Save inventory for B2B

Inventory allocations allow you to save inventory for a specific channel. You can use them to make sure your B2B orders will remain servable or, conversely to avoid having them using all items initially dedicated to B2C.

Before starting using allocations to reserve inventory for B2B, you must decide which of your channel should support inventory variations: product shrinkage at the warehouse (lost, damaged, expired products) as well as unexpected positive movements (returns, inbound surplus, found products).

Allocated quantities won’t be affected by inventory variations so you must create an allocation for the most sensitive of your channels and let the other support variations.

Save inventory for B2B

Steps

1. From your Bigblue admin, go to Inventory > Inventory allocations.
2. Click Create allocation.
3. Enter an allocation name. This name is displayed on the inventory overview to help you identifying live allocations.
4. Select the warehouse that should be used as reference for available inventory. If you only have one warehouse, it will be auto-selected.
5. Select the Reserve inventory purpose in the Purpose section.
6. Select the auto-adjustment rule that best match your strategy.
7. In the Sales channels section, select the channel you want to reserve quantities for. Products will be reserved to this channel and subtracted from the quantities pushed to other sales channels.
8. In the Products section, configure the affected products:
   1. Add your products to the allocation.
   2. Set the allocated quantity for each product.
   3. Optional: You can import products in bulk with a CSV file. The headers of your file must be BigblueProductSKU and Quantity.
9. Click Save.

Reserve and pre-sell inventory at the same time

Allocations allow you to override inventory values pushed to your store, and the purpose you choose doesn’t force you to respect any specific rule regarding quantity. You can therefore reserve and pre-sell at the same time. Pre-sold quantities will be pushed to your sales channels and will be reserved as soon as inventory arrives.

Steps

1. From your Bigblue admin, go to Inventory > Inventory allocations.
2. Click Create allocation.
3. Enter an allocation name. This name is displayed on the inventory overview to help you identifying live allocations.
4. Select the warehouse that should be used as reference for available inventory. If you only have one warehouse, it will be auto-selected.
5. Select the Reserve inventory purpose in the Purpose section.
6. Select the auto-adjustment rule that best match your strategy.
7. In the Sales channels section, select the sales channel you pre-sell and reserve for.
8. In the Products section, configure the affected products:
   1. Add your products to the allocation.
   2. Set the allocated quantity for each product. In this case, set positive quantities even though there is zero inventory.
   3. Optional: You can import products in bulk with a CSV file. The headers of your file must be BigblueProductSKU and Quantity.
9. Click Save.