A manufacturer running three facilities, including a Midwest plant, a Texas distribution centre, and a third-party warehouse on the West Coast, may have precise visibility into total inventory levels across all sites. However, that total doesn’t always reflect what should be shown as available to customers on a Shopify store. Some stock is allocated to a distributor under an exclusive agreement, some is in quality control upon arrival, and some is reserved for a production run that has yet to start. A Shopify storefront needs clear availability logic, while manufacturers must distinguish between inventory available for sale and inventory already allocated to orders. Manufacturers need to determine which inventory is available for ecommerce based on their reservation, allocation, safety stock, and production rules, and then make that information available to Shopify.