Explore Omnichannel Inventory APIs
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain what the Omnichannel Inventory service is.
- Describe what the Omnichannel Inventory APIs do.
- Define common Omnichannel Inventory terms.
What Is the Omnichannel Inventory Service?
The Omnichannel Inventory service is a multitenant system featuring a collection of headless APIs that let you get inventory availability data and manage reservations across all your fulfillment channels.
Use the Omnichannel Inventory service to:
- Retrieve inventory updates from your back-office systems, such as your warehouse management system (WMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and point of sale (POS) system.
- Provide near–real-time inventory availability information to shoppers on your ecommerce storefronts.
- Reserve inventory when shoppers add items to their online shopping carts and submit their orders.
- Share inventory availability information by location and location group for order fulfillment.
Before you begin using the Omnichannel Inventory service, create your locations and location groups in the Omnichannel Inventory app, and then import your existing inventory data.
Omnichannel Inventory APIs
Omnichannel Inventory APIs let you import and upload inventory files, get inventory availability, and transfer, release, and fulfill reservations when using external integrations to the service.
You can also leverage the Omnichannel Inventory APIs when you integrate with Salesforce B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management. You learn more about those integrations later.
Two collections of APIs are available with Omnichannel Inventory.
- Salesforce Commerce APIs—Headless APIs used by the native integration between Omnichannel Inventory and B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management. Use the Omnichannel Inventory headless APIs to customize the inventory experience, beyond the native integrations with B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management.
- Salesforce Connect REST APIs—APIs used by integrations between Omnichannel Inventory and Salesforce Platform apps, such as Salesforce Order Management and B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience. Salesforce Order Management uses these APIs to power distributed order management functionality.
All Omnichannel Inventory users are provided a Salesforce org. You can use your Salesforce credentials to access both collections of Omnichannel Inventory APIs. If you’re using B2C Commerce, you can also use Account Manager with your B2C Commerce credentials to access the Omnichannel Inventory headless APIs.
The different access approaches don’t impact the purpose or performance of the APIs.
Which collection of Omnichannel Inventory APIs should I use?
Which API collection you use depends on your implementation details and your inventory use cases. In general, use the APIs that are aligned with your integration scenario. For example, if you’re integrating with B2C Commerce, use the Salesforce Commerce APIs. If you’re integrating with a Salesforce Platform app, use the Connect REST APIs.
These endpoints are used for specific use cases, regardless of your integration scenario.
- Import Availability—The import API in the Salesforce Commerce API collection supports a much higher volume of records. Use this API whenever possible to import inventory data.
- Import Location Graph—The API for importing a location graph is available only in the Connect REST API collection. Use this API to import a location graph and show group and location information in the Omnichannel Inventory app.
Salesforce Commerce APIs for Omnichannel Inventory
This table provides an overview of the Salesforce Commerce APIs for Omnichannel Inventory.
| Category | API | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
|
Inventory Availability |
Update Inventory Counts |
Get real-time inventory updates via an integration with an external system, such as a WMS, ERP, or POS. |
|
Get Inventory Availability (Deltas) |
Get changes that happened since a given delta token. An initial delta token is obtained from an export call. Subsequent delta tokens are returned from this call. |
|
|
Get Inventory Availability |
Get inventory availability counts for SKUs at a specific location or within a specific location group to power shopping experiences and update external systems. |
|
|
Inventory Impex |
Import Inventory Files |
Define an inventory import file for an integration with an external system, such as WMS, ERP, or POS. |
|
Upload Inventory |
Upload an inventory import file for an integration with an external system, such as a WMS, ERP, or POS. |
|
|
Get Import Status |
Get the status of an inventory import file for an integration with an external system, such as a WMS, ERP, or POS. |
|
|
Inventory Reservations |
Create Reservations |
Reserve inventory at a location or location group during “add to cart” or order creation to prevent overselling. |
|
Transfer Reservations |
Move reservation quantities between a group and its locations, or between locations, during order routing. |
|
|
Release Reservations |
Remove reservations that are no longer valid due to abandoned carts or canceled orders. |
|
|
Fulfill Reservations |
Remove reservations after items are fulfilled, and then adjust on-hand inventory counts. |
For more detailed information about the Omnichannel Inventory APIs, head over to the B2C Commerce API, the go-to place for B2C Commerce API information, with links to the APIs, best practices, and a code repository.
Salesforce Connect REST APIs for Omnichannel Inventory
This table provides an overview of the Salesforce Connect REST APIs for Omnichannel Inventory.
| API | Description |
|---|---|
| Get Availability Records |
Retrieve inventory availability data for one or more products at one or more inventory locations or location groups. |
| Upload Availability Records |
Upload an inventory availability data file to Omnichannel Inventory. |
| Upload Location Graph |
Asynchronously publish information about your inventory locations and location groups to Omnichannel Inventory. |
| Create Reservations |
Create an inventory reservation in Omnichannel Inventory. |
| Fulfill Reservations |
Fulfill one or more inventory reservations. |
| Release Reservations |
Release one or more existing inventory reservations to free up that inventory. |
| Transfer Reservations |
Transfer one or more inventory reservations between locations or location groups. |
For more detailed information about the Salesforce Connect REST APIs for Omnichannel Inventory, see the Salesforce Omnichannel Inventory Resources page in the Connect REST API Developer Guide.
Omnichannel Inventory Terminology
Omnichannel Inventory uses some common inventory terms in very specific ways. Review the terms in this table to familiarize yourself with the most common Omnichannel Inventory terms and concepts.
|
Term
|
Description
|
|---|---|
|
Available to fulfill (ATF) |
Inventory that can be fulfilled now The formula that determines this is: quantity on hand - quantity reserved - safety stock |
|
Available to order (ATO) |
Inventory that can be ordered The formula that determines this is: quantity on hand + future inventory - quantity reserved - safety stock |
|
Future inventory |
Inventory available for preorder or backorder only Inventory isn’t currently available and includes an expected in-stock date |
|
Location |
Physical location where inventory is housed, such as a store, warehouse, or third-party marketplace |
|
Location graph |
Represents the mapping of locations to location groups in the Omnichannel Inventory service The graph contains every location group and its member locations. |
|
Location group |
A related group of locations that provides an aggregated view of inventory availability |
|
Quantity on hand |
Inventory available, not counting future inventory or quantity reserved |
|
Quantity reserved |
Inventory reserved for fulfillment |
|
Reservation |
Inventory added to a storefront cart or an order when it’s created When an item is added to a shopping cart or an order, the item quantity is subtracted from the available to order (ATO) and available to fulfill (ATF) totals. Because the item quantity reduces the total quantity available, a reservation guarantees that the item quantity is available at checkout and that the order can be fulfilled. If the item availability is zero (0), a reservation can’t be made and the product can’t be added to a shopping cart or an order. |
|
Safety stock count |
Inventory quantity that is intentionally held back and not included in the counts of available to order (ATO) or available to fulfill (ATF) inventory |
|
Stock keeping unit (SKU) |
Unique code that is assigned to each product in your inventory, used to track the availability and movement of inventory items |
Integrating Omnichannel Inventory with B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management
Omnichannel Inventory requires a Salesforce org and either B2C Commerce or Salesforce Order Management.
To provide a truly seamless, end-to-end ecommerce experience for your shoppers, integrate Omnichannel Inventory with both B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management.
Using Omnichannel Inventory with both B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management lets you:
- Provide shoppers with an accurate view of inventory availability across all of your sales channels.
- Optimize fulfillment processes with near real-time inventory availability across all of your fulfillment locations.
This illustration shows how this integration works.
We take a closer look at these integrations later.
Omnichannel Inventory and B2B Commerce
If you’re using B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience with Salesforce Order Management and Omnichannel Inventory, you can access all the Salesforce Commerce APIs and Connect REST APIs for Omnichannel Inventory.
Use the APIs to:
- Create integrations in your B2B storefront using Omnichannel Inventory functionality to power custom-built experiences for inventory.
- Execute and manage inventory allocation flows using Connect REST APIs with Salesforce Order Management.
Next Steps
In this unit, you learned about the Omnichannel Inventory service, APIs, and terminology. Now, let’s see how the Omnichannel Inventory app works.
