Initiate an inventory lookup from Store Commerce
From the Store Commerce application, store employees can look up current physical on-hand inventory for a selected item. If the item is available in different dimensions such as different sizes, colors, or styles, the user can view a matrix of on-hand inventory across all size/color/style combinations, or if desired, only look up inventory for a particular size/color/style combination.
Being able to interpret your inventory search results allows for quicker customer turn around times and an enhanced experience for your guests by using the following features:
- On the Inventory lookup page, you can sort inventory data. The sorting is based on the columns that are visible on the page.
- Users can launch the Inventory lookup page from a non-variant Products details page.
The physical inventory that is shown to the user for their current store is obtained in one of two ways:
- Real-time inventory lookup from HQ for the store’s warehouse.
- Calculated inventory lookup based on last known information from HQ, and then adjusting this value based on additional known sales or returns that have occurred in the store since the last HQ update.
For more information, see Calculate inventory availability for retail channels.
In addition to seeing their own store inventory, if properly configured, the store user can also view inventory for the item availability at other warehouses. These warehouses might be distribution centers or other stores. The other warehouses that the user can see in inventory lookup are pre-configured and based on the Fulfillment group setup of the user’s current store.
Note
When you are viewing inventory of other store warehouses, notice that the inventory is not always updated in real time. Therefore, the inventory that is shown should be considered an estimation of physical on-hand inventory at these warehouse locations based on the last known synchronization of store and HQ-related transaction data.
For critical inventory situations, if the available inventory value that is displayed during inventory lookup is low, the user should contact that store or warehouse directly to confirm inventory availability before suggesting to a customer that the other warehouse can supply the customer with their desired product.
If the feature is configured, store users can also view more detailed Available to Promise (ATP) inventory data for select items. A calculated inventory value, ATP is based on current inventory and considers future planned adjustments to inventory based on planned purchases. ATP can be used in back-order scenarios to help provide a customer with guidelines regarding when new inventory might become available.