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Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Ecommerce Platform
Per-SKU stock visible to each channel. Surfaces concentration risk (one channel hoards stock, others stock-out).

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At a glance

Per-SKU stock visible to each channel, decomposed by channel_id and inventory_location. Surfaces concentration risk in BC stores running Channel Manager: a single hot SKU with stock allocated 80% to Amazon and 20% to web means web shoppers see “out of stock” while Amazon hoards a stockpile. The card is essential for merchants using BC’s Channel Inventory feature to allocate stock per channel, a workflow uniquely BC-native that Shopify only emulates with third-party apps.

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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.

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Worked example

A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Enterprise with Channel Inventory active, MLI across two warehouses, B2B Edition, and Channel Manager for Amazon and eBay. Snapshot at 09:00 UTC on 18 Apr 26. Top SKU by velocity: “Linen 4-piece bedding set, King” ($340/day pre-OOS). What’s interesting:
  1. Amazon hoards 40% of total stock. This is at the edge of healthy, exceeding the merchant’s typical 35% Amazon allocation guideline. The reason: Channel Manager auto-replenishes Amazon-reserved stock based on 30-day Amazon velocity, and Amazon’s velocity grew 20% recently. The allocation is keeping up with demand, but is bumping the concentration ceiling. Watch for Amazon velocity to plateau; if not, raise the global stock level.
  2. eBay shows just 4 units, 4% of total, despite eBay representing 6-8% of the merchant’s revenue mix on this SKU family. The cause: eBay’s auto-replenishment trigger threshold was set higher than Amazon’s; eBay refills at 5 units, Amazon at 15 units. Asymmetric replenishment thresholds can starve a healthy channel. Recommend equalising thresholds.
  3. B2B portal reserve at 18 units protects upcoming POs. This merchant has 3 wholesale orders in the quote pipeline totalling ~14 units; the 18-unit reserve provides 4-unit safety margin. The B2B reserve workflow is uniquely BC, Shopify’s equivalent (Stocky / third-party) is less integrated.
  4. Warehouse B has 20 units, all allocated to web and B2B. Marketplace orders (Amazon, eBay) ship exclusively from Warehouse A in this configuration. If Warehouse A goes offline, marketplace fulfilment stops; web and B2B continue from B. MLI cross-warehouse fail-over needs explicit configuration, not automatic.
  5. The global pool not allocated to any channel is zero. This is the strict-allocation pattern: every unit is reserved. Stricter than necessary for most stores; recommend a 5-10 unit unallocated buffer to absorb sudden demand on any channel.
Action priority order:
  1. Audit replenishment thresholds per channel. Equalise where possible to avoid starving healthy channels.
  2. For top SKUs, configure unallocated buffer (5-10% of total stock) so any sudden channel demand can pull from the global pool.
  3. For MLI, configure cross-warehouse fail-over in Channel Manager, single-warehouse channel allocation is a single point of failure.
  4. For B2B reserve, monitor against quote pipeline. A reserve falling below pipeline-commitment is the leading indicator of B2B fulfilment risk.
  5. Pair with BC Stock vs Sales to verify allocation matches velocity.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel: Channel Manager → individual channel → “Inventory” tab shows the channel’s allocated stock. Settings → Inventory → Channel Inventory shows the global allocation rules. For MLI: Settings → Inventory → Locations shows per-location stock per SKU. For B2B: Channel Manager → B2B Edition → Customer groups shows reservation rules. Why our split may differ from BC’s Channel Manager view: Cross-connector reconciliation (when 3PL and marketplace integrations are connected): The per-channel inventory split view is BC-aligned; Shopify’s per-location inventory model is similar but lacks BC’s Channel Inventory feature; Adobe Commerce’s MSI (Multi-Source Inventory) is closer to BC’s MLI.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

My channel allocations don’t add up to total stock. Where’s the missing inventory? Probably in the global unallocated pool, the buffer that any channel can pull from when its allocation hits zero. Some merchants run zero-buffer (every unit allocated); others run a 5-15% buffer for resilience. Configure under Settings → Channel Inventory → Buffer. Why is Amazon hoarding 40% of my stock? Channel Manager auto-replenishes Amazon-allocated stock based on Amazon’s 30-day velocity. If Amazon has been a high-velocity channel, the auto-replenishment skews more stock toward it. Audit the auto-replenishment rules: target-days-of-cover (typically 14-21 days for Amazon FBA; 7-10 for FBM) drives the allocation. Reduce target to free stock for other channels. My eBay channel has 4 units but eBay has been my second-best marketplace. What’s wrong? Probably a stale auto-replenishment threshold. eBay velocity may have grown but the Channel Manager rule didn’t update. Manually rebalance allocation under Channel Manager → eBay → Inventory or set new threshold in the auto-replenishment rule. My multi-storefront BC instance shares catalogue but per-storefront pricing. Does this card respect storefronts? The card respects channels, not storefronts. If your storefronts are configured as separate channels, each appears as its own row. Most merchants configure storefronts as separate channels for inventory-isolation reasons. Verify your channel configuration matches your operational expectations. My B2B portal has a 50-unit reserve but my pipeline is only 12 units. Is the reserve too high? Possibly, but B2B reserves should also account for new-PO-onboarding capacity (the prospect quote that closes next week). A typical safety margin is 2-3x active pipeline; 50 units reserved against 12-unit pipeline is conservative but not crazy if you have B2B sales prospects in progress. Audit reserve quarterly rather than weekly, B2B cycles are slower than DTC. MLI: my SKU shows stock at warehouse A allocated to Amazon, none at warehouse B. What if warehouse A goes offline? Configure cross-warehouse fail-over in Channel Manager → Inventory rules → “On location offline, fall over to”. Without explicit fail-over, Amazon orders won’t ship if warehouse A is down. Single-warehouse channel allocation is a single point of failure; always configure fail-over. My headline OOS count says 12 SKUs but this card shows healthy allocation everywhere. What gives? The 12 OOS SKUs are likely SKUs not under Channel Inventory management; they share the global pool which is at zero. This card is most useful for SKUs in active Channel Inventory; for global-pool SKUs use BC Inventory Distribution. Should I allocate my top-velocity SKU to a channel reserve? Generally no. Top-velocity SKUs benefit from global-pool flexibility (any channel that gets a sudden order can pull). Reserve allocation makes sense for marketplace-exclusive SKUs (Amazon-only bundle), B2B-reserved SKUs (PO commitments), or POS-only SKUs (in-store-exclusive). Why does Channel Manager auto-replenishment keep over-allocating to Amazon? The default rule prioritises Amazon FBA replenishment because Amazon penalises out-of-stock harder than other channels. For BC stores not using Amazon FBA, change the rule to “even allocation across channels by velocity” rather than “Amazon-priority”. Configure under Settings → Channel Inventory → Replenishment policy. Can I see the historical allocation trend, not just the current snapshot? Yes, switch the view from “Real-time” to “30-day trend” at the top of the card. Trend view shows allocation changes over time; useful for diagnosing when an over-allocation happened or whether a manual rebalance stuck.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

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