Overview
The majority of our clients keep inventory in two kinds of locations: stores, and warehouses. In this article we'll talk about the differences between these two, and how they can affect your integration.
Stores
Stores are exactly what you think! They're your physical locations, in which you both keep and sell inventory on a daily basis. Our integrations support having multiple stores, each with separate inventories. Our Curbside & In-Store Pickup feature, (as well as our Ship from Store feature) works with multiple locations to make sure your customers can get their order from the appropriate locations.
The key point separating stores from warehouses is that stores are selling inventory to sources outside of your website; ie your physical customers.
Warehouses
Warehouses, meanwhile, typically only sell inventory online, not to physical customers. This means for inventory purposes, the integrator only has to keep track of inventory sold through your website, not inventory sold to "real" customers. This has implications for several of our features, as well as for how often the integrator needs to check to update inventory.
If your warehouse sells inventory through alternative web channels, like Amazon, eBay, or another site, then we'll need to work to integrate those services so your inventory totals are accurate.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to get in touch with us with a support request.