Centralizing Multi-Warehouse Ecommerce Inventory with Znode
Managing multiple warehouses should be table stakes in commerce today. Optimizing inventory management within an ecommerce platform is a game changer.
Supply chain hurdles have made inventory and warehousing a major area of friction. Buyers have been conditioned by Amazon-like B2C ecommerce experiences, expecting to see exactly where products are at all times. According to McKinsey, "74% of B2B buyers want product availability shown online." Merchants are focused on displaying available inventory, routing orders to the correct warehouses, managing inventory by geographics, accounts, and more. Aligning a frictionless purchasing experience with the needed data and contract terms via ecommerce enables success.
Inventory and Warehouse Contract Alignment is High Stakes
The bigger the opportunity, the greater the complexity. Large buyers like Walmart, Grainger, Amazon, and others use inventory terms in contracts. Succeeding in those opportunities requires inventory allocation for specific warehouses to fulfill contract terms. Ecommerce platforms must have a flexible data model to enable the variability of B2B transactions from a hundred line item quote for configured products to a single line item order for simple products with complex inventory attributes. Fulfilling orders can also be challenging, requiring the ability to allocate inventory to an account.
Highly regulated industries like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and alcohol take inventory and warehouse management complexity to even greater heights. Many pharmaceuticals and chemicals require a chain of custody from the production facility to the end customer. Facilitating a chain of custody hand-off from a manufacturer to a distributor or reseller requires a sales channel with highly configurable product and inventory data. Znode is the multi-channel ecommerce platform that can support such complexity through its extensibility. Bring line item lot values, and product expiration dates to quotes and orders with Znode’s flexible data model.
Supporting Multiple Warehouse Models and Inventory Management
Designed with the complexities of B2B ecommerce in mind, Znode can support limitless ecommerce warehousing models and inventory management strategies. Those models include:
- A distributor managing multiple warehouses across a territory, each with its inventory of products
- A distributor managing multiple warehouses, each with its inventory, for product brands, verticals served, or regional markets
- A distributor or manufacturer with a warehouse per region, in the case of international commerce, i.e., a single centralized warehouse serving most of the European market
- A manufacturer or supplier utilizing 3PL warehouses requiring inventory data showcased in the customer experience, achievable with API calls through Znode’s Commerce Connector
- A manufacturer managing multiple warehouses based on product lines or brands produced in the same location
- A retailer or distributor utilizing physical stores or branches as warehouses for ecommerce orders
Different warehouse models and inventory strategies can be applied at a storefront level within Znode, along with other entities that can be configured at an account or user profile segment level such as shipping methods, payment methods, and more.
Multi-Warehouse Inventory Management with Znode
Znode simplifies tying warehouses to multiple storefronts, accounts, or customer segments. It allows administrators to manage various types of inventory strategies. Business requirements typically reserved for warehouse management systems (WMS), like inventory allocations by account, can be configured through Znode’s native order management system in the administration console. Integration to third-party legacy WMSs and 3PLs is achieved via Znode’s API-first architecture. Multi-warehouse inventory management is centralized in Znode, turning complex business requirements for merchants into a customer experience differentiator.