Update inventory advice for External SKUs

What is an External SKU?

External SKUs are SKUs in your catalog where the inventory is not stored locally- but with an outside vendor or 3PL. This inventory is typically managed by your vendor, and has been designated for 3PL, Dropship, or JIT fulfillment. As this inventory is not stored locally, it is extremely beneficial to know how much inventory your vendor has available for you to sell to your customers. 

What is Inventory Advice?

Inventory advice is information supplied by your vendors to disclose how much inventory they have available for each SKU. This inventory may be a general inventory number available to all of your vendor's customers, or it may be a specific pool of inventory allocated to your organization. When you know the amount of inventory your vendor has available, you won't miss opportunities for a sale- and avoid overselling too. 

How is inventory advice updated?

There are three ways to update inventory advice in RetailOps:

1. Manually - In the Product Information Manager (PIM), select "External Inventory" from the bottom toolbar. Locate the SKU you'd like to update, and click into the "Qty" column. Once you've entered a quantity, click out of the column to save. 

2. Data Import Tool -  Using the attached template and the "Product Import/Update" import type, you can use the Data Import tool to update inventory advice. This is a great way to update inventory advice in bulk, especially if your vendor supplies you with frequent inventory updates via email or electronic delivery. 

3. API - Please see instructions below. These updates will be sent from your vendor directly to your RetailOps account, eliminating the need for daily Data Imports. This is the preferred method for External Inventory updates when possible. 

API call: Product.ExternalSku.Update - Version 2.

Sample:

curl -X POST 'https://api.retailops.com/product/externalsku/update~2.json' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -H 'apikey: YOUR_APIKEY_GOES_HERE' \
    -d '{ "records": [{ "vendor_id":"27","vpc":"ABC123","quantity":12 }] }'