This guide explains how Inventory Planner can be configured when connected to an eCommerce store. For information on how to launch Inventory Planner, please see the launch guide.
What if I have connections to other systems?
This guide is focused on configuring Inventory Planner with an eCommerce store. If you have multiple connections with Inventory Planner beyond an IMS, please refer to the following specialized guides:
Configure Inventory Planner with a custom integration (CSV)
Is Inventory Planner an Inventory Management System?
Inventory Planner is not an Inventory Management System (IMS).
Instead, it pulls product, sales, and stock information from other eCommerce and inventory management systems to generate forecasted needs, replenishment recommendations, reporting insights, and purchase order creation. However, if you are connected through an eCommerce platform, you can increase stock in your store after receiving a purchase order from a vendor (or a transfer order from another warehouse).
Inventory Planner does not adjust stock information beyond this functionality, but it does connect with numerous inventory management systems that can assist with day to day order management and fulfillment, warehouse management, stock takes, etc.
You can see a full list of platforms that integrate with Inventory Planner along with the details we pull from each system on our Integrations page.
Configuring connections and warehouses
When you connect a store to Inventory Planner, the locations appear in Inventory Planner as warehouses you can enable/disable in Account > Settings > Connections & warehouses. Only enable warehouses that you need to evaluate independently for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes.
For warehouses that don't need to be independently evaluated, you can create a combined warehouse to aggregate sales (and/or stock) information from multiple warehouses into a single view. Doing so allows you to generate forecasted needs and replenishment recommendations based on totaled data.
Note: You do not need to enable individual warehouses if it's sufficient to include them the combined warehouse configuration.
In this example, sales are combined from all Shopify locations, while stock is combined from all locations except for Shopify France and Italy. With this configuration, the 'combined warehouse' view considers all Shopify sales orders for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes, but ignores the stock in France and Italy since the sales are fulfilled from the Germany warehouse.
Note: If you have multiple connections and/or duplicate listings for a single variant/SKU, it is important to combine listings first in order to maintain accurate reports using a combined warehouse.
Forecasting, replenishment, and reporting
Here are some videos and resources to reference related to forecasting, replenishment, purchase orders, and reports in Inventory Planner.
Replenishment and Edit Forecast are the key areas of Inventory Planner to configure and generate your forecast and replenishment recommendations. Use the Replenishment Report for variant/SKU level forecasting and replenishment analysis, and to create purchase orders using replenishment recommendations. Replenishment is an output of your forecast method and settings, forecast edits, and your planning period (lead time + days of stock).
The Edit Forecast section shows a monthly breakdown of forecasted sales. Select the date range in the top right for your Report, then click on Columns (using the gear icon in the top right) and Filters to see the information you need. Metrics are calculated at the Variant (SKU) level. Use the top left dropdown to aggregate reports and/or override forecasts in different dimensions (e.g. by category, by vendor, etc).
Purchase orders and transfer orders
Information related to purchase orders and transfers is not typically available through an eCommerce API. If that's the case, Inventory Planner acts as a purchase order management system, allowing users to generate and receive purchase orders and transfers, then to optionally increase stock in the eCommerce store upon receiving and closing the order.
If an eCommerce API is updated to include purchase orders or transfers information, the functionality to sync them to/from Inventory Planner will be implemented. Check the integrations page any time to see if these features are supported for your integration.
Bundles and assemblies (pre-kitted goods)
A bundle can also be referred to as a kit, a virtual bundle, or a gift set. Bundles are simply different ways of selling variants - e.g. 10 total shirts could be sold as (1) 10PK or (2) 5PK or (10) 1PK. With bundles, all of the stock is tied together - and goods are bundled after the sale occurs when the customer order is fulfilled.
Inventory Planner considers the sales from bundles with the sales of individual components/variants when producing forecasts and replenishment recommendations at the variant level.
Note: Inventory Planner does not manage the stock of bundles and components based on customer orders.
Using the above example, if a customer purchases a 5PK T-SHIRT bundle, an external solution is needed to decrease the stock level for the 1PK T-SHIRT. This scenario should be handled through an inventory management system, or through a third-party application such as the Bundles app for creating bundles and managing bundle stock.
Bundle-variant relationships are synced to Inventory Planner automatically when possible, but with eCommerce integrations, the relationships often need to be configured directly within Inventory Planner. If an eCommerce API is updated to include these relationships, the functionality to sync them to/from Inventory Planner will be implemented. Check the integrations page to see if these features are supported for your integration.
An assembly must be produced from components (variants) before it can be placed into stock and available for sale. These goods are pre-assembled before the sale and fulfillment of an item.
Assemblies include any produced goods with a bill of materials (BOM), and bundles/kits that must be produced before sending to Amazon (or a different fulfillment warehouse).
Planning for assemblies should only take place in warehouses where there are forecasted sales and accurate stock levels. If components are stocked and/or assembled in a different facility from where customer orders are fulfilled, configuring a combined warehouse allows you to aggregate the stock and/or sales information from multiple warehouses into a single warehouse for assemblies replenishment planning.
Whether you create a new purchase order, assembly order, or transfer order using recommendations from a combined warehouse or an individual warehouse view, you can select the 'true' destination warehouse once the new order is created.
Replenishment for assemblies
Understanding forecasting and how replenishment is calculated for any item is key to understanding replenishment recommendations for assemblies and variants (components). Learn more about forecasting for assemblies here.
In order to calculate replenishment for assemblies and generate a schedule, the planning period and cycle details must be defined:
Select "assemblies" in the top left of Replenishment, then configure your forecast method, forecast edits (if applicable), assembly time, and assembly cycle.
Select "variants" in the top left of Replenishment, then configure your lead time and days of stock for component variants.
Note: If components are sold on their own, configure the forecast method and/or forecast edits at the variant level as well.
Recommended workflow for eCommerce integrations
Raise assembly orders (production orders) to create new assemblies from component stock.
Once the assembly orders are received, decrease stock of components and increase stock of assemblies in your store (via Inventory Planner, or directly in your store).
Create purchase orders (POs) to purchase component variants from vendors.
As purchase orders are received, increase the stock of components in your store (via Inventory Planner, or directly in your store).
Vendors and vendor attributes
Vendors and vendor attributes (e.g. cost prices, vendor references) typically need to be configured directly within Inventory Planner when connecting to an eCommerce integration. Attributes synced from each system vary, and when they are not synced they can be input (or uploaded directly) into Inventory Planner. Check the integrations page to see which features are supported for your integration.
Additional resources for eCommerce integrations
Vendors / Set Variants with Vendors: Configure vendors and associate variants with vendors in order to automatically populate information on purchase orders as they are created.
IP Warehouse: Manually track extra stock. IP Warehouses can be added with other warehouses as part of a combined warehouse configuration.
Combined warehouse: Used to aggregate sales (and/or stock) information from multiple warehouses into a single view, to generate forecasted needs and replenishment recommendations based on totaled data.
Listings: Connect multiple listings of the same exact variant/SKU (if you have multiple connections, or duplicated listings within a single connection).
Compare warehouses report: Compare metrics across multiple warehouses and optionally generate warehouse transfer recommendations.
Explanations of metrics, columns/filters, or other features:
Visit the integrations page for a full list of details Inventory Planner syncs from every integration, or experiment with features anytime in the Inventory Planner demo store.
Feel free to contact Inventory Planner directly at [email protected] to review any other questions.