Introducing Data Model and GraphQL APIs for Future Inventory and Stock Segmentation
Release
Author:
Holger Lierse
Changed on:
13 Apr 2026
| Target release date: | 2026-04-13 |
|---|---|
| Release status: | Released |
Description
Future Inventory and Stock Segmentation extend Fluent's Inventory and Virtual Catalog data models to support more granular, real-world inventory scenarios.- Stock Segmentation enables multiple logical inventory records for the same product and location, each distinguished by explicit, queryable attributes such as country of origin, expiry date, manufacturer, manufacturing batch number, supplier, and sales channel. This supports scenarios including regulatory compliance, product recalls, batch traceability, and channel-specific availability.
- Future Inventory extends the inventory model to represent stock that is not yet physically available but is expected to arrive at a known point in time. It enables reservation and availability decisions against inbound stock using explicit dates and quantities, supporting pre-orders, wholesale commitments, and forward inventory planning.
Key Benefits🎯 Eliminate Custom Inventory Modeling Model complex inventory scenarios (batch traceability, expiry management, channel allocation, future supply) directly within the platform data model, reducing reliance on custom attributes and bespoke development.📦 Enable Pre-Orders and Forward Commitments Accept customer orders and wholesale commitments against inbound purchase orders before stock is received, with accurate, reservation-aware availability queries as of any future date.📊 Gain Forward Inventory Visibility Query Available-to-Promise quantities as of any future date, accounting for on-hand stock, all expected inbound arrivals, and all reservations already committed against those quantities.🔍 Trace Fulfillment to Batch Level Anchor reservations and sales records to the specific batch or segment they were fulfilled from, enabling precise traceability for quality incidents, audits, and regulatory reporting.⚡ Accelerate Recall Response Isolate recalled batches immediately by manufacturer and batch number, preventing further fulfillment of affected units while maintaining availability of unaffected stock.
Changelog
Initial release.- Inventory Quantity segmentation fields: dedicated fields for physical stock partitioning by condition, supplier, country of origin, manufacturer, manufacturer batch number, expiry date, channel, and three general-purpose segment fields (segment1, segment2, segment3).
- Inventory Quantity parent-child hierarchies: explicit parent relationships enabling multi-level segmentation trees and derived lifecycle states anchored to specific segments.
- Association fields on Inventory Quantities:
`associationType`and`associationRef`for linking quantities to operational records such as purchase orders, in-transit shipments, and fulfillments. - Virtual Segments: child entity of Virtual Position, exposing segmented or time-series availability via
`type`,`value`, and`availableOn`fields. - Extended GraphQL mutations:
`createInventoryQuantity`,`updateInventoryQuantity`,`createVirtualPosition`, and`updateVirtualPosition`extended to support segmentation and future inventory inputs. - New GraphQL mutations:
`updateInventoryQuantityChildren`supports bulk updates to the parent and status fields of inventory quantity child records. - Extended GraphQL queries:
`inventoryPosition.quantitiesAggregate`,`inventoryQuantity.quantities`,`inventoryQuantities`,`inventoryQuantityAggregate`,`virtualPosition`,`virtualPositions`, and`virtualPosition.segments`extended with segmentation and time-based filters.
| Released capability depth: | New capability |
|---|---|
| Release bundle / Capability type: | Platform |
Use cases
Isolate and Trace Stock by Manufacturer and Batch
Problem
When a product defect or safety issue is identified, businesses must act quickly to isolate affected stock and identify which orders have already been fulfilled from the implicated batch. Without batch-level traceability built into the inventory model, this process is slow, manual, and prone to error.A single undifferentiated stock record for a product cannot distinguish between:- Stock from different manufacturers, where a defect may be specific to one supplier's production run and must be isolated without affecting stock from other manufacturers.
- Stock from different manufacturing batches, where only units produced within a specific batch window are affected and need to be quarantined.
- Inability to isolate affected stock quickly. Without batch-level inventory records, the entire stock of a product may need to be quarantined to ensure no defective units are shipped, causing unnecessary sales disruption.
- Poor fulfillment traceability. Without knowing which batch fulfilled which order, businesses cannot identify affected customers with confidence, risking incomplete recalls and regulatory non-compliance.
- Continued fulfillment of recalled stock. If sourcing logic cannot distinguish between batches, defective units may continue to be allocated to new orders during the recall investigation.
- Reputational and regulatory exposure. Slow or incomplete recall execution creates significant risk, particularly in regulated industries where traceability is a compliance requirement.
Example
A consumer electronics distributor received a supplier notification that a specific manufacturing batch of a wireless headset had a potential defect in the charging circuit. The distributor had stock from three different batches across two manufacturers all held at the same distribution centre. Without batch-level inventory tracking, the only way to guarantee no defective units were shipped was to quarantine the entire product line, halting all sales while the investigation was underway.The investigation also required identifying which customers had already received units from the affected batch. Without traceability at the batch level, the operations team had no way to link fulfillment records back to specific production runs, forcing them to notify all customers who had purchased the product in the relevant period regardless of which batch their unit came from.
Solution Overview
Fluent Commerce OMS solves this by recording inventory at the manufacturer and batch level, creating a physical anchor for each distinct production run. When a recall is triggered, affected batches can be isolated immediately by updating the relevant inventory records, which removes the batch from availability calculations and prevents further fulfillment without requiring changes to sourcing logic.How it works at a glance:Each unit of stock is recorded with its manufacturer and manufacturing batch number as segmentation attributes. Batches from different manufacturers or production runs coexist at the same location without conflict. When a recall is triggered, the affected batch is identified by its attributes, its availability is removed from the available-to-sell calculation, and all orders fulfilled from that batch are traceable through the reservation and fulfillment records linked to it.1. Track Stock at the Manufacturer and Batch Level
Each inventory record is tagged with its manufacturer and manufacturing batch number, creating a distinct physical anchor for each production run. Multiple batches from the same or different manufacturers coexist at the same location without requiring separate physical storage or duplicate records.
- Batches from different manufacturers are tracked independently within the same inventory position.
- Multiple batches from the same manufacturer are distinguished by their batch number, enabling precise identification of the affected production run.
- Batch attributes are preserved through the full inventory lifecycle, from receipt through reservation to fulfillment.
When a recall is triggered, the affected batch is identified by its manufacturer and batch number attributes. Its availability is removed from the available-to-sell calculation, preventing any further allocation of recalled units to new orders.
- Stock from unaffected batches continues to be allocated and fulfilled without interruption.
- The recalled batch remains visible in the inventory record, providing an auditable trail throughout the recall process.
Because reservations and sales records are anchored to the specific batch they were fulfilled from, the full fulfillment history of any batch can be retrieved immediately. This enables precise identification of affected customers without needing to investigate every order.
- Filter inventory records by manufacturer and batch number to retrieve all reservations and sales linked to the recalled batch.
- Identify exactly which orders were fulfilled from the recalled stock and which customers need to be notified.
- Continue selling unaffected batches without interruption while the recall investigation is underway.
Once a batch has been cleared or quarantined units have been removed, availability is restored by updating the relevant inventory records to reflect the cleared quantity. The audit trail of the recall period is preserved.
- Cleared units can be reintroduced as a new batch segment, distinguishing post-recall stock from the original recalled quantity.
- The original recalled batch record remains in the system for audit and compliance purposes.
- Availability from other batches is unaffected throughout the recall and reinstatement process.
Solution
Allocate and Manage Stock by Sales Channel
Problem
As businesses expand across multiple sales channels (their own website, third-party marketplaces, wholesale partners, and physical stores), managing inventory across all of these simultaneously becomes increasingly complex. Traditionally, a retailer's inventory system holds a single stock count for each product at each location. There is no built-in way to ring-fence a portion of that stock for a specific channel, which creates several costly operational problems.Without the ability to allocate stock by channel, businesses commonly experience:- Overselling on one channel while stock sits idle on another, eroding customer trust and leading to order cancellations.
- No control over channel prioritization. A flash sale on a marketplace can drain stock intended for a higher-margin direct channel.
- Inaccurate availability promises. Customers on different channels see the same stock pool, making it impossible to honor channel-specific commitments.
- Inability to analyze channel performance. Without clear stock boundaries, there is no reliable way to measure sell-through, returns, or margin by channel.
Example
A global fashion retailer was selling across its own digital storefront and a social commerce channel. All orders drew from the same shared stock pool, meaning a surge on the social channel could deplete availability on the higher-margin digital storefront with no mechanism to prevent it. The business had no way to ring-fence stock by channel or enforce allocation rules without manual intervention.To work around this, the operations team used spreadsheet-based tracking to approximate channel allocations, manually adjusting available quantities and monitoring order volumes across both channels. The process was slow, prone to error, and impossible to maintain at scale. During peak trading periods, the team could not react quickly enough to prevent stock conflicts, resulting in overselling on the digital channel, order cancellations, and inconsistent availability promises to customers.
Solution Overview
Fluent Commerce Order Management System (OMS) solves channel allocation by combining channel-specific inventory records and allocation controls to derive accurate Available-to-Sell quantities per channel. This gives businesses control over how much stock is visible and available to each channel, while maintaining a single view of physical inventory across all channels combined.How it works at a glance:Channel availability is configured through allocation controls that determine how much of the total on-hand stock is exposed per channel. The platform maintains separate availability calculations for each channel and exposes Available-to-Sell (ATS) quantities independently per channel, all derived from a single, shared view of physical stock.1. Channel-Specific Available-to-Sell Calculations
Channel availability is controlled by configuring what proportion of total available stock each channel is entitled to sell. This gives control over channel availability without touching the underlying physical stock record.
- A default allocation split can be defined and applied broadly, with targeted adjustments made for specific situations such as seasonal peaks, promotional events, or high-demand products.
- Allocation controls are applied before channel-specific inventory records such as reservations or sales are subtracted, ensuring availability per channel always reflects the correct boundary.
- Total on-hand stock remains a single shared quantity, preserving one accurate source of truth across all channels.
When an order is placed, the reservation is recorded against the channel it came from. This ensures that only the reservations belonging to a given channel reduce that channel's availability, leaving other channels unaffected.
- Each reservation carries a channel identifier, anchoring the order to the correct channel scope.
- Channel reservations reduce availability within their allocated pool only, keeping each channel's availability accurate regardless of order volumes on other channels.
- Every reservation is traceable to a specific channel, giving businesses an accurate and auditable basis for channel-level reporting and performance analysis.
Each channel's availability is calculated and managed independently, so decisions about sourcing and fulfilment for one channel have no impact on any other. As order volumes vary across channels, the effective availability per channel naturally shifts over time. Rebalancing corrects this by reapplying the intended allocation to the current stock levels.
- New channels can be introduced by configuring a new availability view with the appropriate allocation, without changes to the underlying physical stock model.
- Channel allocations can be adjusted at any time as trading conditions or commercial priorities change.
Inventory managers gain a consolidated view of total stock on hand alongside an independent availability figure for each channel, without having to navigate multiple systems.
- View total physical stock across all channels from a single record.
- View available-to-sell quantities per channel independently.
- Identify which channels are running low and which have capacity, enabling faster reallocation decisions.
Solution
Track and Allocate Stock by Origin and Expiry Date
Problem
Many businesses source the same product from multiple suppliers across different countries, and manage stock with varying expiry dates within the same physical location. Without the ability to track these dimensions at the inventory level, businesses face serious operational, regulatory, and financial risks.A single undifferentiated stock record for a product cannot distinguish between:- Stock from different countries of origin, where import regulations, customs rules, or quality standards may restrict which units can be sold to which markets.
- Stock with different expiry dates, where units must be allocated in the correct sequence to avoid selling expired or near-expiry goods.
- Combined constraints, where a specific batch may only be eligible for certain markets and must also be prioritized by expiry date before other batches.
- Regulatory violations. Stock sourced from a restricted country is shipped to a market where it is not permitted, resulting in customs seizures, fines, or license suspensions.
- Expiry mismanagement. Orders are fulfilled from newer stock while older stock approaches its expiry date, leading to write-offs and waste.
- Poor supplier performance visibility. Without batch and supplier-level tracking, quality issues cannot be traced back to their source, making vendor management reactive rather than proactive.
Example
A pharmaceutical distributor manages stock of a single medication across three supplier batches, each sourced from a different European country and carrying a different expiry date. All batches are held at the same distribution centre. Without multi-segment stock segmentation, the business has no reliable way to ensure the right batch is allocated to each market, or that older stock is consumed first.With Fluent Commerce's stock segmentation capability, each batch is ingested as a separate segment with its country of origin, expiry date, and supplier recorded. When an order arrives for the UK market, sourcing logic automatically filters to batches approved for the UK, then selects the batch with the earliest expiry date within that eligible pool. An EU order follows the same logic but against a different eligibility set. Stock from a batch not approved for either market remains available but is excluded from allocation until a compliant order destination is identified.
Solution Overview
Fluent Commerce Order Management System (OMS) solves this through multi-segment stock segmentation: the ability to tag each inventory record with multiple attributes simultaneously, such as country of origin and expiry date, and apply sourcing rules that respect both dimensions at once.How it works at a glance:Each unit of stock is ingested with its segmentation attributes (country of origin, expiry date, supplier, batch number). The platform maintains separate availability calculations per segment combination, applies sourcing rules that filter and prioritize by these attributes, and ensures orders are fulfilled from the correct, compliant stock pool.1. Segment Stock by Country of Origin
Each inventory record is tagged with the country where it was manufactured. This enables the platform to apply market eligibility rules at the sourcing level, ensuring only compliant stock is allocated to each order destination.
- Orders destined for a regulated market only source from segments with an approved country of origin.
- Stock from restricted origins is automatically excluded from ineligible order destinations.
- Multiple origin segments coexist at the same location without requiring separate physical storage or duplicate records.
Each inventory record carries an expiry date, enabling First Expiry First Out (FEFO) sourcing logic. The platform prioritizes allocation from the segment with the earliest expiry date, reducing waste and ensuring compliance with shelf-life requirements.
- Sourcing rules automatically select the earliest-expiring eligible stock first.
- Near-expiry stock is consumed before newer stock, minimizing write-offs.
- Expiry date visibility enables proactive stock management and replenishment planning.
The real power of multi-segment stock segmentation is the ability to apply both dimensions in a single sourcing decision. An order destined for Germany, for example, requires stock that is both approved for the Germany market and has the earliest eligible expiry date.
- Sourcing logic filters first by regulatory eligibility (country of origin), then prioritizes by expiry date within the eligible pool.
- Each segment combination (e.g. Germany / March 2026) is tracked and managed independently.
- Businesses can add further segmentation dimensions (supplier, batch number) without architectural changes.
