Inventory Tracking
When orders are created and updated, Nautical tracks stock availability and allocation to prevent you selling products that are out of stock or already allocated to orders. New orders cannot exceed the available (unallocated) stock quantity.
With inventory tracking, the system tracks the following details about variant stock levels:
- Quantity at each warehouse
- Quantity allocated at each warehouse
- Total unallocated quantity available
A seller has five boxes of shoes at a warehouse. Three have been sold, but not yet shipped. The stock record for those shoes would be as follows:
- Quantity: 5
- Quantity allocated: 3
- Quantity available: 2
Events that trigger inventory updates
Inventory tracking applies to all types of seller orders, including draft, quote, and offer orders. The following diagram illustrates the events that trigger inventory changes:
New order stock allocation
Once an order is placed, the quantity needed to fulfill each order line is immediately marked as allocated.
By default, all order types allocate inventory, including draft, quote, and offer orders. You can customize your marketplace configuration settings to turn off stock allocation for specific order types.
Canceled order stock deallocation
Upon canceling a seller order, previously allocated stock for that order is no longer marked as allocated.
Fulfilled order stock decrease
Once an order is shipped and registered as fulfilled by the seller, the stock quantity at the associated warehouse is decreased by the number of items fulfilled. The items are no longer marked as allocated.
Example order inventory tracking
Say a seller has 30 shirts in stock, split evenly between three warehouses. A customer places an order for five shirts in France. See the stock changes highlighted in blue in the following diagram:
Turn off inventory tracking
Inventory tracking is enabled by default for all products.
- Go to Catalog -> Products -> [Product].
- Open the variant for the appropriate SKU from the Variants section.
- Set the inventory tracking field to Don't track inventory.
- Select Save.
Even if your product is set to not track inventory, you must assign it to a warehouse with shipping zones for the product to be available for purchase.