Definition of Balanced Inventory
Inventory Balancing is a method that divides inventory over the Sales Channels in such a way that the inventory supply is optimized for the demand in the Sales Channels.
The way the Inventory Balancer calculates inventory for the Sales Channels is defined by the Inventory Balancing Strategy.
Balanced Inventory Overview
- Navigate to Products -> Inventory -> Balanced Inventory
You will now see an overview of the following fields:
- SKU: Sku’s of the related product
- Sales Channel Group: Sales Channel Group the product inventory is calculated for
- Inventory QTY: Current available inventory to the Sales Channel Group since the last time the inventory was balanced
- Balanced Inventory QTY: Original balanced inventory of the product
- Reserved Inventory QTY: Inventory that is reserved, for example, due to orders being placed
- Created at: When the last balanced inventory was calculated
Recalculating Balanced Inventory
The Inventory balancer runs on different triggers and will update the balanced inventory automatically.
The inventory balancer can work in two ways:
- a full inventory rebalance
- An inventory rebalance for a specific product
Let’s take a look at one of the triggers, the threshold percentage.
- An Inventory Balancer Threshold Percentage is set.
- This value defines when the balanced inventory should be rebalanced.
- If the inventory (Inventory QTY) in the balancer is equal to or drops below the defined percentage of the original balanced inventory (Balanced Inventory QTY), the inventory level will be rebalanced.
The Inventory Balancer can be configured by:
- Navigate to System -> Configuration -> Marello -> Inventory
- Set Inventory Balancer Threshold
- Set Balancing Strategy
Here’s an overview of all triggers:
| Trigger | Balance scope |
| When the threshold of a Balanced Inventory level has been reached or passed | Inventory level rebalance |
| Increasing or decreasing product inventory | Inventory level rebalance |
| Adding or removing Sales Channels | Full inventory rebalance |
| Adding or removing Sales Channel Groups | Full inventory rebalance |
| Adding or removing Warehouses | Full inventory rebalance |
| Adding or removing Warehouse Groups | Full inventory rebalance |
| Manual triggered rebalance | Full inventory rebalance |
To learn more, check out this video in which the concept is explained.