Sales Channel Availability Management
Feature
Changed on:
15 June 2026
Overview
Sales Channel Availability Management enables businesses to calculate, protect, and publish channel-specific stock levels. By applying rule-based safety stock buffers to baseline inventory records, the platform generates accurate availability values to optimize order fulfillment and prevent overselling across your sales channels.How it Works
This feature utilizes virtual abstractions of your physical inventory to manage outward-facing stock levels safely without altering core warehouse records.- Virtual Positions: A Virtual Position abstracts a physical Inventory Position by applying network and location-specific buffers. This calculation defines the accurate Available to Sell (ATS) or Available to Promise (ATP) values exposed to your digital storefronts.
- Fulfillment Buffers: Retailers apply safety stock buffers directly to inventory counts within a specific network. These margins modify the baseline Stock on Hand (SOH) values, ensuring your sales channels only offer products you are fully confident you can fulfill.
- Inventory Catalog Relationships: Every physical Inventory Position maintains a direct relationship with a corresponding Virtual Position. Each Inventory Position links to a related Virtual Position within every Virtual Catalog that includes that physical location in its network.
- Virtual Catalog Types: The Global Inventory Module configures and distributes allocation data using two distinct types of Virtual Catalogs:
`Base`Virtual Catalog: Represents the virtual availability value of a single, isolated Inventory Position within a specific network.`Aggregate`Virtual Catalog: Represents the combined virtual availability value of all Inventory Positions summed together across an entire network.
Who is This Feature For?
This feature is best suited for:- E-Commerce Operations Teams who need to distribute precise, channel-specific stock availability metrics to distinct digital storefronts.
- Inventory and Supply Chain Managers responsible for establishing safety stock boundaries and maintaining fulfillment reliability across distribution networks.
What Problems Does it Solve?
- Overselling Prevention: Safety stock buffers protect your active networks from sudden demand spikes, minimizing stockouts and order cancellations.
- Fulfillment Confidence: Exposing heavily validated ATS values guarantees that your customer-facing channels mirror real-world fulfillment capacities.
- Flexible Inventory Governance: Utilizing separate
`Base`and`Aggregate`catalog architectures allows your teams to govern individual warehouse lines or blended regional stock pools independently
Use Cases
Example
Protecting Storefront Stock Levels with Network Buffers
A retailer based in Chicago manages its digital storefront availability using a centralized fulfillment network. To safeguard stock levels during a high-traffic regional promotion, the operations team establishes an`Aggregate` Virtual Catalog that sums the inventory counts across all midwestern fulfillment centers.Instead of exposing raw Stock on Hand numbers directly to online shoppers, the team applies a location-specific safety buffer within the Virtual Catalog configuration. The platform automatically subtracts the buffer, computes the refined Available to Sell value, and displays this secure number to customers. This configuration allows the retailer to capture high-volume orders confidently while protecting regional facilities from unexpected inventory depletion.