Setting up Vendor Managed Inventory Levels

On company stores that are at the advanced level, you can use the Inventory functionality to have inventory units managed by your specific vendor. This then allows you to connect specific items in your store to a vendor's inventory levels so that inventory is tracked based on what they have on hand in near real-time.

If you have a supplier that would like to get setup with inventory levels they manage, please have them contact us by submitting a ticket here and we will work with them on this. 

Lastly, you'll need to ensure that you have the Inventory feature activated and you can follow the instructions here on doing that.

Article Sections

• Enabling Vendor Inventory
• Configuring Items to have Vendor Managed Inventory
• Notes

Enabling Vendor Inventory

1. Once you are logged into the store's admin area, click to expand Products & Categories, then click into Vendors.
2. Next, turn ON the toggle for Vendor Inventory for the vendor account. If you see an icon for "not allowed" with an error This vendor has not setup inventory then you will not be able to activate this toggle.
   
3. Once this is activated, you can proceed to the next section on configuring your items with Vendor Managed Inventory levels.

Configuring Items to have Vendor Managed Inventory

Now that you have activated Vendor Inventory for a vendor's account, navigate into your Products list. Then you would do the following to have the vendor's inventory levels setup on the item

1. Click edit for an item you need to set up vendor inventory levels on.
2. Next, navigate into the Inventory tab for the item.
3. Turn ON the toggle for Track Inventory and then turn ON the toggle for Use Vendor's Inventory. 
4. Select the vendor that is managing inventory levels for the item from the list. 
5. Click Save when finished.

Now that you have set the vendor on the item's Inventory tab, you'll need to populate Part IDs for each color/size variant you intend on offering. The Part ID is the value that ties the inventory in the store to the vendor's actual inventory levels and it's important to use the exact value the vendor is using.

To set Part IDs for each color/size variant

1. Click into the tab labelled PromoStandards.
2. Click Lookup Supplier Configuration.
3. In the pop-up/dialog window appearing, choose the vendor you're looking up Part IDs for and click Lookup. If you already set the Vendor under the Inventory tab, the vendor account may be automatically selected.
4. Copy/Paste the values under Part ID into PromoStandards Part ID column of the item.
5. Click Save when finished. 

Once you do this, you should see the vendor's available inventory units under Vendor Inventory column for the item. IF your item was copied via product copy from a vendor's catalog, the partID and vendor selection may already be applied.

Notes

• Vendor Managed Inventory levels rely on the SKU and PromoStandards Part ID and if these aren't correct, the inventory levels may not be accurate/valid.
• If your SKU is used in a customization implemented by our art team, you can adjust this so that the inventory look-up uses the Internal ID instead. To make this change, click edit  for a Vendor's account and then turn on the toggle for Use internal ID for inventory look-up (1) and click Save (2). 
  
• When you are looking up PromoStandards Part IDs, we recommend copying and pasting these values into a spreadsheet to make it easier when pasting the values into the PromoStandards Part ID column for an item.
• Inventory managed by vendors will not be visible under the Inventory Report, nor the Inventory Logs Report.
• Placing an order does not reduce supplier inventory unless the order is sent to the supplier AND the supplier updates their own inventory counts.
• Only product options assigned an Option Type of "Size" or "Color" will appear as a line item in the PromoStandards section. "General" options will not be displayed. 
•  IF your item was copied via product copy from a vendor's catalog, the partID and vendor selection may already be applied.