Manage sources
Sources are the physical locations where product inventory is managed and shipped for order fulfillment, or where services are available. These locations can include warehouses, brick-and-mortar stores, distribution centers, pickup locations, and drop shippers. You allocate inventory quantities to these sources, and Commerce automatically aggregates the total salable products for your stocks. For large companies, add multiple sources for all of your locations: in different geographic locations by country and continent, locations in a city, based on the type of inventory, even based on services.
It is recommended that you provide specific physical geographical locations when creating a source. That allows the Distance Priority Algorithm to compare the location of the shipping destination address with the available source locations to determine the closest source to fulfill shipments. You can use Google Maps or offline calculations, which use geocodes. For more information about this Distance Priority Algorithm, see Configure Distance Priority Algorithm.
Start with a Default Source that you can update but not disable. This source is used by single-source merchants and for product migration. You always need a default source.
- Location Information - Each source includes the name, country, physical address of the location, and a point of contact.
- Enabling Resources - You can enable and disable sources as needed. Only enable a source if it accepts and fulfills orders and backorders.
- Available Inventory - Assign and update inventory quantities for each source through the product page. The inventory quantities are calculated, provided, and reserved through the source and stock mapping.
The following diagram helps illustrate the Sources for a Bicycle Shop merchant selling a mountain bike, which available to stocks and accessible by the SSA for shipments.
All stores begin with a Default Source that must remain enabled:
- All new products imported into Commerce require a source and stock, automatically assigned for immediate access to Inventory Management.
- Single-source merchants use the Default Source as their single point of inventory location and shipments.
Edit sources
You can update the name, address, GPS location, and point of contact information. The source’s code is a protected value, acting as a unique ID associating the source with your product quantities and stocks.
If editing the Default Source, you can edit all configurations except the name and code. It is recommended that single-source merchants add information matching their location.
The Manage Sources page lists all available inventory locations and fulfillment facilities. You can add new inventory sources, and edit existing locations.
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On the Admin sidebar, go to Stores > Inventory > Sources.
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To add an inventory location, see Adding a New Source.
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Find the inventory source and open it in Edit mode.
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Update the information and save the changes.
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Manage sources column descriptions
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