Adding inventory to your location
This article is applicable only if you want to manage inventory at your fulfilment location.Inventory represents the quantity of each product that is available to sell from a particular location. You can easily manage and keep track of your inventory in Eshopbox.
Inventory tracking helps you to avoid selling products that have run out of stock, and let you know when you need to order or make more of your product.
In Eshopbox, you can also view the history of inventory adjustments for each product for your fulfilment location.
You can add inventory to your fulfilment location using any of the below ways:
Receive inventory using a scan-based method: In this method, you need to receive inventory by scanning each item against a consignment. A consignment is essentially a purchase order that signifies a batch of goods that needs to be received at the fulfilment location. You can use this method to keep an accurate track of your inventory, as it allows you to verify the number of units received for each product, do its quality check, and store it accurately at the preferred location.
This method involves the following activities:
create a consignment
scan and receive items
conduct quality check
scan and store items on shelf
close the consignment
Import inventory using a CSV: This method allows you to directly import the inventory of multiple products in bulk using a CSV sheet.
Once the addition of inventory is completed, the inventory update is sent to the sales channels.
In this article, you will learn how to add inventory to your fulfilment location using each of the above methods.
Steps to receive inventory using a scan-based method
To receive inventory, you need to follow the below steps:
Step 1: Create consignment
To receive items at your fulfilment location, you first need to create a consignment. Learn more on how to create a consignment.
Step 2: Receive items using goods receipt note (GRN)
Once a consignment is created, you need to scan and receive items by creating a GRN for each box. GRN is a record to confirm the number of items physically received in a box against the particular consignment. It helps to compare the goods delivered against the goods ordered. Learn more on how to receive items
Step 3: Conduct a quality check
Once the receiving is completed, you need to conduct a quality check (QC). The QC process helps to ensure that
the received items are in good condition
product details mentioned in the system match the physical product
Step 4: Store items using putaway
After the quality check is performed, you need to put the QC passed items at the respective location by performing putaway. Once the putaway is completed, an inventory update is sent to the sales channels. Learn more on how to putaway inventory.
You need to remove the QC-rejected inventory from your facility using the remove inventory option. Learn more on how to remove inventory from your fulfilment location.
Step 5: Close consignment
After you have received all the items of a consignment and their quality check is done, you need to close the consignment. Learn more on how to close the consignment.
Steps to import inventory using a CSV
To update your inventory in bulk, you need to follow the below steps
Step 1: Login into your Eshopbox workspace. Navigate to the header and select Inventory> Manage Inventory
Step 2: You will be redirected to the Inventory snapshot page.
Step 3: Navigate to the right side of the top pane and Click on Import.
Step 4: Click on the Download template.
In the template, you will come across the following attributes that you need to fill in correctly. This template contains six columns
Scannable identifier: Scannable identifier represents the scannable barcode that is physically present on the product tag that is used to identify the unique product code. Make sure that the scannable identifier you provide matches with any of the following product identifiers you added during product creation in Eshopbox:
SKU
EAN
UPC
GTIN or any other product aliases
Note: The ESIN cannot be entered as a scannable identifier because it is an auto-generated product code by Eshopbox and is not physically displayed on the product tag.
2. Quantity: In this column, you need to mention the number of units of each product available on the particular shelf.
3. Shelf: You need to enter the shelf code of the products. In case you do not want to track inventory at the shelf level, you can use the “Default” value for the shelf.
The below fields will only be visible when batch tracking is enabled for your workspace. In this case, you need to provide any one of the following attributes for a product:
4. Manufacturing date: In this column, you need to mention the manufacturing date if the batch tracking attribute for a particular product is set as the manufacturing date. The date format should be mmm-yy or dd-mmm-yy.
5. Expiry date: In this column, you need to mention the expiry date if the batch tracking attribute for a particular product is set as the expiry date. The date format should be mmm-yy or dd-mmm-yy.
6. Batch code: In this column, you need to mention the batch code if the batch tracking attribute for a particular product is set as the batch code.
Step 5: Save the file in CSV format and upload it.
Step 6: Track import status
After you've uploaded the CSV, it will take some time for the import to be completed. To track the progress of your import, navigate to Files > Imports from the header.
Once the import is completed, you will be able to view the following summary:
Completed: Number of records in your import file that are successfully updated.
Failed: Number of records that failed to import. You can download the import failure report to identify the reasons for failure and resolve the same.
As shown in the image above:
1498 Items completed implies that these many records are successfully imported.
502 items fail implies that these many records failed to update due to an error. You can find the information below about different types of errors and troubleshooting methods to resolve them.
Once the inventory is imported successfully, the inventory update is sent immediately to the connected sales channels.
If you do not fill the template correctly, you will receive errors while uploading the CSV. Learn more on how to troubleshoot CSV errors while updating inventory in bulk.