吃瓜黑料

Set up multiple 吃瓜黑料 locations to maximize inventory efficiency, boost revenue, and improve customer satisfaction鈥攈ere’s how.

As a growing brand, it鈥檚 common to store and ship products at more than one warehouse. Maybe you have one fulfillment center in New Jersey and another in California.

But without the right tools in place, it鈥檚 almost impossible to get full visibility into all the inventory you have scattered across these locations.

Luckily, if you鈥檙e a direct-to-consumer brand (DTC) and a 吃瓜黑料 merchant, you can lean on a handy feature to build out your multi-location strategy and streamline order fulfillment in the process.

Sound too good to be true? We鈥檙e here to help you set up this tool, leverage its power, and supercharge how you manage inventory with it.

What are 吃瓜黑料 locations?

A is a physical space or mobile app where 吃瓜黑料 retailers sell merchandise, store inventory, and fulfill customer orders (among other things).

These locations can look pretty different, depending on your business. Some of the most common examples are warehouses, brick-and-mortar stores, pop-up shops, and dropshippers.

In other words, almost anywhere brands manage and ship their products can be a 吃瓜黑料 location.

By fulfilling orders from multiple locations, retailers can ensure all orders are accurate and go out on time.

For example, if a SKU is out of stock at one warehouse but available at another, 吃瓜黑料 can split the order so it鈥檚 fulfilled from multiple facilities.

This adaptability can prevent fulfillment delays and help your brand meet (or even exceed) customer expectations.

4 benefits of setting up 吃瓜黑料 locations

These days, plenty of retailers have adopted multi-location strategies to stay on top of customer demand and ahead of the competition.

That鈥檚 where 吃瓜黑料鈥檚 multi-location features can save the day.

With 吃瓜黑料 locations, sellers also get the added bonuses of simpler inventory management, effective order fulfillment, and local, in-store pickup.

1. Simpler inventory management

Using 吃瓜黑料 locations, retailers can track inventory across their entire business from one central place.

You can ditch complicated spreadsheets, error-prone manual processes, and toggling back and forth between tools just to get a holistic view of your inventory.

In your 吃瓜黑料 account, you can add, update, or get an overview of your stock at every location. You can even update inventory at all locations in bulk (using ) or make changes product by product (using an inventory list or CSV file).

Having this level of control over your stock makes inventory management a whole lot simpler. In turn, your brand has a better chance of avoiding costly stockouts and overstocks.

2. Effective order fulfillment

As we mentioned above, 吃瓜黑料 can split orders between different locations if needed. And that flexibility means you can keep pace with customer demand even if one of your warehouses is out of your hottest SKU.

吃瓜黑料 prioritizes locations to fulfill orders using a simple algorithm. The algorithm automatically selects the location based on the shipping address, your priority list, and the available inventory (don鈥檛 worry, we鈥檒l discuss priority lists a little later).

But if you don鈥檛 have all the SKUs you need to fulfill an order at one fulfillment center, 吃瓜黑料 can split the order into multiple shipments (with each shipment coming from a different place).

Sourcing products from several locations means you can keep shipping orders as scheduled.

This translates to more effective order fulfillment since you鈥檙e not stuck waiting on replenishment to fulfill customer orders. And on-time orders keep your customers happy and prevent supply chain bottlenecks.

3. More fulfillment options (like local, in-store pickup)

If you have plenty of local customers, you can give them the option to save a little cash (and time) on shipping.

Because 吃瓜黑料 provides a clear view of multi-location inventory data, it’s easier to route orders between online and offline retail stores. Meaning, customers can (pending stock availability, of course).

This retail phenomenon (dubbed BOPIS) has gained popularity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the global BOPIS market is expected to reach a whopping .

BOPIS is a popular option, especially for customers who want products same day.

With in-store pickup, your customers don’t have to deal with often-hefty shipping costs and long delivery times. And they don’t have to figure out return shipping for products they don’t love.

In short, BOPIS bridges the gap between traditional brick-and-mortar stores and a more modern online shopping experience.

4. New dropshipping opportunities

Lastly, retailers can use 吃瓜黑料 locations to set up additional supplier catalogs and explore new dropshipping opportunities that can costs in the long run.

With dropshipping, your supplier or manufacturer handles every step of order fulfillment. That鈥檚 right鈥攜our vendor is entirely responsible for shipping and handling. This obviously simplifies your supply chain in some big ways.

For example, you don鈥檛 have to transport goods from your manufacturer to an interim location (like a warehouse or fulfillment center). Instead, every order goes straight from the manufacturer to your customers without any stops along the way.

What鈥檚 more, you鈥檙e not responsible for any upfront inventory costs or shipping logistics with dropshipping.

Because your manufacturer handles that for you, there鈥檚 no need to spend much cash on buying inventory and the square footage to store it. Instead, you can focus your time and attention on growing your business.

And 吃瓜黑料 locations give you visibility into all your inventory鈥攅ven product details from your dropshipping vendors.

馃�� Keep in mind: Dropshipping has its drawbacks, too. This approach gives you very little control over order fulfillment (since product quality is left to your suppliers). So, if things go wrong with your shipments, you鈥檙e stuck on the outside looking in.

The key is finding suppliers and manufacturers you can trust to carry out fulfillment. If there鈥檚 no supplier you trust completely, it鈥檚 better to tackle fulfillment yourself.

How to set up multiple 吃瓜黑料 inventory locations and manage shipping

Interested in setting up 吃瓜黑料 locations for your own business? We鈥檝e compiled a how-to guide to get you started, including tips for managing inventory across multiple locations.

Set up 吃瓜黑料 locations

Getting up and running doesn鈥檛 just mean adding new warehouses. It also includes setting up your fulfillment priorities and updating specific product locations.

Add a location

吃瓜黑料 limits the number of locations you can have, .

For instance, if you are on a , you can only have two locations. However, all other 吃瓜黑料 and 吃瓜黑料 Plus accounts are allowed up to 1,000 locations.

Adding a location in 吃瓜黑料 is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. From your 吃瓜黑料 admin, go to Settings > and click Add Location.
2. Enter a unique name and address for each new location (again, locations can include warehouses, pop-up shops, an app, dropshipping vendors, etc.).
3. If you want inventory at a specific location to be available for online purchases, select Fulfill Online Orders, and click Save.

馃摑 Note: Once you create a new location, it鈥檒l appear at the bottom of your fulfillment priority list.

Edit fulfillment priorities for each location

When you get an online order and only have one warehouse, you don’t need to think about where the order will be fulfilled. But you’ll need to set up a priority list when you have multiple fulfillment hubs.

In other words, you’ll need to assign which location should take care of specific orders first.

For example, when a customer buys a product through your online store, they’re assigned to a fulfillment location based on:

1. Your priority list
2. Available inventory

If a single location can complete the entire order, that location alone will fulfill it.

But say no location has enough stock to fulfill the entire order. Then the location with the highest priority will oversell the product (meaning, fulfillment is split between two locations).

馃摑 Note: Overselling is when you sell more of a product than the quantity you have in stock at that location.

Yeah, we know that can be a little confusing. So, let’s walk through an example.

Say Location A (top priority on your fulfillment list) has 10 shirts, and Location B (second priority) has 12 shirts. If you receive an order for 12 shirts, Location B will fulfill that order.

But if a customer buys 15 shirts, Location A will oversell on the shirt and finish with an inventory of -5. Location B will then fulfill those last 5 units (bringing Location A’s inventory level to 0).

You can edit fulfillment priorities for each location pretty easily from your 吃瓜黑料 admin page:

1. Go to Settings > Locations.
2. In the Locations section, click Edit Location Priority.
3. Click and drag the 6-dot (鈰�鈰�) icon next to a location.
4. Reorder locations in your preferred sequence and click Save.

Now, just lather, rinse and repeat any time you want to reprioritize your fulfillment locations.

Update the locations that stock a product

From here, you鈥檒l want to update the list of locations where you stock specific products. This will make monitoring inventory levels across different locations a whole lot easier.

With an up-to-date list of products at each location, you can quickly make changes as needed (like shifting fulfillment to another warehouse).

And if you enable for a product, you can stay on top of the number of units at each location where that product is stocked.

馃摑 Note: When you remove an entry from the list of locations that stock a product, you鈥檒l also delete the inventory quantity at that location.

To update the list of locations that stock a product, just follow these steps:

1. Inside your 吃瓜黑料 admin, go to and open the product you鈥檇 like to update. If the product has multiple variants, select the variant you鈥檇 like to amend.
2. Ensure Multiple Locations is selected from the 鈥榠nventory will be stocked at鈥� list.
3. In the Inventory section, click Edit Locations. Check the locations that stock the product, and uncheck whichever places don鈥檛. Click Save.

Manage 吃瓜黑料 shipping from multiple locations

Whenever you create a new shipping profile, it’ll automatically add all the locations that can fulfill 吃瓜黑料 orders to the profile in the same group.

Any locations that can fulfill online orders become possible fulfillment hubs for the products in your profile. And they’ll all share the same shipping rates and zones.

馃摑 Note: Locations that don’t fulfill online orders won’t appear in your shipping profiles.

To fulfill orders with multiple locations, follow these four steps:

1. From your 吃瓜黑料 admin, select Orders.
2. Click on the specific order number for the unfulfilled order.
3. Choose Create Shipping Label from the options bar.
4. Click Mark as Fulfilled to finalize this process.

馃敟 Tip: Purchase your own shipping labels rather than having a fulfillment service print labels on your behalf. This’ll give you more liability protection if your shipment is lost or damaged in transit.

If you’re in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, or France, you can buy shipping labels in your 吃瓜黑料 admin account using .

The biggest challenges of multiple 吃瓜黑料 locations (and how to overcome them)

While managing multiple 吃瓜黑料 locations certainly has its perks, it also comes with a few obstacles. But with a little foresight, you can overcome these roadblocks (or even sidestep them altogether).

Challenge 1: Fulfilling all in-store pickup requests

Although BOPIS is a popular option, some retailers struggle to keep up with it. Unless you maintain optimal inventory levels at all your store locations, fulfilling big spikes in in-store pickup requests will be tough.

That鈥檚 why accurate inventory tracking is essential to an in-store pickup program.

Real-time tracking gives you a bird鈥檚-eye view across your entire supply chain, so you鈥檒l know what (and how much) inventory is stocked at every location.

With this data at your fingertips, you鈥檒l know immediately if you have the right products in stock for all those in-store pickups.

Real-time tracking also minimizes the risk of stockouts and other fulfillment nightmares that harm your credibility, frustrate your customers, and cost you precious revenue.

The solution

That’s where the right tracking tool comes in. 吃瓜黑料 is a comprehensive platform that monitors your inventory 24/7.

Whenever you start running low at any of your different locations, 吃瓜黑料 will send you an automatic replenishment alert.

Replenish alerts arrive at the ideal time to refill your stock at any location. No need to babysit your stock levels to make this happen.

Plus, each alert comes with clear restock recommendations. So, your brand knows exactly what and when to reorder stock for each location.

This speeds up the purchase order process. And it radically reduces your risk of stockout, so you can easily stay on top of your BOPIS requests.

Challenge 2: Managing inventory at multiple warehouses

Managing inventory across multiple warehouses gets complicated quickly, even for veteran retailers. After all, the more warehouses your brand oversees, the more logistics you have to juggle.

And keeping up with all the different parts of inventory management at each warehouse鈥攆rom forecasting to purchasing to replenishment to product flow鈥攊s exponentially more painful if you鈥檙e still using manual processes.

That’s because manually managing your inventory is time-consuming (and error-prone) at best. But it becomes next to impossible when you鈥檙e working with multiple locations.

The solution

Again, this is where the right inventory management software comes to the rescue.

And while 吃瓜黑料 technically isn’t an IMS (it’s an end-to-end purchasing platform), it’s the best solution for managing inventory movements.

For instance, 吃瓜黑料’s multi-location support tracks where your inventory is in real-time. This includes any in-motion shipments.

Meaning, you can check which milestone your incoming purchase order is at or see when transferred inventory will arrive at its new location. (That way, you don’t accidentally end up with phantom inventory as units move around.)

吃瓜黑料 will even recommend how many units to transfer from one location to another (if placing another PO doesn’t make sense or won’t arrive in time to avoid a stockout).

This makes maintaining optimal inventory levels seamless鈥攅ven when your products are spread out across multiple locations and sales channels.

Challenge 3: Tackling orders and order fulfillment

Keeping up with stock levels at all your warehouses is tricky. The same goes for staying on top of orders.

When customers place orders for products housed in different locations, it leaves room for confusion, delays, and fulfillment errors.

That’s because it’s tough to accurately track order fulfillment across all your locations, which makes it easy for orders to fall through the cracks.

The solution

Processing and fulfilling orders is much easier when every location is optimally stocked. But this is easier said than done.

Fortunately, this is something else 吃瓜黑料 helps with.

吃瓜黑料’s planning feature automatically forecasts your inventory needs for the next 12 months (using your historical sales and real-time inventory trends).

You can then play with different growth levers inside the app. That way, plan for the best-case, worst-case, and most probable scenarios.

As events unfold, 吃瓜黑料 will compare your actual inventory performance against these plans, eliminating unlikely scenarios.

This not only improves your forecasting accuracy but ensures you’re prepared to meet customer demand.

Why you should integrate 吃瓜黑料 with your 吃瓜黑料 store

Want to outperform your competitors? 吃瓜黑料 integrations are the way to go.

Here鈥檚 our proof: 吃瓜黑料 merchants generate 40% more revenue and save 20+ hours a week on average when they use 吃瓜黑料 compared to when they don’t.

How exactly? Well, by syncing your 吃瓜黑料 data to 吃瓜黑料, you get deeper insights into your product trends, inventory movement, and replenishment needs.

The best part? All this data helps you hit optimal stock levels across all your locations.

For example, 吃瓜黑料 tracks your inventory levels and sales history. 吃瓜黑料 then translates this data into accurate demand plans鈥攃omplete with actionable restock recommendations. (You don’t have to touch a spreadsheet to make this happen.)

That way, you can stock up to fulfill all the demand that comes your way. And you can do this without subjecting your locations to stockouts or dead stock.

Ready to manage your inventory locations a whole lot smarter?

馃憠 Sell with Amazon, too? 吃瓜黑料 is one of the few platforms centralizing your FBA, FBM, and 吃瓜黑料 data. That way, you can manage all your inventory locations, altogether. Learn more.