Step-by-step walkthrough
Setting up real-time multi-warehouse Inventory Sync
Seven steps from choosing a stock-tracking mode to wiring real-time bi-directional ERP sync.
Choose Counted Stock or Unlimited Stock per SKU
In the Admin Portal Products module, set each SKU's inventory tracking mode. Counted Stock tracks and allocates against a unique stock quantity as items are purchased. Unlimited Stock always shows the item as available in the Catalog, making it the right choice for services, digital goods, made-to-order items, and configure-to-order kits.
Configure Inventory Rules and Backorder Setting
For Counted Stock items, decide what happens when stock reaches 0: Out-of-Stock (cannot be added to cart, shows a notify-when-back-in-stock option) or On Backorder (can be purchased at any time, with backorder notifications shown to the buyer). The Product's Backorder Setting controls which behavior applies.
Stand up Multi-Warehouse Inventory (PILS)
In the Warehouses module, create your warehouse records and associate inventory quantities per Warehouse per Product. One master SKU can carry distinct on-hand counts at every facility you operate. Configure allocation logic to pick the best warehouse based on customer location and capacity: nearest-first, fewest-splits, or a custom policy.
Define Shipping Packages and dimensions
Create Shipping Package templates with pre-defined dimensions and weights that each product ships in. Assign packages per product so carrier rate quotes use real package data, not guesses. Re-usable templates make creating new products fast and keep dimensional pricing accurate across the catalog.
Wire backorder notifications into Catalog and Cart
Backorder notifications surface in the Catalog when a Product's stock reaches 0 with Backorder enabled. The Shopping Cart Page shows a line-level breakdown of how many units can be fulfilled immediately versus how many are being purchased on backorder. Buyers see this before reaching Checkout, not in a separate email two days later.
Turn on In-Stock Alerts on Out-of-Stock / Backorder items
Out-of-Stock and On-Backorder Products display a Bell Icon / In-Stock Alert Button in the Catalog. Registered Users click to add the Product to their In-Stock Alerts List. A modal prompts them to specify how many units they wish to purchase, and an automated email fires the moment item inventory exceeds that quantity. Users manage their alerts from the User Dashboard.
Sync inventory bi-directionally with your ERP
Use Clarity Connect to keep stock counts, warehouse allocations, product attributes, and backorder thresholds in real-time bi-directional sync with your ERP. Products with inventory attributes flow ERP → Storefront. Orders flow Storefront → ERP. The Hangfire Dashboard, Priority Queue, and EKDB keep every sync auditable and recoverable.
Benefits & business impact: what real-time inventory makes possible.
Getting inventory right does more than clean up the catalog. It reshapes how your operations team plans, how your AR team reconciles, and how consistently your B2B buyers experience your brand.
Fewer oversells, fewer apology emails
When the storefront reads from the same stock pool as the warehouse, oversells stop being a daily occurrence. CS teams that used to spend mornings reconciling overcommitted orders get those hours back for actual customer work.
Backorder transparency at the cart, not after
Buyers know exactly how their order will fulfill before they pay. The 60-now-40-later breakdown is visible in the cart, not delivered as a surprise post-purchase. That transparency makes B2B buyers more willing to accept the backorder rather than canceling outright.
Recaptured demand from out-of-stock pages
Bell-icon In-Stock Alerts turn out-of-stock pages from dead-ends into a tracked subscriber list. When stock recovers, the automated email pulls buyers back to the exact quantity they wanted. Legacy carts without this feature simply lose that revenue.
Smarter multi-plant fulfillment
PILS plus allocation logic means orders ship from the right warehouse the first time. For manufacturers with multi-plant operations and JIT replenishment, that is the difference between a one-day shipment and a three-day cross-country reroute, multiplied by every order, every day.
Storefront and ERP tell the same story
Real-time bi-directional sync ends the nightly reconciliation ritual. Finance, operations, and the storefront work from one set of numbers. Audit trails, period closes, and inventory write-downs all become simpler when the data was right from the start.
Scales from 1,000 SKUs to 50 million
The same Inventory Sync model supports the small distributor with 1,000 SKUs and the global manufacturer with 50M SKUs across dozens of warehouses. Clarity has deployed CEF against catalogs of that size. The architecture and bi-directional sync hold up at scale.
The personas who benefit span every operations function: operations and warehouse leads stop fielding overcommit fires, customer-service reps stop writing apology emails, B2B buyers get honest availability data before they pay, finance and AR teams close periods without inventory reconciliation purgatory, plant managers at multi-site manufacturers see allocation that respects local capacity and JIT planning, and your sales team can promise a date with confidence because the number on the screen matches the number on the shelf. Real-time inventory is the foundation every other B2B experience sits on.