant-Fulfilled – Listings must be merchant-fulfilled; store-fulfilled listings do not send inventory updates.
• Mapped – Listings must be mapped to products.
• Mapping Approval – Listings pending mapping approval will not send more than a quantity of 1.

Products

• Inventory – Products must have stock.
• Availability – Inventory must be available for sale and not reserved for open orders or transfers.
• Active – Products must be active.
• Sellable – Products must be marked as sellable.
• Groups – There must be enough available child products within the same inventory source to fulfill a complete group.

Vendors

• Active – The vendor must be active.
• Mapped – Vendor products must be mapped to the corresponding Goflow product.
• Current – Vendor inventory must be valid and not expired.
• Enabled – The vendor must be enabled for PTO or Dropship to send inventory for products using these fulfillment methods.

3PL

• Mapped – The 3PL product must be mapped to the corresponding product.
• Reported Inventory – The 3PL product must have reported inventory.

FBA

• Active – The FBA listing must be active.
• Mapped – The FBA listing must be mapped to the corresponding product.
• Reported Availability – The FBA listing must have available reported inventory that is not in transit.
• Blank Box – If using Blank Box Only, reported inventory must be available in blank box.

Scheduling an Inventory Update

Depending on the channel type, inventory updates are sent as either partial updates or full feeds. The two approaches aim to balance timely updates with efficient frequency.

• Partial Inventory Updates – Most marketplaces prefer frequent updates but only for listings where inventory has changed. If no update is received, the inventory is assumed to remain the same as in the last update. For these channels, inventory updates are sent every 15 minutes and include only listings that have had activity in either the listing, product, inventory, or transactions involving that product. Small update batches keep feeds efficient and lightweight.

  However, when changes are made to the store allocation settings, a full update is triggered to refresh inventory for all listings in that store according to the updated settings.

• Full Inventory Updates – Most dropship channels prefer receiving full inventory updates at scheduled intervals rather than continuous partial updates. For these channels, the entire listing catalog is refreshed at fixed times throughout the day. If inventory changes between updates, the channel will only reflect those changes at the next scheduled update. Depending on the channel, inventory updates may be sent once, twice, or three times per day.

Viewing Inventory Updates

To check the current inventory listed with the store, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Listings › Listings.
2. Search for a specific store and listing SKU.

The Quantity Listed column displays the current inventory on the store. This figure combines inventory from all store targets.

To review details of inventory updates that Goflow has sent to the store, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Listings › Listings.
2. Click on a listing to open it.
3. Expand Recent Inventory Updates Sent to the Store by clicking the plus sign.

This section displays all inventory updates sent to the store in the past 30 days. A green checkmark indicates a successful update.

If no records appear, it does not mean inventory updates were never sent; only that no updates have been sent in the last 30 days.

Troubleshooting Quantity Listed

If the quantity listed does not match expectations, follow these steps to systematically identify the discrepancy:

1. Review listing allocation settings. Keep in mind that listings may have settings that differ from the store global settings.
2. Check available inventory for each source. If multiple sources are used, verify that negative inventory in one source is not offsetting the total available. For groups, ensure there is enough child inventory to fulfill a group within a single inventory source.
3. Verify that the listing meets all conditions required for inventory updates.
4. If inventory was recently updated, wait up to 15 minutes for changes to reflect.

Updating Channels with Expected Inventory

Some channels support receiving updates for expected inventory when current inventory is out of stock. For these channels, Goflow includes inventory from open purchase orders, with the available-on date matching the expected date on the purchase order.

Deactivating Listings using Inventory Feed

Some channels support deactivating listings using an inventory feed. For these channels, Goflow will include a discontinued marker in the inventory feed when a product is marked as not sellable.