Shopify inventory allocation

Control Exactly Which Inventory Can Support Online Demand

Allocation is a merchandising decision, not a switch. FC Collects gives you granular eligibility so online availability draws only on the inventory you intend to sell that way — inventory allocation and orchestration rather than a simple inventory transfer utility.

Excluded by default; you enable what participates
Rules at location, collection, product, and variant scope
Protected minimums and last-unit rules per store
Multi-store sourcing on or off, per your operation

See Your Virtual Inventory Opportunity Explore Virtual Inventory

Opportunity comes first, allocation decides what can be used

Opportunity tells you what could participate. Allocation determines what actually can support demand.

Virtual Inventory Opportunity analyzes inventory across your Shopify locations and surfaces eligible units that are not participating yet, along with the potential retail value they represent. It never enables inventory on its own, and not everything it identifies is allocatable — your eligibility rules and inventory protections still apply before any unit can support an order.

See what inventory could work online before deciding what to enable.

Allocation happens at six levels

Each level narrows what online demand may draw on, so the inventory that supports an order is inventory you chose to expose.

Location: Choose which stores and warehouses may contribute inventory.
Collection: Enable groups of merchandise for Virtual Inventory in one rule.
Product: Enable individual products without opening the catalog.
Variant: Control individual sizes, colors, SKUs, or other variants.
Quantity: Protect minimum store inventory and the last available unit.
Order: Allow inventory to be sourced from multiple stores when necessary.

Choose what participates. Choose where inventory can come from. Choose how much each store keeps.

Quantity rules decide what is really allocatable

Eligibility says a product may participate. Quantity rules say how many units actually can.

Protected minimum

Store inventory: 5
Minimum to keep: 2
Allocatable to online demand: 3

Last-unit protection

Store inventory: 1
Last unit protected: Yes
Allocatable to online demand: 0

Six distinct decisions, in order

These terms mean different things in FC Collects, and keeping them separate is what makes allocation predictable.

Opportunity: Identify eligible inventory across your Shopify locations that is not currently participating in Virtual Inventory, and the potential retail value it represents.
Eligibility: Determine which inventory may support online demand.
Allocation: Determine how many units can safely be used after minimum-stock and last-unit protections.
Sourcing: Determine which approved location, or combination of locations, should supply the shortage.
Commitment: Commit the selected units to the transfer so they are not available for duplicate Virtual Inventory allocation.
Transfer: Create an auto transfer for each enabled Virtual Inventory item, from the selected source location to the designated fulfillment location.
Fulfillment: Receive the transferred inventory and complete the customer order through your centralized fulfillment operation.

Allocation isn't complete when FC finds the inventory. For each enabled Virtual Inventory item, FC Collects connects the allocation decision to the auto transfer required to actually move the units.

From eligibility to fulfillment

Allocation rules are applied at every step, so what you enabled is what gets used.

1Inventory opportunity
2Selective eligibility
3Virtual availability
4Order conversion
5Source allocation
6Inventory commitment
7Inventory transfer
8Centralized fulfillment
9Measurement

Choose exactly which inventory participates

Protect retail inventory while supporting ecommerce demand, with allocation rules you can change at any time.