Inventory

Welcome

In this module, you will learn all about inventory management, which includes defining customer visibility in warehouses and product availability.

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• Set up warehouses
• Assign alternative warehouses
• Manage product inventory
• Assign warehouses to products

What is it?

The inventory management system within Optimizely Configured Commerce can be managed manually or is flexible enough to accommodate a company's Enterprise Resource Program (ERP). Inventory is displayed on the website to show customers whether a product is In Stock, Low Stock, or Out of Stock.

Best Practice: Inventory can be handled via refresh (generic) or real-time pricing. Optimizely recommends the use of real-time pricing, except in a few specific instances. Please contact your implementation partner to learn more.

How do I benefit from inventory management?

Here's how these features benefit different roles:

• Merchandiser:It's always important to keep your inventory well-managed - you want to know where your products are and how many of them you have. Exposing that information to your customers gives them more control over their business decisions, and cuts down on the time you or your customer service team have to spend answering merchandising questions. Better yet, you can manage your inventory seamlessly between your ERP and Configured Commerce, without having to rely on complicated spreadsheets or yet another third-party system.
• Researchers/Buyers:Your customer wants to know when and where products are available in your system - are they available today? Will they have to wait for them to be shipped from another location? Use the built-in inventory management tools to absolutely ensure your inventory shows the right location with the right pricing to alleviate any confusion from your customers.

Real time pricing and inventory

To take advantage of dynamic data in Optimizely Configured Commerce, you can enable real-time pricing and/or inventory services by selecting a Real Time or custom service in the Admin Console for both Pricing and Inventory. This setup pulls live data directly from your ERP, ensuring that your website displays current pricing and availability, as opposed to relying on the Generic service, which updates only once every 24 hours. You achieve this by configuring settings such as connection details, caching durations, timeout periods, and batch sizes, all of which optimize performance and reduce unnecessary ERP calls.

Additionally, by incorporating these real-time services on SEO product pages, you not only enhance the accuracy of search results but also improve user engagement. The approach provides a robust framework that is both extensible and customizable allowing developers to tailor how inventory details and messaging are displayed on the storefront ultimately delivering a seamless and efficient experience for both administrators and end users.

Try this Real Time Inventory link to learn more about the following:

• How do I set up real-time inventory?
• What options are available with inventory tracking?
• How to add real-time inventory to SEO product pages?

Here you may also learn more about Extensibility and Inventory Messaging.

Best Practice: Although it is possible to request both the pricing and inventory data uniquely via different calls, Optimizely recommends you request the data within the same call to reduce the number of calls to the ERP.

Should you show inventory on your website?

Warehouses allow you to manage the inventory of the products available on your website. A warehouse can either be a physical or a logical segregation of inventory. Using multiple warehouses allows for the identification of a default warehouse for products to come from, as well as the assignment of alternate warehouses that also carry the same product.

For the most part, warehouses are commonly managed through the ERP and not the Admin Console. However, the Admin Console does provide a number of customizations for your warehouses.

Use Case

Let's say your company has two main warehouses: one in Stamford, CT and one in Portland, OR. Most of your customers are near Stamford, but you do have some new customers near Portland. You know your warehouses will generally be managed in your ERP solution, but as a test, you create two warehouses: Stamford and Portland.

You assign Portland as Stamford's alternate warehouse. Then, you add the Stamford warehouse to the product record for a 4HP Angle Grinder from the Products page. You choose an ERP Quantity Available, a Safety Stock, and enters the Unit Cost to populate the record. Now, you can turn on the Track Inventory setting add some inventory messaging.

Global inventory availability messages

Global Inventory Availability Messages in Optimizely Configured Commerce allow you to display clear, consistent messages on your website - such as In Stock, Low Stock, or Out of Stock—based on defined thresholds and stock levels. This system can pull real-time data from an ERP for accurate updates, or use preset values from integration jobs, ensuring that customers receive timely information regardless of the fulfillment method (pickup or shipping). Additionally, you can customize these messages for individual products to better communicate unique inventory scenarios or special orders. Types of Messaging include the global settings, which apply site-wide, and product-specific messages, which override global defaults for tailored communication. If you want to learn more about this topic, go to below link:

Create a warehouse

Warehouses in Optimizely Configured Commerce play a crucial role in managing product inventory across your eCommerce site. While inventory is typically controlled through the ERP, the Admin Console offers additional flexibility and customization options. A warehouse can represent either a physical location or a logical grouping of inventory, allowing you to optimize product availability, streamline fulfillment, and reduce shipping costs. By using multiple warehouses, you can assign default and alternate sources for products, ensuring efficient inventory distribution and a better customer experience.

Visit the link below to see how to create a warehouse in Configured Commerce.

Storefront View

Watch this video of the Storefront view to learn how customers will see the availability link on your website.

Assign an alternate warehouse

Managing alternate warehouses in Optimizely Configured Commerce helps ensure that inventory is displayed accurately and efficiently based on customer location. By assigning alternate warehouses, businesses can control which warehouse fulfills orders and optimize how inventory is shown on the website whether it's from a regional warehouse or a larger distribution center. This setup is especially useful for managing geographically distributed stock, improving shipping efficiency, and enhancing the customer experience. Keep in mind, this process only affects how product availability is displayed on the website it does not directly control shipping costs or freight logistics, which are handled separately during implementation.

Very simple steps, read this article to learn how to assign an alternate warehouse.

Assign warehouses to products

To ensure a product has inventory available on your site, it must be assigned to a warehouse. While this is typically handled through ERP integration, you can also assign a warehouse manually in the Admin Console. Simply go to Catalog > Products, edit the desired product, navigate to the Warehouses tab, and add the appropriate warehouse. This ensures the product's inventory is properly tracked and displayed to customers

Follow the step-by-step instructions in the article to assign a warehouse to a product with ease.

Try it

It’s time to play in the Configured Commerce sandbox!

The following practice exercises take place in the Knowledge & Learning training site. Before jumping in, please log in to the Training site using the following credentials:

• Username: TrainingUser
• Password: Opticon1!#

After logging in, do the following:

1. Set up warehouses
2. Assign alternative warehouses
3. Assign warehouses to products

Wrap up

Congratulations! You have completed the Inventory module. You should now be able to:

• Set up warehouses
• Assign alternative warehouses
• Manage product inventory
• Assign warehouses to products

Learn more

While we covered a lot, there's always more to learn about Inventory and how to work with them!