Inventory Management
When the Order Starts in the TMS
I called a freight TMS read-only. The 3PL's engineer said the order is born there. The question to ask before you scope a TMS integration.
Category
Inventory Management
Inventory Management
Which Box Is It In? Bin Locations Without the Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet of which box holds what goes stale the first time someone picks. Why we start every unit in Unassigned and let each move write the bin.
Inventory Management
Why Wholesale Orders on Shopify Still End Up in Email
Wholesale buyers go back to emailing purchase orders. The email is fine. Retyping it into two systems is where stock, reorders and the books go blind.
Inventory Management
In Stock, Not Listed
77 units of my own stock had no Amazon listing with anything behind it, and I found them by accident on a supplier call. Why no marketplace report shows it.
Inventory Management
Creating the PO Is the Easy Half
A purchase order takes a minute to write. A 39-minute screen share on my own store's receiving showed me where the work is: the receipts that arrive after it.
Inventory Management
Live Does Not Mean Anyone Is Using It
A purchase order nobody receives just stays open. Why a system can be live and hold nothing, and the one thing I check before calling an onboarding done.
Inventory Management
Moving Off the Inventory Spreadsheet Without Losing Count
The cleanest inventory spreadsheet still holds one person's memory. Where sheets break, and the order I'd move a brand off one without losing count.
Inventory Management
Same SKU, Different Parts: What Did Each Unit Cost?
The recipe said 13 sheets a unit and the floor used 12 and a half. How SKU.io costs what was used, and what it can't do yet for rebuilt goods.
Inventory Management
Where Should a Bundle Turn Into Its Parts?
In SKU.io a bundle becomes its components on the sales order, before the warehouse sees it. One onboarding where I signed off on a setup that skipped that.
Inventory Management
The FBA Inbound Order That Can't Exist Yet
Amazon wants box counts before it names a warehouse. A 3PL wants an order before it will touch stock. The usual workaround breaks something else.
Inventory Management
What an Oversell Costs, Worked Out From One Call
A thousand units oversold on a channel, an $8 second shipment on a $10 margin, and a TikTok shop at risk. One operator's numbers from a recorded call, worked through.
Inventory Management
Your Recipe Is in Grams. Your Vanilla Comes in Fluid Ounces.
A buyer's recipes are in grams and his vanilla comes in fluid ounces. What I got wrong on the call, and how density now bridges the two in SKU.io.
Inventory Management
The Order Nobody Was Supposed to Change
When an order changes after it has gone to the 3PL, SKU.io pulls it back instead of patching it. One brand we onboarded puts it at about a dozen a business day.
Inventory Management
When Does a Unit's Cost Stop Changing?
The invoice for January's stock arrives in February, $10 a unit higher. SKU.io books it in February by default. I restate my own books. Here is why.
Inventory Management
The One-Minute Test for Whether a Vendor's AI Is Real
An embedded chat assistant is the floor, not the ceiling. Open the browser console next to the product and see what an outside agent could actually do.
Inventory Management
Hiding a Problem Is a Worse Design Than Showing It
On a usability call, someone setting up a customer account asked for a way to filter old open POs out of sight. I said no. The same call cost me an argument about database IDs.
Inventory Management
Should You Build Your Own ERP? (2026)
I built our own ERP in 2008 and ran on it for eleven years. What AI made cheap about building a custom ERP or inventory system, and what it still did not.
Inventory Management
Negative Inventory Is a Design Failure, Not a Data Problem
Most systems let stock go negative and the contradiction disappears into a minus sign. Here is what we record instead, and how it gets settled.
Inventory Management
Run Inventory and Purchasing with AI Agents (2026)
How I run parts of my own e-commerce business through a terminal AI agent — and how to point Claude Code, GPT or Gemini at SKU.io with our open-source skills.
Inventory Management
How to Choose Inventory Software That Actually Scales With Your Growth.
If you’ve ever bought inventory software that worked great—until it didn’t—you’re not alone. Most growing eCommerce businesses hit the same wall: a tool that
Inventory Management
ERP vs Inventory Management Software: Which Do You Need?
Scaling past standalone inventory software? What an ERP inventory system actually adds — one ledger under orders, purchasing, accounting — and when it is overkill.
Inventory Management
How Multi-Channel Retailers End Overselling for Good
How to set safety buffers per channel without hiding stock you could sell: one shared inventory pool, a per-product buffer on what each channel is shown.
Inventory Management
5 Inventory Automation Mistakes That Are Killing Your Margins
Automation should make your life easier. That’s the pitch, right? Less manual work. More efficiency. Fewer errors. In theory, automating your inventory
Inventory Management
What Happens to Your Data When You Switch Inventory Systems
Your sales history moves if the import brings it. The part nobody warns you about is what the import finds on the way through. Notes from migrations I have run.
Financial Accounting
Amazon FBA Inventory Reconciliation in 2026
In 2021 I published what was broken about reconciling FBA inventory. Amazon's answer was a ledger. Here is what that fixed, and what it left on you.
Inventory Management
Keeping Amazon FBA in check
In the continuation of Keeping your 3PL in check, Amazon FBA is a 3PL that warrants special treatment. Learn why Keeping Amazon FBA in check is important.
Financial Accounting
Keeping your 3PL in check
If you use a 3PL in an e-commerce environment, auditing the inventory levels of 3PL can be challenging. Learn why Keeping your 3PL in check is important.
Inventory Management
Amazon Reporting Issues
Reports generated by Amazon on Seller Central or via the Reporting API have some challenges. Keep reading to learn more about Amazon Reporting Issues.
Inventory Management
Inventory Forecasting Explained
Many retailers lack any sort of sophisticated inventory forecasting model and rely simply on gut feel. Check here as Inventory Forecasting Explained.