Inventory buffers let you hold back a portion of your available stock from being pushed to one or more of your connected marketplaces. This is useful when you want to prevent overselling, reserve stock for a specific sales channel, or prioritize inventory for your most important marketplace.
Warehance offers two types of inventory buffers that work together:
- Marketplace Buffer — A product-level buffer that reduces available inventory across all connected marketplaces equally.
- Inventory Buffer — A per-store buffer that reduces available inventory for a specific marketplace or store. This gives you channel-by-channel control.
How Inventory Buffers Affect Your Available Stock
When Warehance syncs inventory to your connected marketplaces, it runs the following calculation for each product:
- Start with the product's Available quantity (on hand minus allocated, damaged, non-sellable, and reserved).
- Add any Sell Ahead quantity.
- Subtract any Backordered quantity.
- Subtract the Marketplace Buffer (product-level — applies to all stores).
- For each connected store, subtract that store's Inventory Buffer (store-level — applies only to that store).
The final number pushed to each marketplace is never less than zero.
Example Calculation
Suppose a product has:
- Available: 50
- Sell Ahead: 0
- Backordered: 0
- Marketplace Buffer: 5
- Inventory Buffer on Store A: 0
- Inventory Buffer on Store B: 10
| Store A | Store B | |
|---|---|---|
| Available after Marketplace Buffer | 45 | 45 |
| Minus Inventory Buffer | 0 | 10 |
| Pushed to Marketplace | 45 | 35 |
Store A receives 45 units and Store B receives 35 units. The Marketplace Buffer of 5 is deducted for both stores, but the Inventory Buffer of 10 only affects Store B.
Setting the Marketplace Buffer (Product-Level)
The Marketplace Buffer applies to a single product and reduces inventory equally across every marketplace you sync to.
Step 1: Open the Product
From the Warehance dashboard, navigate to Products and click on the product you want to configure.
Step 2: Edit the Product
Click the Edit button to open the product form.
Step 3: Set the Marketplace Buffer
Find the Marketplace Buffer field and enter the number of units you want to hold back from all marketplaces.
- A value of 0 means no buffer — all available stock is pushed.
- A value of 10 means 10 units are held back before inventory is pushed to any marketplace.
Step 4: Save the Product
Click Save to apply the changes. The new buffer will take effect on the next inventory sync.
The Marketplace Buffer is useful when you want a universal safety net against overselling across all channels. If you need per-channel control, use the Inventory Buffer instead (see below).
Setting the Inventory Buffer (Per-Store)
The Inventory Buffer is set on a per-product, per-store basis. This allows you to control exactly how much stock each individual marketplace sees.
Step 1: Open the Product
From the Warehance dashboard, navigate to Products and click on the product you want to configure.
Step 2: Go to the Marketplaces Tab
Click the Marketplaces tab on the product details page. You will see a table listing every store connected to this product, with the following columns:
- Store — The name of the connected store.
- Marketplace — The marketplace type (e.g., Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce).
- Marketplace Status — Whether the store is active or inactive.
- Enabled — A toggle to enable or disable inventory sync for this product on that store.
- Inventory Buffer — The number of units to hold back from this specific store.
Step 3: Adjust the Inventory Buffer
Use the + and - controls in the Inventory Buffer column to increase or decrease the buffer for the desired store.
- A value of 0 means no buffer — the full calculated available quantity is pushed to this store.
- A higher value means fewer units are pushed to this store.
Step 4: Save Your Changes
Click Save Changes to apply. The updated buffer will take effect on the next inventory sync cycle.
You can also use the Enabled toggle to completely disable inventory sync for a product on a specific store. When disabled, no inventory is pushed to that store at all.
Common Scenarios
Scenario 1: Reserve All Stock for One Marketplace
You sell a product on both your D2C Shopify store and a wholesale marketplace. You have 20 units left and want to sell them exclusively through your D2C store until you restock.
| Store | Inventory Buffer |
|---|---|
| D2C Shopify Store | 0 |
| Wholesale Marketplace | 20 |
The D2C store sees all 20 units. The wholesale marketplace sees 0 units (20 available minus 20 buffer). Once you restock and your available quantity exceeds 20, the wholesale marketplace will begin showing inventory again.
As your stock changes, you may need to update the Inventory Buffer value on the wholesale store to match the quantity you want to reserve. For example, if you receive new stock and want to continue reserving all of it for D2C, increase the buffer accordingly.
Scenario 2: Prioritize One Channel Over Another
You sell a product on both Amazon and Shopify. You have 100 units available and want to keep at least 30 units reserved for your Shopify customers, pushing the rest to Amazon.
| Store | Inventory Buffer |
|---|---|
| Shopify | 0 |
| Amazon | 30 |
Shopify sees the full available quantity. Amazon sees 30 fewer units, effectively reserving those 30 for Shopify.
Scenario 3: Universal Safety Buffer Across All Channels
You want to hold back 5 units of a product from every marketplace to protect against overselling during high-traffic periods.
Set the Marketplace Buffer on the product to 5. Every connected store will see 5 fewer units than what is actually available. No per-store Inventory Buffers are needed.
Scenario 4: Combining Both Buffer Types
You sell a product on three stores. You want a universal buffer of 3 units across all channels, plus an additional 10-unit hold on your eBay store because eBay sales are slow and you want to prioritize other channels.
- Marketplace Buffer (product-level): 3
- Inventory Buffer on Shopify: 0
- Inventory Buffer on Amazon: 0
- Inventory Buffer on eBay: 10
If you have 50 available units:
| Shopify | Amazon | eBay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available after Marketplace Buffer (50 - 3) | 47 | 47 | 47 |
| Minus Inventory Buffer | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Pushed to Marketplace | 47 | 47 | 37 |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Marketplace Buffer and Inventory Buffer?
The Marketplace Buffer is set on the product and reduces inventory across all connected stores equally. The Inventory Buffer is set per store and only affects that specific store. Use the Marketplace Buffer for a universal safety net, and the Inventory Buffer for per-channel control.
Can I use both at the same time?
Yes. The Marketplace Buffer is applied first, and then the Inventory Buffer is subtracted per store. They stack — the total amount held back for a given store is the sum of both buffers.
What happens if my buffer is higher than my available stock?
The pushed inventory will never go below zero. If your available stock is 10 and you set an Inventory Buffer of 15, the marketplace will see 0 units.
Do buffers affect my actual inventory counts?
No. Buffers only affect what is pushed to your marketplaces. Your on-hand, available, and allocated quantities in Warehance remain unchanged.
How quickly do buffer changes take effect?
Buffer changes take effect on the next inventory sync cycle after saving. This typically happens within a few minutes.
Can I disable inventory sync for a specific store instead of using a buffer?
Yes. On the Marketplaces tab, use the Enabled toggle to completely turn off inventory sync for a product on a specific store. This is useful if you want to manage inventory for that channel manually or stop syncing entirely.