When customers place an order, they want the product to be delivered as fast as possible. However, if the package is being shipped from a different city or country, deliveries can take time, adding to customer frustration.
This is where the idea of multi-warehousing becomes helpful. For businesses that operate globally, having multiple warehouses is an efficient way to reduce shipping costs and delivery delays.
If you run a WooCommerce store, you can create multiple warehouse locations, assign inventory to each, and keep track of inventory changes using the WooCommerce Multi-Location Inventory Management plugin.
The plugin offers many features not available on WooCommerce by default. It automates multi-inventory management, streamlining WooCommerce stock management across different locations.
Benefits of Multi-Warehousing
Below are some of the major reasons why you should consider the multi-warehouse model for your e-commerce store:
- Faster Delivery Time
- Competitive Edge
- Scalable Fulfillment
- Streamlined Operations
Utilizing a multi-warehousing model allows online stores to fulfill orders faster than those relying on a single location, providing a competitive edge over traditional and local retailers. As online stores scale and ship orders globally, a single warehouse becomes inefficient.
Distributing inventory across multiple locations ensures efficient and scalable fulfillment. Although integrating new warehouses can be challenging, a multi-warehouse approach offers a clear view of inventory across the entire operation, saving significant man-hours.
How to Manage Multi-Warehouse Inventory in WooCommerce
If you plan on going global or have multiple branches across various cities, managing inventory will become a challenge. With your customers scattered in different locations, delivering products to them on time will require multi-warehousing. This is when the WooCommerce Multi-Warehouse Inventory can help.
The tool allows you to manage your store inventory across different locations, such as countries, cities, states, etc. Below are the steps you should follow to manage multiple inventory locations:
1. Create multiple warehouse locations
Using the WooCommerce Multi-Warehouse Inventory plugin, add multiple warehouse locations to manage inventory easily. Whether you operate in different countries or have multiple stores within the same city, it is important to have stock available in the locations closest to your customers.
With the plugin, you can add as many new warehouse locations as needed and insert custom descriptions, addresses, store manager details, and more.
You can also enter the parent location for each warehouse and restrict order timing for each warehouse. For details on how to create multiple warehouse locations with the Multi-Warehouse WooCommerce plugin, click here. Note that you can choose shipping zones, payment methods, and shipping methods for each location separately.
Explore the installation guide for the WooCommerce Multi-Location Inventory plugin here.
2. View complete store stock from a table
With the WooCommerce multi-warehouse inventory plugin, view your entire inventory in one place. The complete stock is shown in a simple table format, with warehouse locations, prices, tax information, stock quantities, and more details.
Instead of checking the inventory at each location separately, the table gives you a bird’ s-eye view of your entire inventory, helping you make important decisions based on data. Additionally, you can apply filters and explore inventory for chosen categories, product types, and locations. You can also make small changes to the inventory, including adjusting original and sale prices, editing stock quantity, setting a low stock threshold, etc.
3. Import and export data
Inventory data is generally massive, and it can be hard to add each value manually. This is where the import/export option can save precious time. You can simply load inventory data in bulk through a CSV file with detailed product and inventory information. These files may contain data related to product and inventory ID, location, expiry date, stock quantity, low stock threshold, etc.
4. Display stock at each location
After you have created multiple inventory locations, you can display them to end customers. On the shop page, you can showcase locations where each product is available, along with the stock and prices.
This will help inform customers about available items and the closest locations to them. Additionally, you can show a search bar on the shop page for customers to find desired locations manually.
5. Create an inventory for simple & variable products
As your store grows, so will your catalog of products. With thousands of products with multiple variations, you will need to ensure each is assigned to the right warehouse location. You can do that with the Multi-Warehouse plugin that will allow you to assign simple and variable products to the right locations to manage your inventory efficiently.
For a particular product, you can add different prices for different locations, insert stock quantity, set a low threshold amount, and more.
6. View inventory across locations
In addition to the stock table, you can view changes in stock through an intuitive dashboard. Visually appealing graphs allow you to quickly analyze the total stock and current stock of products.
View stock changes over time and apply useful filters for different warehouses over time. Furthermore, you can keep your inventory well stocked by viewing low-stock, overstock, and out-of-stock products.
7. Assign orders to different warehouses
A key step in multi-warehouse management is assigning orders to the right warehouse location. You can do that automatically by assigning orders based on the set priority or the stock quantity.
You can either assign an order to the warehouse with the most available inventory or choose warehouses according to a priority order. With the choice of warehouses at your disposal, you can ensure optimum inventory management across different locations.
Conclusion
So that is it for our guide on how to manage multi-warehouse inventory in WooCommerce. We have explored how to create multiple warehouse locations, assign orders to each, and cater to simple and variable products.
We also learned helpful tools like the WooCommerce Multi-Warehouse Inventory to automate mult-store inventory management. If you are a beginner store owner or own an established brand owner looking to make it big online, check out more guides like this one on Addify.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1) How do you manage inventory in multiple warehouses?
Ans) To manage multi-store inventories, you can use the WooCommerce Multi-Location Inventory plugin. It allows you to set up inventories across various warehouse locations. You can track, edit, and assign inventories with a few clicks.
Q.2) Does WooCommerce have an inventory management system?
Ans) Yes, by default, WooCommerce has an inventory management system, but it doesn’t offer an efficient system of inventories across different locations. To manage multi-store inventories, you can use the WooCommerce Multi-Location Inventory plugin.
Q.3) What is WooCommerce multistore?
Ans) The WooCommerce multistore plugin allows you to set up inventories across different locations. It offers smooth inventory management for both simple and variable products.
