Model and query inventory

Common inventory queries

Let's first outline some common scenarios where you'll need to query inventory data:

• Add to Cart: before adding an item to the Cart, you may want to verify that sufficient inventory exists to fulfill the requested quantity. This prevents frustrating scenarios where a customer adds items to their cart only to discover later that they are unavailable.
• Update Line item quantity in Cart: similarly, when a customer updates the quantity of an item in their cart, you may need to re-validate inventory levels to ensure that the new quantity can be fulfilled.
• Checkout process: a final inventory check is typically performed during or around the checkout payment process, just before the order is placed. This ensures that the inventory hasn't changed since the items were added to the cart and that the order can be fulfilled successfully.
• Inventory segmentation: you might need to query inventory based on specific criteria, such as inventory allocated for pickup from a physical store, inventory reserved for a particular sales channel, or inventory with specific characteristics (for example: batch number or expiry date).

Leverage fields for effective queries

Now, let's explore how you can leverage the available fields on supplyChannel and InventoryEntry to structure your data for efficient querying:

Important considerations:

• Geolocation-based queries: geolocation-based queries are only supported on the Channel resource. While you can replicate address information on InventoryEntry using custom fields to enable address-based queries, you can't directly query InventoryEntry based on geolocation. Keep this in mind when designing your inventory data model and queries.
• Query optimization: when querying inventory, you should strive to fetch only the data that you need for the specific operation. Avoid retrieving all InventoryEntries for a SKU if you only need to check availability for a particular channel or with specific characteristics.
• Indexing: if you frequently query inventory based on fields other than the id, consider creating indexes on those fields to improve query performance. Indexes can significantly speed up data retrieval.

Custom inventory query engines

If the provided querying options for Channels and InventoryEntries don't fully meet your needs, and integrating a third-party inventory management service isn't desirable, you can implement a custom inventory query engine. This engine would return Composable Commerce InventoryEntry IDs, which you can then use for efficient, low-latency queries to retrieve the available quantity using the Inventory API. Remember that querying a resource by id is the lowest-latency approach to get data from Composable Commerce. This approach allows you to tailor your querying logic to your specific requirements, potentially incorporating external data sources or complex business rules.

Using a custom query engine alongside the core Composable Commerce InventoryEntry functionality offers several key benefits:

• Leverage existing features: by keeping your inventory data within Composable Commerce, you continue to benefit from built-in features like:
  • ProductVariantAvailability: this entity provides a convenient summary of available quantities across all matching InventoryEntries for a given SKU.
  • Cart inventory modes: use the InventoryMode settings on the Cart to manage inventory reservations and prevent overselling based on your business rules.
  • Product availability facets: leverage ProductVariantAvailability (which is built from InventoryEntry data) for product filtering and searching based on availability.
• Flexibility and customization: the custom query engine gives you the flexibility to:
  • Integrate external data: incorporate inventory data and rules from external systems (for example: legacy systems or warehouse management systems) into your queries.
  • Implement complex logic: apply sophisticated business rules and algorithms to your inventory queries that go beyond the standard filtering options. This could include custom allocation logic, prioritized inventory sources, or complex pricing tiers based on availability.
  • Optimize for performance: tailor your queries to retrieve only the necessary data, minimizing API calls and improving response times. This is especially valuable for high-volume operations or complex inventory structures.
• Cost savings: avoid the additional infrastructure and development costs associated with storing inventory data in an external database and building custom APIs to manage that data. Leveraging the existing Composable Commerce infrastructure simplifies your architecture, uptime, and reduces operational overhead.
• Extensibility: this approach is highly extensible. As your business needs evolve, you can easily adapt and enhance your custom query engine without disrupting the core Composable Commerce functionality.

By carefully considering your inventory querying needs during the data modeling phase and leveraging the available fields and query optimization techniques, you can create an efficient and performant inventory management system within your Composable Commerce application.

Closed-loop inventory synchronization for data integrity

When integrating your existing systems with the inventory management capabilities of Composable Commerce, a well-designed, closed-loop architecture is crucial for maintaining data integrity and operational efficiency. This involves careful consideration of several key factors:

• System of record: explicitly define which system serves as the single source of truth for inventory data. This is typically your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system or a dedicated inventory management system. Ideally, inventory comes directly from the system of record to the InventoryEntry.
• Synchronization frequency: establish how frequently you need to synchronize inventory data between your system of record and Composable Commerce. The ideal frequency depends on your business volume and the volatility of your inventory levels. High-volume businesses with fast changing inventory might require near real-time synchronization, while others may find hourly or daily updates sufficient. The chosen frequency directly impacts the accuracy of your inventory data within Composable Commerce.
• Inventory depletion: determine which systems are authorized to deplete inventory levels. While you may use Composable Commerce to track inventory for display and validation purposes, you need to decide whether Order creation within the platform should directly decrease inventory, or if this should be managed by an external system (like the system of record). This decision impacts how you manage inventory consistency across systems.
• Order processing speed: minimize the delay between Order creation in Composable Commerce and its transmission to the inventory system of record. Faster processing ensures more accurate inventory reflection and reduces the risk of overselling, especially in high-volume scenarios. If near real-time order processing is the goal, you can use Subscriptions to help achieve a low-latency integration.