> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Inventory Distribution, BigCommerce > Inventory Distribution for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Distribution histogram of stock levels across the catalogue: how many SKUs have 0 stock, how many have 1-5, how many have 6-20, etc. The healthy-stock baseline that contextualises every OOS / inventory alert. A store with 5,000 SKUs and 200 OOS reads differently from a store with 100 SKUs and 200 OOS; the histogram tells you which scenario you're in. Pairs naturally with BC's MLI to surface per-warehouse stock distribution. | | | | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | Buckets of `inventoryLevel` across all SKUs in the catalogue. Default buckets: 0, 1-5, 6-20, 21-100, 100+. Counts SKUs in each bucket. Optionally filterable by category, brand, or channel allocation. | | **API endpoint** | `GET /v3/catalog/products` and `GET /v3/inventory/locations/{id}/items` (when MLI is active). The OpenSearch `products` index materialises per-SKU inventory level per location. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, inventory metric. | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | n/a. | | **Cancelled orders** | n/a. | | **Currency** | n/a. | | **Channel coverage** | All catalogued SKUs, regardless of channel availability. **For per-channel inventory** use [BC Channel Inventory Split](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/inventory-split-by-channel). | | **B2B Edition behaviour** | B2B-only SKUs (case-pack quantities) appear normally; their inventory levels are typically much higher than DTC SKUs (warehouses stock cases). **The histogram often shows a bimodal distribution** on B2B-active stores: small DTC inventory for retail SKUs and large B2B inventory for case packs. | | **Multi-Location Inventory** | When MLI is enabled, per-location distributions are available; surface per-warehouse to identify operational hot-spots. The default view aggregates across locations. | | **`track_inventory = false` SKUs** | Excluded by default since they have no meaningful inventory level. Configure under Settings → Inventory tracking if you want them included as a separate "untracked" bucket. | | **Variants** | We count at variant level when products have variants; a multi-variant product can contribute multiple rows to the histogram. | | **OOS bucket interpretation** | 0-stock SKUs are the catalogue's OOS pool. The 0-bucket count should match [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel) aggregated across channels (within sync-lag). | | **Time window** | `RT` (real-time, refreshed each catalogue sync). | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card; pairs with [BC Alert OOS Spike](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-spike-alert). | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your BigCommerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Enterprise with MLI across two warehouses (A and B), B2B Edition active, and 2,400 catalogued SKUs. Snapshot at 09:00 UTC on 18 Apr 26. | Bucket | All locations | Warehouse A | Warehouse B | % of catalogue | | --------- | ------------- | ----------- | ----------- | -------------- | | 0 (OOS) | 142 | 38 | 104 | 5.9% | | 1-5 | 360 | 220 | 140 | 15.0% | | 6-20 | 720 | 480 | 240 | 30.0% | | 21-100 | 980 | 720 | 260 | 40.8% | | 100+ | 198 | 80 | 118 | 8.3% | | **Total** | **2,400** | **1,538** | **862** | | What's interesting: 1. **Warehouse B has 104 OOS SKUs vs A's 38.** This is the operational signal: B is structurally under-stocked. Decompose by category, are the OOS items concentrated in one product family (a slow restock cycle on a specific supplier) or distributed (a general under-stocking pattern)? **In this case 78 of 104 were "throw cushions, all variants"**, a single supplier's batch had been delayed; the merchant could expedite a single replenishment to fix most of B's OOS. 2. **The 100+ bucket has 198 SKUs, with 118 of those at warehouse B.** B is over-stocked on some SKUs while under-stocked on others, a classic warehouse-allocation imbalance. **Investigation revealed B was the merchant's old centralized warehouse with legacy long-tail stock; A was the newer fast-mover warehouse stocked from a fresh supplier.** Action: rebalance via inter-warehouse transfer. 3. **5.9% OOS is meaningful but not catastrophic.** Healthy benchmark for BC stores in homewares is 4-8% OOS; below 4% means you're over-stocking working capital; above 10% means you're losing revenue to OOS. 5.9% is well-balanced. 4. **The 1-5 bucket has 360 SKUs, the "low-stock" warning band.** These will become OOS within a week if not restocked. **Cross-reference with [BC Stock vs Sales](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/stock-vs-sales-velocity)** to identify which low-stock SKUs are also high-velocity (urgent restock) vs low-velocity (can wait). 5. **Warehouse B's distribution is bimodal** (heavy 0-bucket and heavy 100+ bucket). This is the warehouse-cleanup signal: B contains both legacy slow-movers (100+) and recently-stocked-out items (0). **Old warehouse + slow restock = the worst-of-both-worlds operational state.** Plan a rebalance + write-off cycle for B. Action priority order: 1. **Identify the OOS concentration.** Per-product-family decomposition shows whether OOS is one supplier issue or a systemic gap. 2. **Audit the 1-5 low-stock bucket.** Cross-reference with velocity to prioritise restock. 3. **For MLI stores, look for warehouse imbalance** (one warehouse OOS-heavy, another over-stocked). Inter-warehouse transfers are the cheap fix. 4. **For long-tail 100+ stocks, evaluate write-off or clearance.** Old slow-movers tie up working capital and warehouse space. 5. **Pair with [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel)** to verify channel-level impact. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Inventory Distribution | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC Channel OOS per Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel) | The OOS-bucket's per-channel decomposition. | | [BC Channel Inventory Split](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/inventory-split-by-channel) | Per-channel allocation context. | | [BC Stock vs Sales](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/stock-vs-sales-velocity) | Velocity-weighted view; identifies which low-stock SKUs are urgent. | | [BC Alert OOS Spike](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-spike-alert) | Real-time OOS-bucket transitions. | | [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus) | Cross-reference: top-SKUs in low-stock bucket = urgent. | | [BC Top SKUs Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) | Revenue-impact view of low-stock items. | | [BC Inventory Alerts](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | Store-wide inventory alarms. | | [BC Alert Fulfilment Delay](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/fulfilment-delay-alert) | Low-stock at the wrong warehouse causes fulfilment delays. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Products → View](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/products), filter by Inventory Level, sort by inventory ascending. The 0-stock list is the OOS bucket. [Reports → Inventory Snapshot](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/reports) (Plus / Pro) gives a daily snapshot of inventory levels but in less granular bucketing. For MLI: [Settings → Inventory → Locations → individual location](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/settings/inventory) shows per-location stock per SKU. **Why our distribution may differ from BC's product list:** | Reason | Direction | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | **Variant aggregation**. We count at variant level; BC shows products with any variant in stock as "in stock". | Vortex IQ HIGHER granularity / different counts | | **Untracked SKUs**. We exclude `track_inventory = false`; BC shows them anyway. | Vortex IQ LOWER total | | **Sync lag**. Inventory webhooks lag by 30-120 seconds during peak load. | Vortex IQ slightly LAGS | | **MLI aggregation**. Default we sum across locations; BC may show per-location only. | Different denominators | | **Bundle treatment**. We count the bundle parent; BC may count components separately. | Different SKUs | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when 3PL integrations are connected):** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`shipbob.sb_inventory_distribution`](/nerve-centre/shipbob/sb_inventory_distribution) | ShipBob's per-warehouse stock buckets should match the warehouse-A/B slices | ShipBob's reporting includes some staged-but-not-receipted units that BC doesn't see. | | [`shippo.shippo_per_warehouse_stock`](/nerve-centre/shippo/shippo_per_warehouse_stock) | Should align with warehouse slices when Shippo manages warehouses | Shippo's warehouse aggregation is different per integration. | | [`netsuite.netsuite_inventory_balances`](/nerve-centre/netsuite/netsuite_inventory_balances) | NetSuite's inventory balances should match within 1-2 units | NetSuite is the upstream system-of-record for many BC stores; gap is BC sync lag. | **The inventory distribution view is BC-aligned with similar cards on Shopify (per `inventory_quantity` buckets) and Adobe Commerce (per `qty` buckets); merchant-facing semantics are equivalent.** ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.inventory_distribution`](/nerve-centre/shopify/inventory_distribution) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.inventory_distribution`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/inventory_distribution) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My OOS bucket reads 142 SKUs but my [BC Channel OOS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-listings-per-channel) shows 220 channel-OOS instances. Why the gap?** Because the channel card double-counts SKUs across channels, the same SKU OOS on web AND Amazon contributes 2 to the channel count but 1 to this card. **The 142 here is unique-SKU OOS; the 220 there is channel-instance OOS.** Both are right at their respective lenses. **Why is my 100+ bucket so big?** Probably long-tail slow-movers. SKUs with high stock and low velocity tie up working capital and warehouse space. **Cross-reference with [BC Stock vs Sales](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/stock-vs-sales-velocity)**, items in the 100+ bucket with \<1 unit/week velocity are write-off / clearance candidates. **My histogram changed shape after I enabled MLI. Real?** Yes, MLI splits a single SKU's inventory across locations, so a SKU with 80 units total at one location becomes (e.g.) 50 at A and 30 at B. The aggregated view sums them; the per-location view shows each location's distribution. **MLI activation typically widens the distribution** by surfacing previously-hidden per-location skews. **Should I exclude untracked SKUs?** By default yes; they have no meaningful inventory level. But if your store uses untracked SKUs as a workaround for "always available" items (digital products, dropship goods, services), surface them as their own bucket via Settings → Inventory tracking → Show untracked. **My low-stock bucket (1-5) has 360 SKUs. That sounds bad. Is it?** Depends on your replenishment cycle. If you reorder weekly, 360 in 1-5 means 360 SKUs will be OOS by next week unless restocked, urgent. If you reorder daily and have fast suppliers, 360 in 1-5 is normal flow-through inventory. **Compare to your average days-of-cover**, the alert is "1-5 bucket > expected inflow rate". **Variants vs products: which counts?** By default variants. A product with 3 variants where 1 is OOS contributes 1 to the OOS bucket and 2 to the in-stock buckets. Configure under Settings → Aggregation → Product if you prefer parent-product counts. **My catalogue has 5,000 SKUs but the histogram totals only 4,200. Where are the missing 800?** Probably untracked SKUs (excluded by default), bundle parents (counted differently), or recently-deleted SKUs (excluded). Check Settings → Inventory tracking → Coverage to see what's filtered. **Can I filter the histogram by category or brand?** Yes, the filter selector at the top of the card lets you scope to category, brand, or channel. Useful for SKU-family-specific health reads, "how is the bedding category distributed?". **My B2B-only SKUs have huge stock (case packs of 200+). Should they be in their own bucket?** Yes, ideally. Configure separate buckets for B2B-only SKUs under Settings → Inventory buckets → B2B mode. The default thresholds (0, 1-5, 6-20, 21-100, 100+) are calibrated for DTC-unit assortments; B2B case-pack SKUs need different bucket boundaries. **Why is the alert trigger missing on this card?** Because the right "alert" is downstream, OOS spike, low-stock warning, etc. This card is a structural baseline; the alerts ride on top of it ([BC Alert OOS Spike](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/oos-spike-alert), [BC Inventory Alerts](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-with-zero-negative-stock)). Configure custom thresholds on the histogram if you want bucket-specific alerts (e.g. "alert if 0-bucket exceeds 8% of catalogue"). *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Inventory Distribution* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.