Allocation and inventory lifecycle

Allocation distinguishes stock promised to orders from stock that remains available. It matters when your catalog, checkout, and warehouse operate at different times.

Cart, order, and shipment

Adding a product to a cart does not reserve its stock. Several buyers can therefore view or add the same item before one completes checkout. Always handle an availability change during the buying flow.

TRACK_AND_ALLOCATE inventory participates in allocation for managed order lines. Fulfillment consumes the corresponding stock allocation. Custom order lines do not represent catalog stock and need a separate operational policy. NONE and TRACK do not use the same allocation lifecycle.

Keep a reconciliation workflow

Monitor orders, fulfillments, and inventory together. Do not use the existence of one record as the only proof that all related operational work is complete. When quantities disagree, keep the order and fulfillment IDs and reconcile the affected SKU and supply source before repeating a stock adjustment.

A cancelled order or refunded payment is not, by itself, evidence that goods were returned or inventory is available again. Verify the relevant operation and returned stock state before promising a release or restock in your application.

Example

An inventory entry contains ten units and four are allocated. A warehouse should distinguish the six units available for new orders from the four units already committed. When shipping part of an order, use its remaining order-line quantities and record only the units in that shipment.

See Stock and availability for fields and Fulfill an order for the operational workflow.