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 Settings > 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. Toggle the switch in the upper-right corner to enable the feature, then select the specific locations to assign to this market.

   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. On the product settings page, the product has available stock at the corresponding inventory location. For more details on inventory management, please refer to this Help Center guide.

   

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

When you assign inventory locations to a specific market, the total inventory for an SKU is calculated as the sum of that SKU's available quantity across all assigned locations. Refer to the following graphic for illustration:

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. However, if a market is deleted, all associated inventory rules and SKU inventory data will be removed.

Viewing Market-Specific Inventory

Once market-specific inventory location management is enabled and the inventory update is complete, you can view the real-time inventory of each SKU by following these steps:

1. In a market with inventory management enabled, go to the Market settings section, locate Products and pricing, and click Manage.
   
2. In the product list, go to the Included tab, locate the product you want to check, and click the pencil icon to open the product details page.
   
3. On the product details page, you'll see the inventory for each SKU in that market:

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  • Products with inventory tracking: The system will calculate the total inventory by summing the available quantities across all assigned locations in that market.
    
  • Products without inventory tracking: The inventory section will display Don't track inventory.