Inventory states for Shopify Fulfillment Network

Note

This guide is for merchants who started using the Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN) before January 30, 2024. The Shopify Fulfillment Network app has been rebuilt to offer fulfillment solutions in partnership with Flexport. If you use the new SFN app, then refer to the new SFN guide.

Inventory states help you to understand where your inventory is physically and whether it can be sold. The amount of inventory displayed in the Shopify admin might be different than the amount displayed in the Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN) app.

Access SFN inventory states

1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.

2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shopify Fulfillment Network.

3. Click Open app.

4. Click the Inventory tab.

5. The amount of inventory that's in each inventory state is displayed in the columns of the table.

6. Optional: Click a product to view the detailed inventory state.

Forecast inventory

You can see how many weeks your existing inventory is forecast to last. This can support you in tracking when you need to replenish your inventory.

Forecast inventory is found by taking the last 5 weeks of sale and seasonality. The calculation is created by taking the availabile inventory and dividing it by the average weekly expected sales. Inventory in internal transfers are counted with available inventory as they will become sellable soon. Details are visible in the Forecast section in the Inventory tab.

Steps:

1. Click the Inventory tab.
2. Click a product to view the detailed inventory state.
3. Under Weeks of supply review the amount of weeks of inventory that are available. You can sort by Weeks of supply.
4. Click View forecast graph to see detailed history of your sales.

Note

• Products with less than one week of sales left will show 0.
• Products with less than one week of sales history will have no Weeks of supply provided.

The forecast graph includes:

• Forecast calculation - An equation that shows your inventory amounts and how the calculation is made to find the weeks of supply.
• Average weekly items sold - An average of your items sales in the last 5 weeks.
• Average weekly expected sales - An estimate based on your average weekly items sold and seasonality. This considers the next 12 weeks.
• Current supply estimate - The estimate of how long your inventory will take to sell out based on your expected sales.

You can adjust your forecast by clicking Adjust forecast and following the steps in expected orders.

Inventory differences between the SFN app and your Shopify admin

Because the SFN app and the Shopify admin calculate inventory amounts in different ways, different inventory amounts might be displayed. The following are common causes for the inventory differences:

• fulfillment delay
• inventory balancing

Inventory differences because of fulfillment delay

If you have a fulfillment delay configured, then the amount of inventory displayed in the SFN app might be higher than the amount of inventory displayed in your Shopify admin. The discrepancy occurs because inventory is changed to a Committed state in the Shopify admin when an order is created, but inventory in the SFN app remains in an Available state until the fulfillment delay has ended. When the fulfillment delay ends, the inventory becomes Unavailable in the SFN app and the status changes to Fulfillment in progress.

Inventory differences because of inventory balancing

Inventory is in an Internal transfer state as part of inventory balancing, then the inventory amount displayed in the SFN app might be lower than the inventory amount displayed in the Shopify admin. Because inventory that's part of inventory balancing isn't available to be sold, a lower inventory amount might be displayed in the SFN app than in your Shopify admin.

SFN inventory state definitions

Shopify Fulfillment Network uses the following states to group your inventory:

Definitions for each SFN inventory state

Inventory state	Definition
Available	Inventory that's available to be sold.	Unavailable	Inventory that's not available to be sold. On a product's page, you can access a more detailed unavailable inventory state.