Managing Location-Based Inventory for Multiple Markets

To help merchants effectively manage inventory across multiple markets, SHOPLINE provides a feature that allows you to assign designated inventory locations to each market. This setup ensures that stock is drawn from a specific location according to your configuration.

Using designated inventory locations helps optimize stock allocation, enhance delivery efficiency through localized fulfillment, and reduce operational risks such as overselling and delayed shipments.

This article explains how to configure and manage designated inventory locations to support your multi-market operations.

Setting Up Inventory Locations for Each Market

To assign a location to a specific market for inventory management, follow these steps:

1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Markets. Select the market for which you want to configure inventory locations.

   

2. In the Market settings section, locate the Inventory option and click Manage.

   

3. On the Inventory page, configure the inventory settings for the selected market:

   • In the Market inventory section, select one of the following options:

     • Close market inventory: Inventory for this market is calculated using stock from all available locations, suitable when you want to share inventory across markets.
     • Activate market inventory: Inventory for this market is calculated using stock from only the selected locations, ideal for controlling fulfillment or managing inventory by market.

     

   • If you select Activate market inventory, scroll down to Select designated inventory locations, then select the locations you want this market to use for inventory fulfillment. After market inventory is activated, SHOPLINE calculates inventory for this market using only the selected locations.

     

   Notes:  Locations that do not supply to the online store, are inactive, or have been deleted will not be available for selection. Furthermore, locations created through fulfillment applications for other marketplaces (such as Amazon or eBay) are also ineligible for selection as multi-market locations. Once a location has been assigned to any market, it cannot be deactivated or deleted. To delete the location, you must first remove it from all market inventory settings. To ensure a product can be successfully ordered from the inventory location assigned to a market, verify the following: The product is correctly assigned to the market for sale. For details on adding products to a market, refer to "Configuring Products and Prices for Your Global Markets." The product must be assigned to one of the market’s designated inventory locations and have available stock at that location. For more details on inventory management, please refer to the "Tracking and Managing Your SHOPLINE Product Inventory" guide. If the above settings are not configured correctly, customers may be unable to view or purchase the product on the storefront.

4. Click Update to apply the settings.

After updating the available locations, the system will automatically calculate the product inventory for the market. This process may take some time to complete and take effect. 

Once the settings are successfully applied, the available stock displayed on the product details and checkout pages will reflect the market-specific inventory.

Inventory Calculation for Multiple Markets

To determine whether a product is available for sale in a market with inventory locations activated, SHOPLINE first checks whether the product is connected to at least one of the market's designated inventory locations.

Once a product is connected to at least one designated location, its availability in that market follows the same inventory settings used for the product's regular inventory:

• Track quantity with orders is turned off: The product remains available for sale in the market regardless of the stock quantity at its designated locations.
• Track quantity with orders is turned on, and continue selling when out of stock is enabled: The product remains available for sale in the market regardless of the stock quantity at its designated locations.
• Track quantity with orders is turned on, and continue selling when out of stock is disabled: The total inventory for the SKU in this market is calculated as the sum of that SKU's available quantity across all of its designated locations.

Example: A market has two designated inventory locations, Location A and Location B. A T-shirt SKU is connected to both locations, with 5 units available at Location A and 0 units at Location B.

• If the SKU doesn't track inventory, or tracks inventory with continue selling when out of stock enabled, it remains available for purchase in this market even though Location B has no stock.
• If the SKU tracks inventory with continue selling when out of stock disabled, its available quantity in this market is 5 + 0 = 5 units.

The diagram below uses the T-shirt SKU above as an example to illustrate how product availability is determined under multi-market inventory.

This calculation is dynamic and updated in real time, meaning it can be influenced by several factors, such as:

• Inventory changes at locations: If inventory levels change, or a location is connected or disconnected, the system will recalculate market-specific inventory for products published to markets with inventory rules enabled.
• Changes to market inventory location lists: Adding, removing, enabling, disabling, or adjusting the supply settings for locations in a market will trigger inventory recalculations.
• Market status updates: If a market is enabled or disabled, inventory calculations will continue as usual.