Enable visibility into future and in-transit inventory
Author:
Fluent Commerce
Changed on:
22 Oct 2025
Problem
Effective inventory planning requires visibility into both current stock levels and inventory that's on its way. With goods constantly moving between suppliers, distribution centers, stores, and customers across multiple systems, retailers often lack insight into inbound shipments and future inventory commitments.
Without this forward visibility, they cannot accurately forecast availability or promise against incoming stock. This results in missed revenue opportunities, ordering of excess safety stock to compensate for uncertainty, and an inability to offer pre-orders or set realistic delivery expectations based on expected arrivals.
Example
A consumer electronics retailer with seasonal product launches and global supply chains is setting up for a new launch. Their systems track on-hand inventory but provide no visibility into thousands of units in transit from overseas suppliers or moving between distribution centers.
During a highly anticipated product launch, their website showed items as "out of stock" because the DC had zero on-hand inventory. However, shipments totaling 15,000 units were in customs or arriving within days. Without visibility into this inbound inventory, CLIENT D couldn't offer pre-orders or communicate accurate availability, forcing eager customers to competitors who were accepting advance orders.
This lack of forward visibility resulted in significant missed revenue during high-demand launch windows when inventory was actually on the way but unaccounted for.
