Channel Inventory

Channel inventory is currently not fully operational as it is not considered for reservations and order routing.

Introduction

Channel inventory allows reserving inventory for specific sales channels or other purposes. Depending on the individual use case, different rules and time periods for stock assignment can be defined per channel. Reservations for specific channels are always performed on facility level.

The below steps must be followed when introducing channel inventory:

1. Manage availability channels

2. Manage allocation groups

3. Manage allocations for channels

Please go to the Developer Docs for more information on managing channel inventory via API. The API documentation can be found here.

Availability channels

Availability channels are designed to represent sales channels or other topics inventory should be grouped by. Depending on the priority of the distribution path, different strategies can be defined for stock reduction for the channel.

Channel strategies

• Restrict: Only stock that has been explicitly allocated to this channel is available for sales via this channel. As soon as the allocated stock is used up, no stock is available any more.

• Regular: If an order is accepted via this channel, the allocated stock is first used up. Afterwards, stock that is has not been allocated to any channel is used.

• Iron Reserve: If an order is accepted via this channel, stock that is not assigned to any channel is used. Only after all other stock is used, the stock explicitly allocated to the channel is taken.

When deleting a channel, the allocated stock is added back to the general availability.

Allocation groups

Each allocation must belong to a group. Groups are used to organize allocations in facilities for a specific product and channel. They are also used to display related allocations as grouped together in the Backoffice. When deleting a group, the allocated stock is added back to the general availability.

Allocations for channels

The core functionality of channels is realized through availabilityAllocationentities. These entities link channels to specific products (identified by tenantArticleIds) and assign a predetermined quantity of stock to each channel. When deleting an allocation, the allocated stock is added back to the general availability.

Availability Calculation

Active allocations reduce the available amount of the specified product(s) for all other channels by the specified amount. Initially, other availabilities are reduced by the defined initialStockQuantity. If orders are received via a channel, the quantity of allocated stock is reduced depending on the channel strategy:

• Restrict: Available on Stock is equal to the stock that has been initially allocated to the channel minus all stock that has already been sold over this channel since the allocation has become active.

• Regular: Available on Stock is all stock that is generally available plus stock that has been initially allocated to the channel, minus all stock that has already been sold over this channel since the allocation has become active.

• Iron Reserve: Available on Stock is all stock that is generally available plus stock that has been allocated to the channel. Stock that has already been sold over this channel is only deducted if no other stock for that product is generally available.

The channel availability can be retrieved via the Stock Summaries and Stock Distribution endpoints.