Bug in multi-warehouse stock tracking and shipping

[MackJon]

Hi,

Just putting this one up in case other people find this issue. I have logged it with Shopify a few months ago, but I haven't seen any fix for it yet. My workaround is working, but it's a pain to admin.

Situation:
Two warehouses, one in UK, one in EU. UK Ships to UK, EU to EU (plus others, but not relevant).
Product cannot cross this border, so stock in the UK cannot compensate for missing stock in the EU warehouse (and vice versa).
Each warehouse has shipping rules so that they can only ship to their locations. 
Each warehouse has their own stock on the product page and the stock level is tracked. 

Issue:
Despite having no stock in the EU warehouse, and no way for the UK to ship to the EU, the product can still be added to cart and purchased. The 'tracked' stock in the EU warehouse then reduces to -1.

Overall, even though the UK has no shipping rule for this item it's given the order.

Workaround: 
I've created multiple shipping rules where now I have stock that can only be sold in the UK, only sold in the EU, or available in both. However, I have to move each of these manually as stock gets low (so I can never sell all the stock). I've also had to remove the default shipping to ship nowhere, just make sure new products don't accidentally get added to the wrong group by default. To add to the complication, I do have some products that can move across the UK/EU border, so I have an extra rule for them too.

Anyway, I'm writing this post to see if anyone else is having the same problem, see if there are other workarounds, but also hopefully find out when it's fixed! 

I just need a product that's in two warehouses to abide by its shipping rules and not bypass it just because it can see there's stock in another part of the world!

Jon

[saivismitha]

Hello @MackJon,

 Have you created shipping profiles for each product based on shipping zones and location?

It can be done in two ways,

1. By using shipping set up.
If you want to resolve this multiple-warehouse complexity, you can fix it by creating 3 shipping profiles for the products by adding shipping zones and shipping origin location(default the shipping address).
While setting up shipping zones add the zip codes and names properly and don’t overlap with unmatching zip codes.

2. By using the third-party carrier app.
I would suggest the multiple-carrier shipping label app. The app helps you to set up automation rules based on certain customized criteria, where you are allowed to choose ships only to selected zip code localities. The app automates the shipping process according to the settings you have made within the app

[MackJon]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, shipping profiles is a major part of how we're working at the moment (currently on 12 profiles with about 30 rules in each) - but it's actually the stock level and shipping profiles that do not play well together. We constantly have to monitor the stock levels of products to make sure they are either in both EU and UK delivery, or only EU, or only UK profiles. 

It seems logical that if there are two warehouses (we use 3PLs) with a profile that says 'Warehouse A can deliver to UK' and 'Warehouse B can deliver to the EU', when one warehouse has no stock it cannot bypass its shipping rule and still allow it to be purchased. That's what is happening at the moment. When the UK warehouse runs out of stock, it just 'borrows' it from the EU even though we can't ship there from the other warehouse.

Jon

[coleatkinson]

Hey @MackJon thanks for starting this thread.

This is something my team and I are working to address at the moment. I can keep you updated on this thread as things progress.

[MackJon]

Perfect, thanks for that. 

Overall that was all I was aiming for as when I looked I couldn't see anything on the forum about it, and although I logged a call and knew it was being addressed, there isn't really a means to find out when it is resolved. I don't think this sort of thing will get an announcement in the changelog. 

It'll be great to get it fixed though, it's giving my logistics guy a massive headache with the workaround at the moment, so he'll definitely thank you when it's resolved!

Jon

[coleatkinson]

Hey Jon,

This will definitely be in the changelog when the update is made. We'll
keep you up to date! Thanks for the feedback and bringing this to the forum.

[bigskyintl]

Hey @coleatkinson  we have the same problem with warehouses in different countries:

- we use Shopify multiple locations feature,

- we also have geolocation app installed so we know what country our customer is located.. it will display our web site in their language and currency.

1) we have 3 warehouse locations: USA, Asia, and EU

2) We a) track inventory, and b) box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock

3) For example, if our Asia warehouse is out of something, we would like Shopify to show "out of stock" for orders shipping from Asia warehouse... but Shopify appears to allow item to be sold AND to go negative for that location. This does make sense to us...

I would think Shopify would: if box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock to

1) state product is "out of stock" for that location, or

2) have an option to ship from a different location, then that location inventory would be deducted (not deduct from a location that does not have inventory).

To us it does not make sense to have a) track inventory, and b) box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock, then allow inventory to go negative

Any comments?

Note 1: we do not want to "hide" product... we want out-of-stock product showing so customer can use "Notify Us When Available" feature. ("hide" feature may be an option for some stores, we just do not want to do it this way.)

Note 2: we will look at https://apps.shopify.com/product-inventory-information app but it would nice if something like this would be included with Shopify

Thank you for your help,

Bob

www.BigSkyInternational.com

[bigskyintl]

Hey @coleatkinson  we have the same problem with warehouses in different countries:

- we use Shopify multiple locations feature,

- we also have geolocation app installed so we know what country our customer is located.. it will display our web site in their language and currency.

1) we have 3 warehouse locations: USA, Asia, and EU

2) We a) track inventory, and b) box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock

3) For example, if our Asia warehouse is out of something, we would like Shopify to show "out of stock" for orders shipping from Asia warehouse... but Shopify appears to allow item to be sold AND to go negative for that location. This does make sense to us...

I would think Shopify would: if box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock to

1) state product is "out of stock" for that location, or

2) have an option to ship from a different location, then that location inventory would be deducted (not deduct from a location that does not have inventory).

To us it does not make sense to have a) track inventory, and b) box is NOT checked to continue selling when out of stock, then allow inventory to go negative

Any comments?

Note 1: we do not want to "hide" product... we want out-of-stock product showing so customer can use "Notify Us When Available" feature. ("hide" feature may be an option for some stores, we just do not want to do it this way.)

Note 2: we will look at https://apps.shopify.com/product-inventory-information app but it would nice if something like this would be included with Shopify

Thank you for your help,

Bob

www.BigSkyInternational.com

[coleatkinson]

Hi everyone,

We're excited to let you know that we have a change now in beta that will address this problem on your storefront. For example:

• You have a Canada location which exclusively ships to Canada and a US location that ships exclusively to USA
• Today, if inventory is 0 in Canada but 1+ in US, a Canadian buyer still sees the product as available and can purchase, sending the Canadian location into negative inventory unexpectedly
• The change we are introducing fixes the issue on the storefront, by showing the same product as out of stock to a Canadian buyer but in stock to a US buyer based on inventory and available shipping rates.
• This does not yet flow through to checkout i.e. a buyer could still select USA on the storefront and then change to Canada at checkout to produce the same problem; something we are addressing in our next milestone.

We're actively looking for people who want to try this out and provide feedback before we release to the general population. Main criteria for this is that you have a valid country selector built into your theme, or you are using another valid country selector app, like Geolocation.

If this sounds of interest to you, please send me a DM on here and we can get it arranged on your shop.

[Stigla]

Hello,

Thanks for making progress in this.

I have question regarding new update.

Are there going to be option to set different prices for different region?

Thanks in advance

[coleatkinson]

You can already set different prices for different regions if you use Shopify Payments: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/multi-currency/international-pricing

[POS1Paper]

Does the beta fix work with 2 Amazon FBA location countries? - different Amazon Seller ID in each country

In my case Amazon FBA provides inventory quantities to Shopify and fulfills Shopify orders in both Canada and the US.

FBA US inventory is only available for US addresses (sales in USD by US legal entity)

FBA CA inventory is only available for CA addresses (sales in CAD by Canadian legal entity)

Currently running 2 stores to deal with this but would prefer to upgrade to Shopify Advanced and only have 1 store.

Thanks

Mike

[MackJon]

Hi Cole,

Just checking you got my Private message? We'd be very interested in testing this!

Jon

[bigskyintl]

This is a BIG issue for us... preferably, we like the issue fixed... but until then, we are very interested in BETA test... we sent DM, but received no response...

Thanks!

[MackJon]

Hi,

Any update on trialling this Beta? The system I have is still just frustrating customers, so it'd be great to get something in place before BF.

Jon

[MackJon]

Hi,

Just reaching out again if there's any chance of getting on the BETA?

Jon

[bigskyintl]

Where is Shopify on getting this bug fixed?

Thanks,

Bob

BigSkyInternational.com

[SpazeFurniture]

Hi @coleatkinson 

Can you please give us an update on this issue? Is the problem solved? We are about to set up 2 warehouses in 2 different locations. Thank you 

[coleatkinson]

We have a limited beta which can be enabled for specific stores at the moment. We aim to be able to give this to all stores later this year. If you'd like to DM me your store I can check if your store would be a good fit for the beta.

[tapblaze]

Hi Cole, can we try this beta; we are having this issue and it is annoying customers. We have two locations: USA warehouse for shipping to the Americas/Europe and China warehouse for shipping to Asia/Oceania. Currently, we only have stock in China, yet users out side of the China location shipping setup can still "Add to Cart" only to find out shipping isn't available to them. This seems like basic functionality that Shopify does not support yet.

[RafaelAtlanttic]

Hi Cole, any update on this? I have received access to the Beta as an app dev (despite the fact that we're not building an app for this yet), but if this can be made available to one of our clients we would love to give it a go.

[bigskyintl]

 @Coleatkinson  Any updates you can share us when this issue would be fixed?

[coleatkinson]

Hi all, we are working hard to have this available to all merchants before the end of this year. I don't have any specific updates at the moment.

[bigskyintl]

Cole, thank you very much for your reply... we are REALLY looking forward the update that will fix this issue 😀

[POS1Paper]

Any update on the fix for this issue?

[SHENGWEN]

Is there any update?

[Stigla]

Hello guys,

I am not having news sadly, but actually want to join into this community to push support for this matter as I experience similar thing right now.

We are designing, manufacturing and selling our products in Serbia, but we would like to ship across EU also. To make it easier, we have decided to open another warehouse in Germany.

For Serbia it does not really matter when costumer purchase product. If we don't have in stock, it taking us up to 5 days to manufacture it and ship it, which is agreement between us and costumers. So we have selected option on the website "Continue selling when out of stock". When item is out of stock, costumers does not know that, we can just make it.

Problem arises now for warehouse in Germany. We depend of stock piles there. If I don't have an item, i can not make and sent from Serbia to Germany within 5 days, actually it can take weeks maybe. So, in Germany I sell items only which are on stock. 

I have tried via inventory and bulk and whatever i have in Serbia, that will reflect to Germany and vice versa. Location setting probably works fine locally, but how it can be improved across multiple counties or like in my case EU and non EU countries.

If Item is not on stock in Germany, i want German person to know that Item is Out of Stock. I have no idea if there is any app or someone who can maybe help how this can be adjusted.

Shopify assist team is really pleasant and they resolved so many issues for me and I am very thankful for them. This one is a bit tricky.

Hope someone can help

[Mikiregi]

Totally agree. 

we are facing the same situation. 

[internationalec]

Can't wait for this to be available in 2034...