Integrate Omnichannel Inventory with Salesforce Order Management

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• List the key capabilities available when you integrate Omnichannel Inventory with Salesforce Order Management.
• Describe the options available for connecting Salesforce Order Management and Omnichannel Inventory.
• Explain how Salesforce Order Management uses Omnichannel Inventory to optimize order fulfillment.

Omnichannel Inventory and Salesforce Order Management

An integrated inventory and order management solution lets you leverage your network of retail stores, warehouses, and distribution centers to optimize fulfillment from every location in your network.

Integrating Omnichannel Inventory with Salesforce Order Management makes it possible for you to:

• Get inventory availability data for SKUs, locations, and location groups.
• Transfer reservations from a location group to a location or from one location to another location.
• Release reservations from a location group and its locations during cancellations.
• Fulfill reservations from a location group and its locations.
• Unlock distributed order management tools for enhanced order management functionality.

Integrating Omnichannel Inventory with Order Management means that your fulfillment processes can rely on accurate inventory availability data across all of your fulfillment locations.

How Does the Integration Work?

We make it easy for you to connect Salesforce Order Management and Omnichannel Inventory to get inventory availability data and manage the reservation lifecycle during order routing, fulfillment, and cancellation.

You have two options for connecting Salesforce Order Management and Omnichannel Inventory.

• Use the Salesforce Commerce APIs—Set up the Salesforce Commerce API as a connected app and then use it to call the headless Commerce APIs for Omnichannel Inventory.
• Use the Salesforce Connect REST APIs—Invoke the Connect REST APIs for Omnichannel Inventory by using Apex or by using a set of invocable actions that can be called from Salesforce Flow.

The invocable actions that can be called from Salesforce Flow are described in this table.

Fulfilling Orders

Salesforce Order Management includes tools for distributing orders across your fulfillment network based on custom business logic. When you integrate Salesforce Order Management with Omnichannel Inventory you can incorporate Omnichannel Inventory availability features into your order routing processes.

Let’s see how this works.

As you know, Omnichannel Inventory provides inventory availability data for the products on your ecommerce storefront. Shoppers can see products and quantities available for purchase. When a shopper submits an order, your ecommerce storefront sends an inventory reservation request to Omnichannel Inventory.

Omnichannel Inventory then sends location-based availability for the reserved products and quantities to Salesforce Order Management. 

Salesforce Order Management then uses custom business rules to determine the most efficient set of locations available to fulfill all the reservations from the order. 

For example:

• Order Management can minimize split shipments by prioritizing fulfillment from a location that can fulfill an order with the fewest number of split shipments.
• Order Management can use proximity-based routing to prioritize fulfillment from a location that is closest to the shopper’s delivery address.

Each location that received a reservation fulfills the ordered products represented by its reservations.

When fulfillment is complete, Omnichannel Inventory updates the available to order (ATO) and available to fulfill (ATF) quantities at the fulfilled from locations. This information is then used to update available quantities on your ecommerce storefront.

Let’s see how this all works from start to finish.

Omnichannel Inventory Lifecycle

Let's consider a simple scenario to demonstrate how Omnichannel Inventory can help you provide a seamless shopping experience for your customers. For this scenario, let’s assume that Omnichannel Inventory is integrated with both Salesforce B2C Commerce and Salesforce Order Management.

One of your valued shoppers, Carl, is interested in buying some products from your B2C Commerce storefront. He searches your site and finds the products he wants—a pair of jeans and two sweaters. Thanks to the near real-time availability data provided by Omnichannel Inventory, Carl can see that the products he wants are available for delivery or for pickup at a nearby store. Carl decides to submit an order for delivery to his home in Florida.

Your B2C Commerce storefront sends a reservation to Omnichannel Inventory to kick off fulfillment for Carl’s order.

As a merchant, you want to get Carl’s order to him as quickly and cheaply as possible. The first thing you need to know is where your available inventory is located.

Omnichannel Inventory identifies all the warehouses, distribution centers, and retail stores in your site’s location list that have available quantities of the products in Carl’s order.

Omnichannel Inventory sends this availability data to Salesforce Order Management. Because you set up business rules to minimize split shipments, Salesforce Order Management looks for locations that have all three items in Carl’s order. You also set up a rule to route orders to fulfillment locations closest to a shopper’s delivery address, so Salesforce Order Management narrows the list of locations to those locations closest to Carl’s house.

Carl’s order is fulfilled from the location identified and shipped to his home address. Inventory counts for the items in Carl’s order are updated for each fulfillment location. Omnichannel Inventory transmits this information back to B2C Commerce and updates availability information on your ecommerce storefront.

Carl is happy with the items he ordered. And he is impressed by the reliability of the information on your website and your speedy delivery. He recommends your site to his friend Susan.

And that’s how Omnichannel Inventory can help you deliver a great ecommerce experience for your shoppers.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the Omnichannel Inventory module. You’ve learned about all the cool features in the product and you’re now ready to enhance your ecommerce storefronts and optimize your fulfillment processes with near real-time inventory availability data.

Resources

• Trailhead: Salesforce Order Management
• Salesforce Help: Salesforce Order Management
• Salesforce Help: Distributed Order Management
• Salesforce Help: Create a Connected App
• Salesforce Help: Omnichannel Inventory Resources